This week was a little bit of a slower week for me. It consisted of more paper work and administrative assignments. I was given a responsibility on Monday that made me a little nervous but ended up working out fine. I was told to come in extra early on Monday to leave enough time to complete the assignment before those involved had to leave for an off-site meeting. I was given the responsibility of the assistant buyer, who was out on vacation. As I have talked about previously, each Monday we have our weekly sales review meetings and there is a great deal of paperwork that needs to be copied and organized for those involved. I know this task sounds menial; it’s just copying, right. But these papers are delivered to the individuals in my department, my boss and the President of Bass, who has us place these papers in a specific order and tabbed within his binder. Each Monday all the assistants have this task which means printers are occupied, jammed, or out of ink. Needless to say, I completed the task with extra time to help the Buyers with additional preparation before they departed. I believe completing this task showed my strong work ethic, proper preparation, motivation to come into work earlier, and my flexibility of working with different printers as some became unusable. It was good to show that I can complete a task in a specific time frame and on my own while people weren’t in the office yet.

Wednesday of this week was the annual “Intern Day”. Each summer PVH Human Resources organizes an entire day where the NYC and Bridgewater interns get to meet in New York for a project based on field research. The day concludes with presentations from top executives. This year our CEO, Manny Chirico and the President of Dress Furnishings, Marc Schneider spoke to our group. This is always a wonderful opportunity to ask experienced individuals about their career path and insight about the industry and hiring young professionals. Mr. Schneider had a speech that spoke strongly to me, as an individual who has many interests within the apparel industry. He described that if you are determined enough to carve your own path there is flexibility and movement within this industry. As he put it, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Referring to that quote he described how he took on many jobs that he didn’t want to that proved to be very beneficial throughout his career path. You may not always be sure where you will end up but you can learn something from each experience you are given.

The remainder of the week consisted of color coding for the spring 2010 season, filing paperwork in preparation for our final adoption meeting, reorganizing the showroom for different meetings and also checking in “TOPs”, (top of production) items that came into the office for upcoming store shipments. The fall product is looking wonderful and everyone is very excited for it to hit the stores and see how the customers react to the assortment. Next week should be a busy but exciting week as we prepare for the final adoption meeting.