Meet Kiernan Black ’18 Intern at Turnbull & Asser
Tell us about where you are interning and the kind of work you are doing.
This past summer I interned at the British men’s luxury clothing company, Turnbull & Asser. As the Royal Shirtmakers to HRH Prince of Whales, this company takes every task very seriously and does not falter in maintaining the quality of their product. As the e-commerce intern, I managed the visuals of the main site and processed the orders through the back end, which is called Magento. I also monitored our big summer sale through email campaigns and tracked the success through google analytics. As the marketing intern, I strategized on how to increase U.S sales while keeping prices high and the brand not over publicized.
Give us an example of how you have applied your academic learnings to your internship?
I believe that my communication skills, both in writing and in speech, that I have learned being a Political Science major allowed me to be effective and efficient at getting a lot of the marketing done. The staff there knew that they could trust me with communicating directly to their clients, so the work got done faster and it allowed me to have free reign on how the process was working.
What has surprised you about being an intern?
What surprised me was how much I could learn about a company in such a short amount of time. After the first few weeks there, I felt as if I had the company’s best interest at heart and that makes all the difference when trying to achieve goals and bring passion into your work.
How did this experience influence or connect to your future career plans / goals?
I have always been primarily interested in media work, and have had internships with media company’s in the past, but when looking to move on in that industry I ran into people telling me that I needed some marketing/business experience to set me apart. That is why I pursued Turnbull & Asser. Now I have a set of invaluable skills that I can bring to any career.
Any internship advice to pass on to other Holy Cross students?
My advice is to never pigeon hole yourself with one path. If an opportunity comes your way, take it! You will never learn skills that you won’t need or won’t set you apart for the career that you want. A well rounded worker is the best type of worker.
