September 2018

So the past 3 weeks have been rather stressful. The Assistant Manager was on holiday and I was responsible for rather a lot of the business administration of Zoë Jordan, with another colleague who has just graduated and has been here for a month less than me. As she was taking over the assistant manager role for the past 3 weeks, I have been trying to make her work load easier by doing the social media roles she would normally do. The past month has been a lot of work, but it has shown me how much the Assistant Manager does for the business and how important it is to meet deadlines.

Image - Ali Wylie

I think second year of uni has prepared me for this placement, in that we had weekly deadlines in one of our semesters and in that one week's brief, I would go from research and designing to presenting my work at the end of the week. I did struggle a few times to keep on top of my briefs at uni, but meeting deadlines in placement are essential.

Meeting these deadlines, are very different from the design aspect in the business sector. I am constantly chasing people in emails, so that the next task doesn't fall behind. In a previous post, I spoke about sales for Zoë Jordan. They have just finished and I am so thankful everything went to plan. I was in charge of the collection reaching New York and Paris. This included samples that hadn't reached the first sales in time and then redirecting them from the factory to the correct sales.

One product I was extremely happy to see arrive to sales was a multicoloured jacket that had been sent out in July and had got stuck in Chinese customs. I was constantly chasing this parcel everyday via phone calls and sending claims, it finally returned back to our studio, just in time to send out for our final sales.

Since the return of our assistant manager from her holiday, my work load has decreased, but I am enjoying the increasing responsibilities I am experiencing through this placement.

Ali xox