my top 10 take away from the talk by emma alexander
First, just a bit about Emma, she is currently a managing director for accessorize, and has a depth of knowledge of the British high street. I was lucky to have her as a guest lecturer and learnt so much about her and the industry.
She started her career after graduating from a university in Manchester, where she decided to pursue buying as a career because she was always better at the product and buying side rather than the math. This resonates a lot with me as I have dyslexia and dyscalculia and she describe how she dealt with it while choosing her career path and how she based her job off her skill set.
The first thing I took from her guest lecture was, how She always made sure to have math's people around her to deal with the numbers to support her while she explored her creative side. ‘Strength is having people around you that are great at the stuff you're not great at’ were her exact words and ‘it's okay not to be great at everything’ the sooner she learnt that the more productive she was. I learnt that once I realize that different people have different strengths, you become a unit.
As we talked through Emma's career, I could see she has worked many places and she said, the real skill , if I am going into the fashion industry is to try remove my personal preference and look at everything I do through the Lense of the customer that I am either talking to or the customer I am hoping to get
Another thing I took from the lecture was how covid has positively affected the industry, it has shown the fashion market that there is space out there for agile working, and has shown me that there is a lot more flexibility compared to back in the days when Emma started working. And she thinks it is great that people realized that in fashion there is a more agile way people can work.
I also learnt that within the fashion industry you will most likely need to be in the office environment because there are lots of products you need to touch and feel, you need lots of great collaboration from other team members. I will also need to do a large amount of networking and attend a lot of events and really get myself out there to succeed.
Finding a culture that suits me, is especially important and there are hundreds of diverse cultures out there, weather I go to boohoo, or stella McCarthy, marks and spencer’s etc. It is a good time for me to really think about what is important to me, what is my DNA, what are the values that are super key to me, and how do I try and find a brand that really aligns to those values.
The sixth thing I took from Emma was that I will be so much happier if I find a company that is a good fit for me. It is not that different to finding a partner, make sure that there are a ton of aligned values, because I am going to have to be at the workplace for more hours than I spend at home. ‘You need to share their vision and purpose’ is it sustainability, fast fashion, etc.
Do I have a relevant skill set? For example, if I am desperate to work in high fashion but do not have a relevant skill set that resonates with those brands, what sort of things can I do to get those employers to recognize me. It might be a short course or getting a Saturday job in their company. Think outside the box because when employers are looking for people it is not only about getting a first at uni. She also did not get a first, but she was very talkative, hardworking, and prepared to do things to get noticed.
She does not have a faveorite area to work in, for her personally it is about the people. Communication was the most important thing to Emma. Her favorite places she has worked are places where the people were very nice and fun.
Lastly, be brave, what have I gotten too loose? Talk to people, go that extra mile. Just doing enough is not always good enough.
