Your Most Likely Job after Graduating from NIFT- Fashion-Merchandiser

What I will be when I graduate from NIFT ? This is a normal question in the minds of many people. This is also the job that most of the student who pass out from NIFT look forward to. No matter if you are a designer, fashion technologist or into fashion marketing, this is where your natural destination is. 

Who is she ? I mean a fashion merchandiser. So she is a go-to for every thing related to fulfillment of an order. In fact, it goes before that and beyond that.  First an order for manufacturing a garment is received, it is than assigned to a merchandiser and her job starts. She starts your planning process, sets her objectives against the timelines given and then starts executing it. It is fun, sweat, efforts and sometimes tears. She ships your order and her job stops when she receives her second order...which is when it starts again. Welcome to the world of fashion !

IF you are a merchandiser, An Excel is your most important friend here. Sure, there are a lot of companies that have their own ERP systems, but you cannot escape Excel. If you are a student, learn it, super-learn it, hyper-learn it and never stop learning it. Vlookup is your best friend in this maze. Oh! you don't know what is Vlookup ? Look up on Google and make it your friend.  As you rise up the ladder, numbers begin to hit you, till your eyes go numb and you start dreaming them. 

That gives me my next idea; Numbers vs. Product. There are two genres of merchandisers ( Yes I know, there is one more pair of genres- external brand vs. private label merchandises, but I discuss them later) . Some merchandisers are number people, some are product. Hardly any is both. That leads to the biggest conflict with your peers and boss. God forbid, if your boss is a different genre than you are. Identify her, and don't flaunt your number skills if she is a product person. On the other hand, if your are in company of a "number boss", while you are a product person, you will forever be jeered about how you need to show her the numbers. So the advise, find yourself who you are, and try and learn the other aspect of the world !! You will, of course, find bosses who are good at none of the two genres. In that case, curse yourself, think of your family and keep working !! Sorry, just joking...find some other pasture:)

So there are some ramblings just to get started with this blog after a long...long...long time, will try and keep writing. Signing off for now.