Perks of working in the Hosiery & Legwear office: getting to wear slippers and fuzzy socks at work!

June 23rd, 2018

Rachel Lynne
Sep 4, 2018 · 3 min read

Remember all those groups projects everyone has to do over their entire schooling? We all love them. Yep, those literally never go away, including in an internship. Honestly, they’re probably the most important part of an internship because they show employers how you work with others. During the third week at Kohl’s, the Merch interns were given the first project of the summer. What I love about the internship program is that there are projects that all interns do, and then each intern gets to different things within their office.

Although I can’t give too many details away, the project is very open ended and allowed the interns to express their opinions and ideas. I think it’s a great way to explore Kohl’s, the retail industry, and our offices’ products.

In case I haven’t mentioned it enough yet, the internship program does an amazing job of teaching us instead of throwing students into the fire. On Friday morning, a few of the buyers from our department taught a class on the topic for our project and explained to us how to execute the project and dive deep into our findings.

Something I’ve noticed about our assignments so far is that students and full-time employees think every differently. Since we were four years old, we’ve been used to a rubric, something that gives us a checklist and outlines everything we need to do. During our class with the buyers, interns kept asking if we had to do this or that, and each buyer tried their best to answer our questions.

But their response was always the same; do what you think is best. Use your judgement and critical thinking. We want to know what you’re thinking, not what you think we want to hear. In the real world, the boss is not going to tell you exactly what to do, so it’s up to the individual to approach the task in the best way they can. That’s probably going to be the hardest adjustment for the rest of the summer, but hopefully working in a group will help because we can talk about our ideas and approaches together.

My team consists of three other interns from my department. Although I’ve talked to them during these past three weeks, I haven’t had the chance to know their work styles. We met later after class in the Kitch for coffee and to start working on the project. That day, we faced exactly what I was afraid of: no one knew exactly how to start because we weren’t given a specific prompt or checklist.

Honestly, it created some tension in our group. After our meeting, I learned from our disagreements that we all wanted to the same outcome: to impress our bosses. Isn’t that what everyone wants in their job? Well, I realized that instead of trying to bring each other down and have one person “be right” we need to lift each other up, support ideas, and be open to discussion. Because if one of us does well, we all do well.

Kohl’s took all the interns to a Brewer’s game this week! It was so fun to see over 200 of us sitting together.

INTERNal Jounral

An intern's professional journal that highlights her lessons learned in Corporate America

Rachel Lynne

Written by

INTERNal Jounral

An intern's professional journal that highlights her lessons learned in Corporate America

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade