I always want to have a job in the Fashion Industry but
have never really had any this kind of work experience. In order to have an idea about how a job in
the fashion industry looks like, I interviewed Debby George from Japanese
Weekend Maternity. She is the production
manager of Japanese Weekend Maternity and has been working in the fashion
industry for about 22 years. I thought
she must love her job very much because she has been in this area for so
long. Surprisingly, she got into this
industry has nothing to do about fashion.
“Actually, I got my first job in a fashion company as a merchandiser
back to Hong Kong many years ago, was not because I love that area. It was
because that company needs somebody speaks Japanese and I was just come back
from Japan and looking for jobs. I was
happy to have a job that can use the language that I learn from Japan,” Debby
said. What a nice coincidence! That sounds like your college councilor will tell
you, “go get into a major that still can get you back to something that you
like, if you cannot get into a program that is impacted.” Right?
Anyway, let’s back to our business. I was curious about how Debby’s work day
would look like. Debby starts her day by checking with her boss to see if there
is anything special that her boss wants her to take care of first, if there is
nothing special; she will then check emails, and her assistant will check with
her and report to her with things that need her attention. And then she will start to work with everything
that is production related; such as answer phone calls from their vendors,
problem solving, follow up things that are production related, analyze what
style should keep in the catalog for the season and what style needs to get rid
of; prepare materials needed for production; budgeting, decision planning,
decision making, and operating management. “Basically, my job is to keep the company
operate smoothly,” Debby said. That’s not easy because that involves a lot of
details. According to Debby, Japanese
Weekend Maternity is one of those San Francisco based companies that committed
to keeping their production in the U.S. as much as they can. But keeping every
single material that is needed for production domestic makes the production
cost very high, Debby is trying very hard to keep everything that is made in
U.S.A. and the cost as low as she can. That gives her a lot of stress. Also,
because Japanese Weekend Maternity wants to keep their products’ quality, Debby
needs to make sure all materials fit their standards before sending materials
out to their contractors for final mass productions.
Debby
said, “If I can lower the cost of goods sold and can shorter the production
time, I think I’m doing a pretty decent job as a production manager.” She pointed out that teamwork is very
important. As a team leader, she always treats her team members and other
members in the company as a big family. I asked Debby what quality was required for
her position. She concluded that candidates don’t need to have a degree but needs
to have work experience in garments manufacturing and that’s a very crucial
qualification. And that’s because if a
candidate lack of work experience, it will cause the company lost a lot of
money. “Other required quality of being
a production manager includes details orientated, supper flexible, work well
with others, can work under pressure and have a sense of humor. For me, having
a sense of humor with others will make the working environment in harmony,”
Debby states.
When I think about Debby’s responsibility of being a
production manager, there are a lot of budgeting, decision planning, decision
making, and operating management involved.
Those business terms sounds very familiar to me because I learn those in
school with my business program. I think going to school to have a business
degree is really very helpful for having a job as a production manager. Even though Debby states that no degree is
needed for gaining her position in the fashion industry, I think with those
business skills that we learn from school may help smoothing the process of the
job.
I think I need to rethink about having a job as a
production manager in a fashion company since I don’t have any work experience
related to the industry. If I really
going to start my own business in the fashion industry, I might just hire a
production manager or subcontract the whole production process to contractors
and I just deal with marketing and sales.
Besides reading, writing is a very important part of
Brad’s job too. Brad told me, “Besides emails, I write internal reports,
reports to Senior Management, procedures, comments on line of business
procedures and other various documentation, reports to external customers,
regulators and colleagues.” Brad points
out that reports to senior management need to be brief because senior managers
don’t always have time to read long reports. 
So, how’s a regular working day of a compliance
consultant look like? “Very busy,” Brad
said. Brad starts his day by checking
emails and schedules of meetings. Meeting time is about 20% out of an eight to
ten hours work day and it is roughly from two to six hours a day. Sometimes
Brad will have back to back meetings the whole work day. Depending on what time is left out, it’s
Brad’s actual work time for answering people’s questions about customers, laws,
and government regulations; customers’ questions about their programs; and for
tasks that come from his bosses, work with auditors and respond to law and
regulation inquiries from the line of business. Brad’s job needs to talk to
people on the phone all the time. Sometimes is on conference calls, sometimes
is on trainings for people. Brad also needs to travel around the world about
25% of his work. 
