For the past week, I have been interning in London in the press department for the company I work for. I have to say that It has been the start of an amazing experience.
For part of my prize as Employee of the Year for Great Britain and Ireland, I have been given the opportunity to spend 3 weeks working as a press office intern in London. Press is something that I have always been interested in so I jumped at the opportunity as soon as it came up. During my time in London I will be picking out clothes for fashion magazines, creating pages of products (mailers) to send to places to showcase our products, join in with massive events and go on store runs to collect items. I have decided to reflect on my first week and share with you some of the things I have been up to!
[DAY ONE]
The day has finally arrived! I am interning in the press department in London. I am extremely nervous because I will most likely screw up somehow. The day started chaotically when I could not find my cutlottes anywhere, Literally they were nowhere to be found! 15 minutes before I had to leave for my train, the boyfriend saved the day and found them at the bottom of a clothes pile, thank you very much Phil! I think I had about 3 anxiety attacks on the train, one nearly leading to me vomiting! I do not think I have ever been this nervous for anything in my entire life. I get there and immediately go talk to myself in the restroom mirror..."Get a grip Yasmin, It is going to be completely fine". And it was! Everyone was so welcoming and so helpful! Zelta, Showroom manager, spoke me through everything and it was nice to witness the press team doing their daily tasks before diving in for myself. I did try to absorb as much info as I could but I guess it will all come with practice. Also I have my own desk. I literally didn't know what to do, I am so used to running around a shop that sitting at a computer seemed odd. Time sped by and it was so interesting seeing Jack and Hannah work through their emails, they even let me take on some of the requests. We had 2 store runs aswell which was mega fun, it is like a treasure hunt to find all the requested pieces and a game of SWAT (Sell whats available today) when the item isn't available. I am really looking forward to these 3 weeks and feel a lot better now I have experienced it. I still am a little nervous for some of the things that I have to do because I do not want to make a mistake but nerves are only natural. Lets see what the rest of the week brings!
[DAY TWO]
I arrived at the Showroom in a really motivated mindset this morning but things went a bit funny throughout the day. This morning was amazing, a bit of an information overload but it was mega fascinating to learn about the different roles at the Support Office from Marketing to Visual. After lunch I went back to some of the tasks that I was working on yesterday and also got shown how to do a mailer, But there was a problem. My computer had decided to be absolutely rubbish! The internet was not working and froze every time I tried to reload it, things were not saving on the computer or opening up due to no disk space, i felt frustrated and useless. ONLY THIS WOULD HAPPEN TO ME??!! One thing that I got told before this internship by a few people was to try and figure stuff out if things go wrong and so that is what I tried to do. Time was going so fast and I didn't want to disturb the others from their work. Nothing was working, it looked like I was incapable of doing what I was supposed to be doing but it was technology that was being the incapable and rubbish thing. I can not describe the irritation and frustration I felt. This was my first "I wish the ground would eat me" moment. I eventually asked for some help but the computer was just not on our side so I had to leave it alone in the end. I know that it was not my fault that the computer was not responding to anything but today I felt like I had failed myself. Welcome to the life of a perfectionist. Lets hope tomorrow is better.
[DAY THREE]
What a fantastic day! Things are getting busy in preparation for tomorrows event so the day sped by! After yesterdays chaos with the computer I decided to avoid it and crack on with things that I thought would help the other press assistants. I definately feel a bit better with picking clothes for magazines, some things still make me question if what I am choosing is right but I am enjoying the feedback! So there was a bit of an issue with the caterers clothes today...they decided not to turn up so this meant a store run was in order. 20 pairs of black jeans and 20 black t-shirts is what myself and Alice picked up and as soon as we dropped them off at the showroom we then got the message that the dancers for tomorrows event had picked out some outfits and they needed to be collected from Oxford Circus. A piece of advice for everyone...NEVER LET DANCERS GO PICK OUT CLOTHES!!?? 6 massive bag fulls is what they picked out, 6 MASSIVE BAG FULLS, do dancers really need this many outfits? Alice and myself battled through signing them out which took an hour but it was mega fun doing all these runs today! For the rest of the day I carried on picking clothes for magazines, steaming tshirts and helping out with the preparation for tomorrow. I literally can not wait!!
[DAY FOUR]
Sustainability and M.I.A day!!! I have literally been waiting all week for this! So I get to the showroom and start prepping for the day. The sustainability event happened in the showroom and it all looked amazing. My role was cloakroom assistant so I got 100 hangers ready for when all the people arrived. It was definately a bit chaotic. These people were handing me their things from Burberry coats to Louis Vuitton bags...the only thing I could think was "these items are worth more than anything you own Yasmin...DO NOT DAMAGE THEM!". It was definately inspirational listening to all the spokes people whilst they were telling their stories and speaking about sustainability. Towards the end of the event, I got to meet a lady who works in the New York support office and tell her about my EOTY status and she wants to show me around the support office in New York! How amazing is that! So after the sustainability event it was onto the M.I.A event at Oxford Circus. A quick change into a lovely black jumpsuit from the Showroom and off I went onto duty number 2. First stop...picking up M.I.A's clothes from her hotel and then straight off to Oxford Circus. Oxford Circus had been transformed into a dancefloor and stage, it was crazy seeing it so different. There were fresh juices on offer and green marble coated oreos all served by model waiters. Everything was decorated for World Recycle Week, it was all fantastic. I am so happy and grateful that I got to work such an amazing event, I got to meet Clara Amfo which was awesome as I listen to her on Radio 1 all the time, I got to watch the whole M.I.A performance and I got to catch up with people from Support Office. Today has definately been the day where I have been totally stunned by the fact that this is what I get to call "work". It is definately the best "work" I have ever done!
[DAY FIVE]
I can not believe it is Friday already! Which means home time after work, but I am back in London on Monday. Today I kept myself busy all day with returns, deliveries, pull outs for magazines and a few other daily jobs. We had a few emails through wanting Homeware and I jumped at the opportunity to do a store run! I love the home stuff that we sell and it was nice to be able to go to store and pick out the stuff that the magazines and bloggers wanted. It was definately a successful trip! After such a long and busy week, it was decided that we would all go out for a team lunch at an amazing (and quite posh) restaurant called Piccolino, it was definately well deserved and was extremely nice to just have a good chat and laugh with everyone on the press team. So thats one week down and two to go, I am having so much fun working at the showroom and when I think about it all, I am extremely lucky and grateful to be experiencing this opportunity at the showroom.
Until next week guys, Peace Out...
x
