LIM College

The LIM College Blog

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Work Project I

posted by LIM College

Before I came to New York City I had no retail experience whatsoever. I am from a very small town where you have to drive 30 minutes just to get to the smallest mall you’ve ever seen. My job experience consisted of working at a large fruit stand in the middle of town and then McDonald’s for a year and a half as a manager.  When I was told that we had three mandatory internships at LIM College, that was one of the biggest selling points for me. Without this real world experience graduates wouldn’t have near the resume they would need to get a job in the industry when they are out of school.

The first internship required of LIM College students is in retail. Considering my lack of retail experience, but wealth of customer service skills, I wasn’t sure where to apply. Luckily, the Center for Career Development is awesome with helping you with contacts, and, most importantly in my opinion, the internship fairs. I got my Work Project I job from the very first internship fair of the semester. There were a few places I interviewed with at the fair but the one I felt most confident with was TopShop.

I had never heard of this store before I moved to New York, and at this point had only been there once with a friend. Ultimately I was hired at TopShop as a sales advisor on the 4th floor. This was quite the learning experience. If you don’t know what TopShop is, it is a UK store that just recently branched out into the U.S. market. They opened up a four-story store in SoHo and so far have been doing much better than they expected. I learned how to do basically everything there from running the cash register to manning the fitting rooms, to running clothes to the various other floors, to just general customer service skills on the floor. Overall, I thought that this internship was extremely valuable in terms of industry experience. I learned so much and can’t wait for my corporate internship next year!

Topics: fashion careers, Student Advice

0 Comments