Hello everyone! My name is Zuzanna Miszczak and I am a third year student of the Bachelor’s Programme of Communication Science. As one of the component of my studies, I had a chance to do an internship, after which I had to conduct a research. From February until the end of April 2021 I was an intern at Undastry, which is retail, manufacture and service company.
Host organisation
The host organisation was founded in 2014 and one of its main departments is a clothing brand called UNDA. Their products are made for water sports p
urposes, such windsurfing and surfing. Everything is produced in harmony with Mother Nature and tries to support the environment instead of destroying it. This means that every product they make contains recyclable materials. Additionally, Undastry offers wetsuit repair service, which makes them one of a few organisations to do that in Poland. As mentioned above, they strongly try to be as sustainable as possible and they have started working on a new project, which will focus on re-selling second hand wetsuits. Despite that, Undastry owns a multi-brand clothing store called Dasea People. They are selling casual wear, as well as sport equipment for surfing and skateboarding. The clothing brands that they have in their offer are highly sustainable and are from Patagonia – which makes them the biggest retailer store in northern Poland, Carhartt and Magenta.
My position and tasks
During the first part of my internship, I was responsible for the second hand wetsuits project – as mentioned above. I was planning on how the project will look like, such as creating the visualisation of the website, as well as making a document with rules applying for what kind of wetsuit can be brought to the company. Honestly, Undastry would accept any neoprene suit, even the ones fully destroyed, because they would cut it into small pieces and use it as filler for e.g. dog beddings. Additionally, I had a chance to do a packshot training, so later on I could take proper pictures of the wetsuits ready to be sold for the website.
The second part of my time at Undastry focused on working at the multi-brand clothing store. I was taught how to make orders for the upcoming season from companies that collaborate with us and how to communicate with those organisations, which want to start selling their products at the store. Additionally, I learned how to take care of the administrative part of this business, such finances and proper communication with clients, who needed my help from customer service. It is off the essence to have a good connection with them, because they are the ones, who keep the business running!
In addition to this, I was assigned to take care of the social media channels in order to promote the store and its products, and gain new followers and customers. I must admit that was an exciting part of this internship, because after doing the courses of e.g. Persuasive Communication, I had a chance to use various techniques of how to get new individuals to interact with the social media accounts and thus, with the store itself. Focusing more on social media part of the company was very useful, since my research covered this topic.
I must admit that I really enjoyed my time there, because it was not just about selling clothes. I had a chance to meet a lot of amazing people, not only employees, but I managed to get to know store’s customers better, which resulted in better opinion about the shop.
The sum up
To sum up my internship experience, I am fully aware of the fact that I enriched my knowledge by working in the field of Communication Science, but also I gained insight into how a business works. This is off the essence for me, since I am planning on having my own business one day, thus, I am glad for such an opportunity! Despite the Corona virus outbreak, I managed to work full time without any home office days, which allowed me to get the full experience. Thanks to UvA, which allowed me to do this internship, I was able to get an insight into practical part of the studies and not only theoretical part.
P.S. Below I have placed screenshots of some of the Instagram posts I managed to do fully on my own!
