Hi, I am Oliwia Przybyslawska, currently a second-year Communication Science student at the University of Amsterdam.
From February to July 2024, I had the opportunity to intern as an Operation Marketing Intern at Filling Pieces, an Amsterdam-based luxury fashion and footwear brand founded in 2009 by designer Guillaume Philibert.
The reason I decided to study Communication Science was to pursue a career in marketing, so I was excited to take this internship opportunity to experience what it would be like to work in marketing.
Each day at Filling Pieces was unique, revolving around various tasks aligned with ongoing marketing projects. My typical day involved managing PR and social media activities.
I would oversee our press email, managing inquiries from other brands and influencers regarding potential collaborations. This was the task I usually started my day with. It was my responsibility to thoroughly research these entities, assessing their alignment with our values and aesthetic to determine the potential benefits of collaboration before presenting proposals to my supervisors. I found this to be pretty exciting as we would often get requests for high profile influencer/celebrities or even for big TV productions so I felt honored being part of these projects.
Additionally, as part of our PR initiatives at Filling Pieces, we lent out a collection of items to influencers for events or projects. My role involved coordinating with influencers who usually came in on a weekly basis, ensuring a positive experience when they visited our headquarters to view the collection or return items. I also maintained records of items entering and leaving our office, ensuring timely returns.
Another regular task related to social media was conducting research on how we could improve our Twitter presence. This was done by analyzing competitors’ performance and trends. I also posted our visual assets on Pinterest using SEO integration to optimize our reach and engagement with the posts.
During the intense weeks leading up to the releases of our new collections, many photo shoots had to be organized, including e-commerce, lookbook, and campaign shoots. During this period, I was mostly occupied with tasks such as model scouting, organizing studios, planning props, and contributing to visual concepts. This period was often pretty stressful as we often encountered many issues such as production of the collection being delayed which meant we had to postpone shoots or last minute cancellations of models.
I thoroughly enjoyed my experience working as an intern at Filling Pieces. Not only did it give me insight into what it’s like to work in marketing, but also into the fashion industry as a whole. The fashion industry is dynamic and can be stressful at times; however, it is also very exciting and ever-changing, which I appreciated. Additionally, working in a company whose values align with mine, and with people who were very welcoming and supportive, made the experience that much better.