INTERNSHIP | WEEKS 3 & 4

It's been two weeks since my update and things have started to get so busy!
With only two more weeks at my internship placement and consequently, two weeks until my last hand in for second year, I've realised I have so much to do and so little time. I've found myself getting back into writing a million to do lists and sticking them onto my wall in order to get myself sorted, so, these last two weeks have definitely been weeks of getting stuff done.

In my internship, I've been doing very similar things for the last two weeks so I thought I would condense them into one blog post. For week 3, we graduated from research and designing into pattern cutting, altering and toiling for the new collection. As the designer chose her final pieces, we looked through the extensive gallery of patterns from the previous collections to find pieces similar to that of which we were designing for this year.

One thing I noticed with the difference between industry and university is that patterns are not made from scratch or from simple blocks, and if something can not be solved quickly and efficiently, it will most likely be changed.

Personally, enjoy pattern cutting from scratch so using some else's work to create new patterns was something I had to get used to, however, it cut down the turn around time significantly which is something I would keep in mind for future projects.

Furthermore, toiling, particularly for smaller businesses, isn't an expense taken lightly. To create the toiles for the first 5 outfits in the collection I used a variety of silks, lining materials and even a scuba, just to make sure the pieces fit together. At the end of the day, toiling, although helpful when conveying your idea to a seamstress, ultimately end up being either thrown away or in a box under the desk, never to be seen again. One thing I would suggest to be mindful of if you're doing an internship with a smaller company is how much money you are costing them when cutting fabrics or even using pattern paper, that stuff is EXPENSIVE!

Another thing I really got on with for the last two weeks was my internship report which comprises of six sections:
Company Analysis
Market Analysis
Financial Analysis
Promotion and Advertising
Competitors and Competitor Analysis
and Analysis of Placement

For these I used a variety of different sources for information, including Mintel for the market report and Edited for the Promotion and Advertising. You might find it helpful to ask your uni what different databases they have access to and using them as much to your advantage as possible. As I am at a relatively small company, there isn't actually any financial or otherwise sensitive information online where I could find out how good (or bad) the company was doing, so had to ask a lot of questions in person.
You might find it difficult to come to a position where you feel comfortable asking your placement the kind of questions like "what is your net profit from this year?" and "has your net profit increased or decreased in the last five years and by how much?" because, as we all know, there's no subject more awkward than money. I would suggest waiting a while after settling in and trying to ask these questions in the most sensitive way you can, also being casual about it because at the end of the day, you don't want them to feel like they have to disclose information they don't want to.

I hope this helps some of you on what to expect half way through your internship once you've settled in and start doing the more important jobs. Next week I hope to have finished my report and start to work on more detailed work within the placement.

      

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