Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Careers and Closets


For nearly a year now I have been working at a plus size women's clothing boutique, and a few days ago I gave my two week's notice. Although I have had a lot of fun working with my coworkers, I am looking forward to being finished at the end of the month. In reflection, it has not been the best place of work for me, between factors including a negative shift in my eating and lifestyle habits and succumbing pressure to purchase clothing that neither fits my life or my personal style. I am looking forward to regaining a sense of balance in my life, and I plan to take some time off working during classes in order to focus on my academics and helping my family move. In addition, I hope to take a spin class and perhaps some yoga classes with one of my best friends. 
Today I spent the afternoon cleaning out my closet, and I was dismayed to realize how much clothing I had purchased in the last year really isn't want I personally like and how much of my wardrobe had become swamped with pieces that were tolerable rather than pieces I truly enjoyed. It is my goal, now that I will no longer be working at the store, to return to shopping around to find the PERFECT pieces instead of just buying clothes for the sake of buying clothes. Hopefully this will result into my wardrobe reflecting my personal style again!

2 Comments:

At August 16, 2011 at 1:00 AM , Anonymous Julianna Damer said...

Mmh, interesting comment. I always contemplate working at a clothing store. While I'm certain it would be great for learning about the merchandise aspect of the fashion industry, I know that I would spend most of my paycheques on the garments at the store. Well, I guess I don't really know that. What do you think? Worth it?

Julianna

 
At August 16, 2011 at 10:24 AM , Anonymous Danielle said...

Well, it's good as a short term thing, I found. I think it really opened my eyes up to certain things, but I don't know if I learned a lot about the actual merchandizing. I really enjoyed it for part-time, but once I got to full-time, I discovered I hated doing sales, and that what I really enjoyed was the behind the scenes detail work like receiving and such. In the company I was working for, they didn't allow for a lot of opportunities to go beyond the task you were hired for, our manager was purely the manager, she could interview people, but couldn't hire or fire them, as sales people, you could only do sales, etc. I suppose if you were to get a job at a smaller, independent boutique where you had more opportunities to learn about different aspects it might work out well, but I think in a lot of cases, mine included, you end up really stuck in one place with little room to grow. I think it would depend on the company and if they believed in top-down management with little room to grow within the company, or bottom-up management with lots of chances to grow. As for spending all of your paycheques in the store, if you find a store that fits your personal style, it can be worth it to the extent that you will probably receive some sort of discount, so if you would already be shopping there, it would end up being beneficial.
Hope that helps!

 

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Careers and Closets