Getting More From A Summer Internship: Advice From Recruiters & Graduates:

Namrata Kothari at Stitch Fix

Namrata Kothari at Stitch Fix

Namrata Kothari (’15), student at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management

Last summer, I interned at Stitch Fix, which is an online personal styling service for women. If you’ve heard of Trunk Club, it’s a similar type of model. Founded in 2011, Stitch Fix is in a rapid growth phase right now. I led the launch of the Maternity product category, which was the first expansion of its kind at Stitch Fix. I also managed and coached an undergraduate intern for part of the summer, who was researching the launch of the Petites category. It was especially exciting for me to hear that this past March,there was an article published in Fast Company announcing the official launch of both of these product lines. It has been exciting to see that my work directly led to a tangible outcome that is helping actual customers right now!

From my perspective, the most important thing you can do to get the most out of your internship is to first make sure you end up in the right place, where you personally can have the most impact. During my internship search, I knew it was very important to me to have a lot of responsibility to do something impactful, but also a lot of autonomy to move quickly, be creative, and build something new. For me, that meant looking for a role that would be relatively ambiguous and unstructured that I could make my own, most likely at a startup or growth company. Many of my classmates, on the other hand, were looking for a structured experience, which led them to larger, more established companies, often on a more traditional MBA career path such as consulting, marketing, or banking.

My own internship search actually started with larger tech companies. Along the way, I learned what I liked and what I didn’t like about the opportunities I was coming across, which led me to quickly shift the focus of my search to smaller companies. Starting with this exploration process was critical, however, because it not only made me more comfortable and confident to wait for the right opportunity (The Stitch Fix internship was posted in May), but also made me instantly realize I had found what I had been looking for when did finally come my way.

On the job as an intern, it was important for me to recognize that although the project I was working on was my biggest priority, for my colleagues it was just one priority among many. One of the keys to success was to first get to know the people on my team, their roles in the launch, and their vision for our work together. In my case, in particular, I was working with between 8 and 22 people on my team at any moment in time, and met with each one of them individually in the first week. One person would say to me, “This is going to be our next great thing, and we really need to focus on it,” but I’d have someone else tell me, “This is going to be really small, and there are other things going on at the moment that are really important.” These early conversations helped me understand the context of where people were coming from, and tailor my approach with each member of the team and each department involved. I knew exactly who needed to be involved in which decision, who needed to be informed, who needed to be at which meeting, and what I could ask them for. It helped me be conscious of others’ time and respectful of others’ priorities. Getting to know my team, collecting this information, and building this rapport up-front was critical to being as productive as possible in just ten weeks.

Another key to success was my manager. My manager was the Chief Merchandising Officer, who was extremely busy with a lot of demands on her time. I was responsible for just a couple of the things in her universe. The ownership of the Maternity launch transitioned very quickly from her to me, in the first week. She was often traveling or not able to be present at the launch meetings, but I communicated with her frequently. I was very open with her about this is what happened; this is what’s going on next time; here is what I have planned for the meeting; here is what I will say and won’t say; here are the decisions I’ve made; this is what I’m not sure about and need you to weigh in on or help me with. I always kept her informed and involved, which made it as easy as possible for her to help me be successful.

[In addition, you need to] make your internship experience your own. I started with the clear work objective of leading the product launch. But I also shared with my manager early on what my other goals were. For example, something that was important to me was to have a long-term impact with my work. As a result, we expanded the formal scope of my work beyond just leading the launch, to also documenting learnings and best practices from this launch to help the company improve its overall approach to whatever the next product launch would be. Additionally, I wanted to develop my skills as a manager, and be directly accountable for someone else. Although I knew this was unlikely for a ten-week intern, I put it out there in case any related learning opportunities might come up. What actually ended up happening is that the initial research for a future launch, Petites, started a few months early when an undergraduate intern came on board halfway through the summer. It became a natural opportunity for me to manage and coach her, as it not only aligned with my goals, but also fit nicely with my intent to apply my learnings from the Maternity launch immediately to making the Petites launch as strong as possible. This management opportunity would not have existed for me unless I had spoken up to my Manager about my development goals in the first place!

Building relationships is also really important. I wanted to get to know my team and the senior leadership team, and learn more about who they were, what was important to them, and what advice they might have for me. It didn’t have to be a formal meeting – Often I would schedule a short break in the afternoon to go for a walk with someone around the neighborhood with a coffee or snack, or wait with them in line for lunch even though I had packed my own. Embrace your curiosity, because as a student and intern in particular, you have “permission” to get to know people, explore, and ask plenty of questions!

DON’T MISS: HOW TO GET THE MOST FROM AN INTERNSHIP or BAIN TOPS LIST OF BEST MBA INTERN EMPLOYERS

 

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