What it’s like to work for ASOS while at uni
And yeah, they have a fashion cupboard in the office
ASOS are known as the go-to destination for just about any occasion, offering an amazingly wide range of clothes to suit your every need. However, the famous brand is not just a fashion house, it’s also a developer of creative talent.
They aim to find students interested in fashion and business at uni and foster their creativity to give them a head start for the future through internships, campus roles and competitions.
We spoke to the students having their careers kickstarted by ASOS.
ASOS are giving a talented student the chance to have their tote bag design sold on their site
Jess Clothier, Marketing Intern
I’m studying fashion marketing at Manchester and spending my year in industry working for ASOS as a marketing intern for the international trade and brand experience team.
I’m the only marketing intern so I see a lot and my days are extremely varied. My main role is compiling competitor reports to analyse competitor activity. I’ll then feed that back to the team so they can use it to adjust their marketing strategy and local activity. I also provide feedback on all marketing activity from the team as a student ambassador by letting them know if their content will be relevant to their target customers.
The best thing about my job is the amount of responsibility I’ve got. It’s been such a big learning curve and I definitely feel it’s going to support me in my final year of uni and afterwards. The ASOS team is also amazing, everyone’s so supportive and really interested in what they’re doing.
This role will 100 per cent help me with my future in the fashion industry. I’ve met so many people from completely different backgrounds and having those connections will always be useful.
ASOS also provide a great support network through an intern programme we’re all part of. We meet monthly and go through sessions about planning our time, looking to the future and making the most of our roles. There are 24 interns across the country in a variety of different roles like buying, sourcing, IT and technology.
For me, the best fashion trend to have happened in recent decades is androgynous dressing. It’s had a massive influence on how men and women dress and a significant impact on the industry, allowing designers to really push the boundaries on what they’re producing.
The best thing about ASOS is that there’s a massive sense of working as a team and constantly growing and doing new things. ASOS’ motto is to be brave and they always manage to do that with everything they do. Working for a company that’s so motivated to broaden their horizons is really inspiring.
ASOS are giving students 10 per cent off all year round
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Tristan Spencer, Student Brand Manager
I’m doing a Masters in International Management at Reading uni and am a student brand manager for ASOS.
My job’s all about connecting students with ASOS and promoting the brand. We do this in a variety of ways and the work’s basically split into two categories – ground work and social media. Ground work is promoting campaigns by talking to students, flyering, talking to societies and putting on events. The social media side is about staying in contact with students over Facebook and posting on pages.
The other part of being a brand manager is the planning. What’s good about this role is I have complete control of the campaign – I have the freedom to decide the best strategy to follow and to come up with creative ways to engage with the students.
I’m currently working on the ASOS Blank Canvas campaign that supports students’ creativity by asking them to submit designs for a tote bag to be featured on the ASOS website. Students can then vote for their favourite design – the designer will win £5,000 and their design will be made into a tote bag to be sold by ASOS. The winner will also get a mentoring and workshop day in ASOS HQ. The response so far has been huge.
Although I don’t necessarily want to go into the fashion industry I’ve gained so much useful experience from this role for my future career in management consultancy or marketing. You have to plan a campaign, execute the campaign, hit targets, time manage, work individually and motivate your team.
The work is challenging and takes a lot of commitment but I love it so it’s easy to justify why I’m doing it. I’m naturally outgoing and sociable anyway so the work fits in well with what I do anyway.
In Reading, there’s a yellow puffa jacket that’s almost the same as the green Urban Outfitter’s puffa that’s everywhere right now. So many girls in Reading are wearing the yellow one so I predict it to be the next major campus trend. You heard it in Reading first.
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Jordan Bunker, ASOS Student Insider
I graduated from Bournemouth uni last year where I was a Student Insider for ASOS.
I saw the advert to become a Student Insider on social media when I returned to Bournemouth for my final year. I’ve always said to myself that the things you do outside of university are just as important, if not more, than your degree so I thought, why not?
A few weeks later, I was in the offices learning how to become social savvy and being talked through future ASOS collections and trends.
Photo credit: Instagram @jordanbunker
Being a Student Insider was a mixture of social promotion and editorial work. Over on the Hub we were creating content that we thought students would enjoy reading, covering everything from style and travel to careers and music. On our social platforms we shared tips on how to style new ASOS products throughout the year with our followers.
ASOS are such a good team of people to work with and it was a really fun experience. I still speak to a lot of the team now, even though I’m no longer a student. If they want to invite me to the Christmas party *cough cough*, I’m there.
Photo credit: Instagram @jordanbunker
At the minute I’m really enjoying the travel opportunities I’m getting through my blog and being my own boss. I’d like to say my biggest creative strength is that I’m quite good behind a camera, but I’ll leave that for you to decide. If I can continue to do this for a few years I’d be quite happy.