Manager's meeting

Before the animal instincts of the managers came out at the sample sale, they had all been pretty civilised at the manager's meeting. It was one of my high points of my time there as well as a top event in the company calendar.
All the managers from over the country come together to see the new RTW, shoe and bag collections and be talked through them by the designers. This allows them to get to know the product before it gets to store as well as letting the designers and merchandisers know which items are popular among the staff, what they think might sell well and deciding whether anything should be removed if it gets a bad reaction.
There were also updates from the press, web and wholesale departments on sales progress and best sellers, expansion to other countries and where the products were featured in magazines and newspapers.

Oh also: Champagne, mini sandwiches and cakes. Need I say more haha!

Placements are hard.

They really are. It's hard not to think why the hell am I here when you've been sat in silence at a computer for 7 hours pretty much being ignored. Don't get me wrong I love being independent (London has forced me to have this attribute) and being 'left to it' when you're sure of what you're doing and you are enjoying it but there's also a feeling of 'I'm working here for free, I'm getting no direction and I should be learning a shit lot of stuff.' 

I'm all for the experience of things but bit annoying when you come out the other side feeling empty. TEACH ME STUFF GODDAMNIT. 

My last placement taught me that you learn a lot more stuff at a smaller place as bigger companies just don't have the time or the right kind of people to help you along the way. I felt a lot of the time I was being annoying if I asked for help or things to do, when I was expecting to be rushed off my feet and have a proper supervisor. I would much rather be busy than spend half my day on Daily Mail, even though that is a truly enriching experience...

So I left.

The only thing I'll miss is the lunch vouchers and Oyster card. That kind of says it all really. I was becoming wayyy too much of a regular at Pret. WHERE ARE ALL THE GREGGS?! 

And the sample sale pretty much killed me off. It was feral. There wasn't really anything I liked and people thought I was mad for not having my arms laden with everything I could carry.

I was pretty happy with my free bag and shoes but the lady with 12 bags was over the moon.