Caitlyn Cholewinski

Responsibilities

My responsibilities vary by week, but overall I'm expected to learn, absorb, and practice everything I'm taught. Kohl's started the internship with classes, and you continue taking them throughout the internship alongside attending meetings, going through product, and helping with emails to our cross-functional teams and vendors overseas. The main goal of the production internship is to shadow and learn from your coach to be able to understand the role that you would take if offered a job as a Production Coordinator.

Accomplishments

I believe that some of the greatest learning experiences and accomplishments I've had through this internship are project-based. I find these to be the most beneficial because you are given a prompt or directions, and being able to execute them with the knowledge I have from school or from the classes at the internship is satisfying. I also get to include my own creative perspective and having a final product that I or my team made from scratch is something to be proud of.

Learning experience

Step outside your comfort zone! The only way to learn new things is to do them, whether it's communicating with people you've never talked to before, or having to do tasks with little experience. I'm so used to doing things that I already have a lot of knowledge about, so being in a new environment and doing new things wasn't easy at first, but with time comes experience. I've also found that if you're stuck on something or need a new perspective, there is always someone around willing to help, you just have to be able to ask for it.

What advice would you give?

Internships and jobs are about finding what you love or don't love about the fashion industry. I think that with any experience, the most important thing is to give it your all, even if it's new, something you don't enjoy much, or something you're afraid of trying. Use this time to figure out what you are looking for, and once you do, never settle for less.