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