Visual Merchandising Intern Review

During my work placement, I was able to work with top brands such as Valentino, Viktor&Rolf, Diesel, Ralph Lauren, Atelier Cologne and Maison Margiella. It was truly inspiring to be able to work with such a variety of fragrance brands in the Luxe department and understand the personality behind each brand - let alone the scents! I was able to use my creativity to design and produce beautiful visual merchandising experiences, as well as incorporating sustainability in everything I did.

It was a bit of a learning curve for me to open myself up to such a huge team; we had 10+ team members so it wasn't as intimate as I'd imagined. As well as this, the team members frequently change so it's very important to maintain relationships - I found this a struggle at the start simply because I'm an introvert when there are lots of people. However, as time went on, I grew to flourish these relationships.

I was given lots of support and guidance by my manager; she was very thorough in giving feedback on my performance and ways I could be better. She was also very understanding of my feelings and gave me advice/checked up on me if she felt something was off. My only concern was understanding how/when to approach my manager to ensure I wasn't disturbing her - working out timing is very important to maintain relationships so that you can always be producing your best work.

I was able to fit my work within a 9-5 schedule most days; I had lots of different projects within the couture, lifestyle and niche brands, as well as retail design and training projects. Most days I had a couple of meetings, that could have been a mix of team catchups, projects catchups, one-to-one catchups - everything was a catchup! Followed by actually getting work done. I also tried to attend a couple of trainings every month to increase my own productivity.

I was given lots of responsibility from the moment I started; it was very much guided at the start of my placement, however by the end I was leading full visual merchandising projects on my own. From initial design concepts, talking/liaising with suppliers, presenting, taking on feedback from the team and making sure everything is within the correct budget and timescale; it was a lot to organise, however seeing the end product in store felt great, especially when the area managers loved it too after feedback from their teams.

I developed so many skills which will be very useful in any marketing job I pursue in the future. Skills such as basic organisation, which I thought I was good at, is different in the workplace when you receive numerous emails throughout the day, with lots of people chasing you for information - it can be a challenge to keep on top of this. Other skills such as being able to create beautiful presentations which can be understood with ease is a real skill I tried hard to perfect.

Very very fast paced! The office is so full with so many teams on the same floor, there's a majority of women working for Loreal so it also feels like a little fashion show. We had a table on our floor where everyone would bring in snacks and treats, it really was a positive workplace.