Busy days at NA-KD

Hi!

Since a made a post last time a lot has happened in my internship. It feels like the first two months has been really hectic and I have been really nervous about going to work every day. It is not because I wouldn't like to go there but it has been more because I have felt insecure about how am I doing. Luckily, I have a great mentor at the office and we had a discussion about how have a done and what am I expecting and vice versa. Now I am looking forward the next two months that I will spend still here.

My tasks very between helping at the office, handeling and selling overstock to different clients and my lates adventure at the office has been helping to recruit new people for NA-KD. Those are new tasks for me and it is really nice to learn new stuff. I wanted to do an internship for 4 months from the begining because I though that in that way I will hopefully get more responsibilities and I can really learn new things. By now I have realized that this has been the right decision for me. These last few weeks has been great and I feel like I am getting more and more responsibility on every aspect. Just what I was looking for.

//Jonna

Field study -> COMPLETE!

Hey all! 😊

I'm writing this post after have already presented the results of my field study, so now it's time to share them with you :) First of all, I would like to comment how it went with the interviews analysis 😔 For doing so, I followed a hermeneutic process, which means, that I had to read the ten transcriptions several times while taking notes, trying to find a common thread in all the answers... And I did!!! :D There were some similarities acrosss the interview transcriptions, as well as, there weren't big differences between male and female's answers.  Like this, the big majority of the interviewees affirmed that they prefer to avoid contact with salespersons when they go shopping, because they enter the shop with a clear idea about what they want , hence, they feel interrupted if the salesperson offers them help. This is more frequent between men than in the case of women. Nevertheless, they appreciate when the salesperson give them advice in the fitting room as well as show them alternatives, although, the salesperson should not become too pushy trying to sell something. Furthermore, most of the customers have also experimented a bad experience in fast-fashion stores, and half of the interviewees stated that when they receive a bad service they leave the store annoyed, buying an analogous product in another boutique. Finally, the features of salespersons that are more appreciated by customers are: friendliness, honesty, patience, information about the products that they are selling and understanding about the customers needs.

It seems that basically what customers expect from salespersons are the 'six minimums' which I commented in the last post right?

I think that these results will definitely influence the way I work from now on in a better way! So I'm happy to end the course with my goal complete!

Happy summer to everyone! 💗

Nice June Hope

As I started my internship in May, so I am still in the process when the most of you have finished or either are doing for the last week. I cannot believe that I have worked at Hope for one month already, recently besides some regular tasks as a trainee sales, I mostly focused on the project together with the manager in my department and the CFO of Hope, which I mentioned in my last blog before. It is quite interesting to analyses the worldwide clients based on the data collection of the company with various aspects and we are all excited to see the results.
And we aim to finish it and then do a presentation to the whole board before the line releasing in June.
Except for working at the company, last week our manager also organised an afterwork for us and colleagues from marketing department at his place, which is fun to have a relax after work and get to know each other better.
The way to our managers house is so nice and we saw the rainbow on the way,  I want to share them with you guys. :)

Hope u all have a good time so far in summer ! 

Hugs Ji <3

Goodbye for now

Hi again, or goodbye might be more accurate.

Last week was my final one at the internship. It felt both sad and relieving to leave.  We had a few hectic last days at the photoshoot, but once it was done, we took time to celebrate. The wholesale and marketing department had arrange a party with a store called Grandpa, on Södermalm, in Stockholm. The theme of the party was "street party" so the street had been blocked from traffic, halloumi burgers were being barbecued outside of the store, next to the pop up bar. It was a successful event, with live music and lots of people, basically - the perfect last day.

Now I am back home, and just finished my report, which I will present today, then it is time for some vacation. I want to conclude that although the internship sometimes have been hectic, stressful and somewhat tiring, it has been extremely thoughtful, and I have learned a lot. Mainly I have gained a great insight in how things work around the head office of a fashion brand. I feel energetic about finishing my last year at the university and then revisit this world, as a worker, not an intern.

Best of luck to you who still have not finished your internships, and glad summer to the ones of you who have!

Xx,
Sofia

Takk så mye!

Yesterday was my last working day at Holzweiler. After work, we had a nice dinner  together with my colleagues, it was really a great ending for now. I will miss the people at Holzweiler, these last two months we have worked intensely and spent so much time together which also made us got to know each other well. It will feel a bit weird to not go to the office every morning anymore. These two months went very fast, and I had such a great time! I feel I have learned a lot and I thought about summing up some of my learnings here.

Holzweiler is a small company with around 20 employees in total. It is quite impressive that such a small team can accomplish as much as Holzweiler have done and is doing! These 20 talented and engaged people working in the office are designing and selling their own clothing brand successfully in Norway and abroad, representing international fashion brands through the Holzweiler Agency, handling the marketing and pr for both Holzweiler and the brands represented by the agency, managing production, sourcing and logistics for their warehouses and producers abroad, running their website and webshop which include packing and shipping orders worldwide (from the office!!) AND managing two stores in Oslo: one Holzweiler concept store and a multi brand store. Except for this they also manage their newly opened department focusing on corporate collaborations; designing office wear for big clients such as the Norwegian bank DNB. When I write all this I cannot help but smile. Since such a small team is doing all this it also meant that every person could handle several roles, me included. My tasks varied a lot and not one day was the same! I am very impressed by the team behind Holzweiler and their engagement and passion for the brand and the agency. My previous working experience comes mainly from working in big companies with a clear structure and organization, every person handling their own task - so this experience has really made me widen my views!

Living and working in Norway has also been a great and interesting experience. We Scandinavians often think our cultures are very similar; our ways of communicating and approaching each other. This is true, we are very similar, but sometimes also different! Something which can become very clear in work settings. Now I smile again, thinking about times during my internship when I have thought to myself “typical Norwegians” while others probably have thought exactly the same about me. My mentor told me she was impressed about the deals I had made with sponsors for the events I assisted on, and she was sure it had something to do with my Finnish direct way of communicating. This is a bit funny for me since I have just acted as I normally do throughout the whole chain of communication and can't really understand the statement. As a round up I can conclude that working in a new cultural setting is always a valuable experience I can bring learnings from! I will spend my summer working for a textile company in Bergen, so Norway is not really done with me yet. I wish you all a great summer, it has been a lot of fun to read the blogposts from all of you! See you again in fall :)

Best

Josephine