Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Discovering (My) Vocation - Part V

At first I thought the job would be related to fashion in a way. But as always, I was wrong. It was almost on the bottom-most list of the fashion industry. We were just the manufacturing company. The mediator.

Oh well, I told myself that, “Hey, at least they’re still related, even though just a tiny bit.” I thought I was going to enjoy the job. But again, I was wrong. (Garment) merchandising, simply put, is all about managing timeline. That includes productions, communicating with the buyers and suppliers, and some administrative tasks. I spent 80% of my day in front of the computer, sending and reading emails. I was trapped inside my inbox.

It wasn’t a really difficult job. It was bland. Boring. I didn’t despise it, but after only a few weeks of dealing with trims (buttons, threads, patches, and so on), payments, and shipping schedules, it got so damn boring. But nevertheless, I stuck with it, thinking that I should stay and learn more. Trying to keep myself interested.

The only thing that actually glued me to the place is my wonderful colleague. I’ve grown quite attached to some of them – even up until now. They were my cheerleaders.

One day I got a message from my college friend, asking if I’m interested on becoming a boutique manager. I hesitated at first, because I feel that I’m way too inexperienced to be a manager. But she insisted, saying that I really fit in. So I gave it a shot – I’ve nothing to lose anyway. I sent my application to the designated person. I didn’t have any expectation, I wasn’t really looking for another job. Days passed on as I continued on my daily routines.

Around two weeks after I hit the sent button on my email, I received the call. To make long story short, I went for the interview and landed the job. By then I’ve only been in my post for 2 months.

It was quite dilemmatic. The new job paid more than the old one, and it’s in (fashion) retail – I thought it could be a leaping stone for me to enter the industry. But environmentally, it wouldn’t be as fun as my (then) current place. I was already in my comfort zone – my girls made my working days rocking. In the new job, it’ll just be me, and 3 shop assistants under me – sounded rather depressing. Plus, it required me to wear a uniform – a thing I dreaded so much, as I really love to dress up.

After much contemplation, I decided to take the new job. I told myself I would endure the environment (and uniform) for a while before leaping to a bigger box. So I quit my (then) current job after only 2,5 months, and immediately started the new job.

I was responsible for sales, operational, promotion, customer relation, and employee management – basically (almost) everything. But they didn’t let me handle the buying and stuffs – the thing that’s actually more crucial if I want to go further in the business. So I was stuck in the storefront only. Eventually it dawned on me that what I thought was a leaping stone was actually taking me nowhere as I wasn’t learning much at all.

If my previous job was boring, this one was deadly boring. 80% of the time, I spent my days inside the almost empty store, waiting for a few customers to come in. Sometimes not even a single soul would come in. Quite normal though, as the store was selling high end products, so it had a niche market – so small and narrow. Most of our customers are our bosses’ friends.

And trust me, dealing with filthy rich socialite ladies is no fun job – at all. It was mentally abusing and sometimes pride stampeding – I won’t go into details on this. So fast forward to a few months, I simply couldn’t take it anymore. I then started to go for interviews at other retail companies – with no fruitful result. But even though I still haven’t found a new job yet, I took the risk of quitting – after only 8 months. My parents of course disagreed, but everyone else around me cheered – they knew what I’ve been through all those months and couldn’t understand why I didn’t quit way earlier.

With my lack of experience and a background that’s not related at all to the industry, it’s proven to be a pain-in-the-arse for me to plunge into the fashion retail business. Many times I was turned down either because I was inexperienced or maybe I simply looked like a job-hopper (can’t blame that actually, I have a bad track record). One time I was turned down just because the boss knew my (then) boss, and she said she’d feel bad if she admitted me into her company because she didn’t want to hire from people she knows.

Silly me, I didn’t know that the world of retail is so small, everyone knows everyone. That was a big blow for me – looks like I won’t go anywhere in retail. Looks like my previous job was sort of a booby trap.

So then, while still keeping an eye on that field, I also looked in to other field: media.


(Again, to be continued...)

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