Gen: Proud - James' story
James shares how the Clothing & Home Graduate scheme combines his love for fashion with his analytical skills in Merchandising. From rotating through various departments to signing off on new collections, James finds excitement in every season.
I knew I wanted to work in fashion since secondary school, but I’m quite a numbers-based, analytical person. So, when I first read the description of what it meant to be a Merchandiser, I thought, “That’s the way my brain works.” The maths side of buying and merchandising appealed to me a lot.
When it came to graduation, M&S stood out to me as one of the only retailers with a graduate scheme that had a real focus on merchandising. High-street retail is much more fast-paced than luxury retail, which means you get to work with bigger volumes of stock, and that’s what drew me in.
I’ve now worked in three different departments since starting at M&S. I started in Bathrooms, then Soft Furnishings, and now I’m in Bedding – one of the biggest departments in Clothing & Home. The range I’m most excited about right now, which we signed off last month, is our next collection of Design Bedding. Every season you learn so much by analysing what you think the customer will like. And it looks amazing both in store, and online!
My favourite part of the job is when we sign off next season’s products. For a whole day, twice a year, we showcase the products that have been developed and get final sign off from the leadership team before we can start production. It’s all about the buyers, the designers, the technologists, and the merchandisers coming together and basically showing off what we do best.
Since I’ve joined M&S, there are new roles being created in the business, like Head of Category, which will oversee buying and merchandising. That kind of role really interests me. But whatever I choose to do, I know that I’d like to carry on working collaboratively and flexibly.
Our leadership team is also very open with their personal lives, which makes it so much easier for other people to be themselves here. I’ve now had the opportunity to walk with M&S at both Manchester Pride and London Pride, and I’m proud to say I work for a company that makes it easy to openly be me.
Learn more about the M&S Clothing & Home Business Programme here.
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