Ax Paris Internship #1

As my AX Paris internship was approaching, I was excited and eager to get back into the fast-paced world of industry internships, after such an enjoyable first internship at ASOS.com this time last year. 

ASOS offices were clean, white, fashionable and exciting. I have also seen lots of AX Paris' direct competitors office space through social media outlets for example Missguided and Boohoo on instagram so I was excited to dive in. 

I was looking forward to having lots of responsibility in terms of running the social media and site, reaching bloggers and publications for PR and Marketing, yet be given lots of guidance on this.

When I got to the office, there was no-one around. As a smaller company, I kind of expected this - as it was 8.40am on a Monday morning! Once I was let in, I discovered this office was also the brands warehouse/distribution centre. 

I introduced myself to the gentlemen who let me in, who didn't know I was coming. He showed me upstairs to the office space where I would be working. 

8 desks in a long room housed the social media, the customer service, and the marketing 'teams'.

Each person portrayed multiple roles I soon found out. I expected more of the office space considering not only do they run and online site, they also have concessions in New Look, House of Fraser and other online sites such as Zalando and Amazon. They also have German and Australian websites. 

One girl sat in the office - the newest employee who had been employed due to her German language skills to speak to German customers and clients. She offered me to do some work on Pinterest, to check out the website and it's social media outlets before being given some real work to do later on.

Slowly the employees came in and I met the girl who I had had emails with revolving the placement - who showed me how to use the 'back end' of the website to access the admin portal. 

I was then given the task of selecting products on the portal from a list I was given and placing them under the heading 'Easter Treats' - a promotion happening over the Easter period offering 30% off the products.

After this I was given the task of organising the show-room, removing old products and duplicate styles (styles that were in the show-room more than once). The showroom houses every single product AX Paris have, so it was large and packed with dresses and playsuits. 

I didn't know what products were old or new, and after asking, was told the person 'who knows is busy, so just guess for now'. 

This struck me as odd but did the task regardless. After half an hour of this, the man who was supposed to be helping came in, didn't acknowledge my presence at all and starting throwing the products I had missed on the floor in front of me. "Fold" I was told. 

Over lunch I asked about a health and safety or a tour of the building, but was met with shrugs from various members of staff. One girl said, 'the toilets just there, this is the kitchen, and downstairs is the showroom'.

I spent the rest of the day in the showroom, folding and unfolding products, reorganising the jumble sale of fabrics prints and colours and start to bring in the VM skills that I knew of - placing products of similar colours together to be pleasing on the eye of the client when the meeting took place.

Overall, I hated my first day, and was knocked hard back to earth considering how excited I was for the placement to realise that smaller companies generally aren't as exciting or glamorous as the larger companies. This I could understand, but overall I was questioning the whole atmosphere of the office. 

It was messy, cramped and cold, and during the time I was sat at my desk in the office, totally silent, unlike any office experience I have had in the past. I wasn't introduced to anyone so I found it quite awkward, however I did try to speak to everyone I could on my first day - letting them know I was an intern. 

On my first day of ASOS last year, I was shown a tour of the office, introduced to all of the various teams, where everyone was very friendly and smiley, and had my Health & Safety on my third day. Totally opposite to my first day at Ax Paris!