Natalie C.

Assistant Buyer
Happy to mentor
Happy to be contacted

About me

Natalie C.
English and Related Literature
English
Undergraduate
Vanbrugh
2007
United Kingdom

My employment

Assistant Buyer
Marks and Spencer
United Kingdom
2007
£20000~5000
£32500~7500

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A day in the life of a Assistant Buyer in the United Kingdom

How I found out about the job

Employer's website

Courses taken since graduation

None

Where I hope to be in 5 years

High! Lots of scope for progression right up to director level if it's something you want to achieve here.

My advice to students considering work

Apply for graduate jobs early (Oct/Nov of 3rd year) and do lots of practice interviews!

What I do

Fashion buying - from inspirational shopping to briefing the range to design team, creating tech packs to send out to suppliers, receiving samples back and building the range, ranking it with merchandising team to decide size of buy, negotiating cost price with suppliers, managing sample development right through fitting on models, confirming colours and trims into stores, monitoring current sales and responding to success by trading in and out of key lines.

Skills I use and how I developed them



Degree skills:
Presentation skills have been useful, also structuring arguments very necessary in meetings - persuasive skills very important.

Extracurricular skills:
Communication skills developed through JCR and also social life - general experience of living away and managing own time/work etc has been beneficial.

What I like most

I like the high level of responsibility, very creative, lots of international travel, great people and lots of opportunity, plus a good salary.

What I like least

Sometimes very long hours!

What would I change? Nothing at all.

Next steps...

If you like the look of Natalie’s profile, the next steps are down to you! You can send Natalie a message to find out more about their career journey.

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