A Day in the Life: Under Armour Interns (Part II — The Work Day)

Under Armour Global Headquarters
The intern life is not just fancy apartments and weekend brunches… we work hard! But what exactly are we doing during the 8–5 weekday grind? Take a look at my typical work day as an Apparel Sourcing Intern with Under Armour. 5:45
8:10 am
Workout, get ready, & water taxi commute. See my previous article — “A Day in The Life: Under Armour Interns…Beyond the Internship” :)
8:20 am
Good morning Under Armour Headquarters! Good Morning Cascade! I scan my badge and let myself into the Cascade building, where my desk is. Wait what? Cascade? I’ll clarify — the UA headquarters was previously occupied by P&G (Procter and Gamble) from the late 1920’s to mid 1990’s. So to keep the authenticity and history of the location, all of our buildings are named after P&G products — Cascade, Tide, Dawn, Ivory… to name a few. Once I’m inside and up the stairs, I head over to my desk and power up my computer. I open Outlook first, skim for any pressing emails, and settle in. If there’s any urgent notes, I’ll take care of responding, but if not — I make myself some coffee before reading through the rest of my emails.
8:50 am
9:00 am
I use this time in the morning to look over my calendar, catch up on any emails, and prep for the day. Today, I had a few email responses from the Hong Kong office, some updates to be made on the costing info for specific styles, and a few meeting invitations for later in the week. I check my calendar and get ready for my 9 o’clock meeting, reading over the agenda that was sent out.
10:00 am
My manager and I head outside and jump in his car to head to the Phillips building for our 9 o’clock meeting. The UA Campus is a bit spread out, and even though Phillips is technically walkable distance, we aren’t wasting any time. It’s a gorgeous day, and my manager has a jeep with the doors off. We cruise, and I mentally debate if my next car purchase should be a jeep. Because this is awesome.
10:55 am
We arrive at Philips and the meeting begins. This meeting happens weekly, and it’s specifically for our collegiate styles. We go over a timeline and then talk through any issues or updates for our current season. There’s people from every department giving input, and for an hour I feel refreshed from my Sourcing “world”. It’s fun to hear a different perspective on things — not to mention super important to get things done. Actually, I think working cross-functionally is one of my favorite parts of the job.
11:00 am
We hop in the jeep and zip to Cascade. I head to my desk and prep for my fitting at 11, printing out the paperwork I need and making costing calculations so we’re prepped on the styles that we’re looking at today.
12:00 pm
My manager brought in double chocolate zucchini bread to share today, so I snag a piece before the fitting. YUM. I love this place.
Fit time! You know how I said cross-functionality is one of my favorite parts of my job? Well a huge part of that cross-functionality is our fittings. I love these. So. Much. A fitting is when we get to see the prototypes of the new garments, and make adjustments according to the designer’s sketch and the cost limitations. They bring in “Fit models” to try on the clothes so we can see the styles actually on someone, and make sure the fit is exactly as envisioned. So basically…we get to play dress up! Wait uh…no. Just kidding. It’s actually a lot more than that. I won’t go into too much detail, but it is really fun to see all the designs come to life. We go through anywhere from 2–10 styles depending on the day, and make the necessary adjustments as a team. Before coming to work at UA, I knew that a lot of thought went into every design, but I truly have a new appreciation for it. There are literally thousands of potential problems that could come up in the first draft of a garment — I have a serious respect for all my coworkers’ seemingly infinite knowledge on apparel construction. I still have so much to learn!
LUNCH! YAY! I head over to H&H — Humble and Hungry Cafeteria — to grab a bite. Guys, I’m not kidding, the UA cafeteria is easily the best cafeteria experience of my life. We have pretty much anything you could want. A pizza station,
1:00 pm
a sandwich booth, a huge salad bar, dozens of fresh grab-n-go options, a classic burger spot, “Fit Meal” options, and almost every fountain drink you can think of. OH and there are dozens of smoothies made fresh to order, and you can even create your own with pretty much any ingredient imaginable. Today, I make myself a salad loaded up with everything. I head to the fountain and spout some sweet-tea into my tumblr. Did I mention drinks are free at H&H if you bring your own cup?! It’s to encourage people to reuse rather than throwing away cups every day — yay for sustainability! I take my lunch over to the deck, sit in an adirondack chair, and look out at the harbor. I savor each bite and soak in the sunshine. Is this real life?
2:00pm
I head back to my desk, check in on any new emails, and work on my Summer Project until my next meeting. My project is based around our vendor scorecards — if you’re not familiar with the Supply Chain field, vendor scorecards are basically an evaluation of your suppliers based on certain metrics such as Quality, On-Time Delivery, etc. For my department, our vendors are all of the companies we work with that do the construction/cut-and-make of our apparel. This project is a lot of independent work, so when I have time to myself I take advantage and hammer things out!
3:00 pm
Today we have a speaker scheduled for the UA Summer League Speaker Series! Today we heard from Kerry Chandler — the Chief Human Resource Officer. In my opinion, this is one of the coolest things they do for our Intern Program — we get to hear from top executives in the company at least once a week, sometimes 2–3 times a week. They tell us about their role at UA, their experiences from college to where they are now, and even give us insight into their mantras, life advice, favorite activities, and so much more. I love these because I always leave feeling SO inspired and ready to take on the week. Seriously nothing motivates me more than hearing from people that are loving the company they work for and excited about what they’re doing. And I’m not just saying that. If there’s a common theme from these speakers, it’s that they genuinely love it here, and that passion has brought them success.
3:30 pm
4:15 pm
At 3, my teammates and I head over to one of the open tables by our desks for our Weekly Touchbase. It’s usually just me and the four others that I work closest with. I love these — they’re pretty casual but still provide a chance to check in and give updates on everything we’ve been working on. It’s comforting to have these weekly meetings to stay in the loop with our department and on track with my Summer Project.
5:05 pm
After we wrap up our touchbase, I head over to a conference room where I have a Meet & Greet scheduled. As interns, we’re encouraged to set up “Meet & Greets” with teammates from other functions to learn about their career, how they collaborate with our department, learn a little bit about their professional development and path from college, and ultimately make connections! I’ve had tons of these meetings already, and everyone is always SO nice and willing to help. Also, without these, I wouldn’t understand the big-picture of the company as well as I do! Today, I meet with someone from the materials team. She teaches me about everything she does, tells me her college-to-employee transition story, and we bond over the struggles of being a student athlete. We talk until well past 4, realize we’re over our scheduled time, and laugh our goodbyes.
I return to my desk, my mind in a million places at once, and I try to refocus. It’s time to wrap up everything from the day. I finish items on my Summer Project, check emails, print cost sheets, and whatever else has come up while I’ve been away from my desk. I’ll often have smaller side projects to help out the team, such as updating information on various styles in our software system, pulling data to assist other teammates on their projects, etc. I get done whatever comes up, and before I know it, it’s 5 o’clock!
I pack up my things and head outside to catch the 5:15 water taxi back to Canton. I say goodbye to all my teammates, and chat about our plans for the night — dinner reservations, running groups, and early bedtimes — whatever we’re looking forward to. I realize its 5:11 and I’m going to be the last one on the water taxi, if I even make it. I speed-walk to the stairs. See you tomorrow, Cascade!

By Erin McDonald — UA 2017 Summer Rookie
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on July 26, 2017.
