How I got here - Sophie Strong
What does your diary look like today?
Today I’ll be liaising with clients who have ordered shoes from our luxury women’s footwear brand Aruna Seth website, and dealing with enquiries. I’ll also be looking at the website’s back office to research which countries orders are coming from, so I can suggest putting email marketing sendouts to those territories with offers to encourage more sales. I also look after the Twitter and Facebook accounts, and am responsible for quality control and checking shoes before sending them out to clients.
What task are you most looking forward to today?
Coming up with ideas to market on the Aruna Seth Facebook page, which has become almost as important as our website in terms of making sales. We’ve grown to more than 10,000 followers over the past four years, and I come up with interesting ways to drive sales.
How did you get to where you are today?
Working at Reiss during the holidays while at university con rmed my love of retail. I’m so pleased I spent a great deal of my holidays interning in different positions. I even started off at Aruna Seth as an intern and proved myself enough to be offered a role. I’d advise any student to gain as much work experience as they can because it helps to build your CV and make great contacts.
Who is your mentor?
Aruna Seth has become my mentor. She started the brand from scratch and her hard work is an inspiration. She is very knowledgeable in terms of buyers, designing, how to make sales and luxury brands. Aruna is also great at giving me a lot of responsibility. I’m accompanying her to a meeting with the Harrods buyer next week, for example.
What’s the best piece of advice she’s given you?
Aruna has been great at giving me advice on how to sell a luxury brand, advising that I should always imagine myself as the client and think about what she’d like to know about the shoes.
How do you see your career progressing?
I’ve been given such a great opportunity at Aruna Seth, and I can see myself staying here as the company grows. In the future maybe I’ll look to work for a larger high street brand such as Topshop.
What advice would you give to someone wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Make an impression by working hard in internships, because you never know what this might lead to. It certainly helped me gain an exciting rst job compared with fellow graduate friends of mine who are struggling to find a footing in their first jobs. I’d advise people to be really prepared to muck in and be remembered for hard work, because if there are any job openings in the future you’ll be remembered.
If you could work in another area of fashion, what would it be?
It’s been great seeing the designers at Aruna Seth draw out new designs and select materials for new shoes. They travel all over the world for inspiration. One of our buyers recently returned from Hong Kong for example, because she was on a trip picking trims. If I started my career again I may have looked at doing something more creative in fashion rather than a more business-focused role.
Depending on the size of the company, salaries for this position range from £25,000 to £30,000 (estimate by Henry Fox Recruitment)