Sydney Lawrence

Major: Apparel, Merchandising, and Design
Company/Organization: American Eagle Outfitters
Company/Organization website: https://www.ae.com/
Destination: Pittsburgh, PA
Timeframe: Summer
Advisor/Coordinator Email: annthye@iastate.edu

Responsibilities

During my 10-week internship, I conducted various competitive research projects which involved comp shopping and counting CC's. Each week, I wrote a business recap for our previous week's web sales. I was in Women's Jeans as a Merchandising Intern so I attended many meetings involving site merchandising, our cross-functional teammates in design & sourcing, business recaps, etc. I often organized our sample closets and set out our new merchandise in the showroom. My final project was to create a roadmap with key strategies for Back-to-School 2019 based on July's Web sales for the current season.

Accomplishments

I was able to think about a white space in our current product assortment and then back it up with facts on our competition to pitch to my mentor. We then passed my findings to design and now there will be a new fit in Spring 2019.

What advice would you give?

Know the power of selling and influencing- everyone you meet is an opportunity to influence them. Always know what is going on in your business to relay to anyone you meet. Work hard, but more importantly, work efficiently. And lastly, if your internship is away from home, enjoy your new location! Work/Life balance is key so have fun!

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