Thanks to an amazing professor with equally amazing connections, I had the opportunity to visit the American Eagle headquarters in Pittsburgh this past week. Although I spent nearly all of high school and college dreaming of working in fashion marketing, I thought that dream had died.
Boy, was I wrong.
Our tour and accompanying meetings were set up to compliment a class my school offers on retail marketing, which I was not able to take due to scheduling conflicts. Since my professor (and just about anyone who knows me well) knew about my passion for the apparel and accessories industry, she invited me to come along.
To kick off the afternoon, we toured "fake" AEO and Aerie stores within the corporate offices. Though non-functional for customers, these stores give the visual merchandisers a place to design displays for stores across the country. Next, we were led to a classroom type set-up where we had the incredible experience of hearing from brand marketers, fashion buyers, allocation planners, and HR personnel.
The thing that stood out to me most during our visit was the passion and happiness that exuded from every single person we met. Everyone was genuinely excited to work for American Eagle, which is what seemed to be one of the major factors for company success. The feelings were contagious, and I've spent the past few days re-vamping my resumé and searching for open opportunities.
Though it's obviously early on, it seems like this could be the perfect fit company I've been looking for. Now here's crossing fingers that the feeling will be mutual!
