How to Land Your Dream Internship with Tatum Snelling

Tatum Snelling is a current junior at Auburn University studying Apparel Merchandising Design, and Production Management with a double minor in Business and Communications. During her sophomore year, Tatum landed her dream internship at Urban Outfitters in the women’s apparel buying department before it was interrupted due to the coronavirus pandemic. I recently interviewed Tatum, and became inspired by her for many reasons. To any student who will be applying to internships and jobs soon, which is probably many of you reading this, you will find it inspiring as well. Tatum spoke about learning to trust her instincts and having faith in her most authentic self. Fear of competition or not being qualified enough are self-inflicted restrictions that hold so many of us back. Shining through and standing out from the competition is simpler than you think. Research and interview preparation is important of course, but a positive outlook and being true to who you are will take you far. In this interview I discussed with Tatum how she landed this highly coveted internship at such a young age, the hiring process at URBN inc., and the impacts of COVID-19. I am excited to share this conversation to highlight a peer in my program, and I hope others find her experience as enlightening as I did.

S: Do you mind starting off by telling me a little bit about yourself and your career journey thus far?

T: I started to get involved with retail back in High School, and then coming to college knowing I wanted to major in apparel merchandising, I continued to get involved. I joined AMDA and got a job in downtown Auburn at Fabrik. I started styling people there and then became a sales associate at a store in my hometown. I also worked at the Atlanta market and sold wholesale there. Together, those experiences lead me to get involved with the National Retail Federation (NRF) and attend the annual show in New York City. That is what inspired me to apply for internships, like the one at Urban Outfitters. After my summer internship got cancelled, I continued to work at Fabrik and completed the retail summer experience, which was my internship alternative.

S: Considering that the internship you were planning to complete this summer was in the women’s apparel buying department, did you always know you wanted to go into buying with your apparel degree? What made you think it was a good fit for you?

T: It simply worked out that way… I think most apparel merchandising students look at buying and focus on that before considering other opportunities like product development or planning and allocations. There is so much more that you can do with it. When I was looking on the URBN website and viewing the internship opportunities, one of the first positions I saw was the apparel buying category. They did have other options like home and accessories, but I figured that apparel was most related to my major. Throughout the process, I really learned what buying actually is. It is a lot of analytical stuff, excel, fast paced… I am open to all of the cross-functional positions that apparel merchandising comes with, but because I am very analytical combined with the creativity aspect, I really liked the idea of buying.

Below is an example of one of Tatum’s creative mood boards she submitted with her Urban application:

S: Internships are a great way to see what you do and don’t like in a future career and company. URBN hosts an intern day in the winter for their applicants; as an interviewee, what was that experience like for you?

T: It was so scary! I was so young and doing so much preparation for it. The recruiter I was working with sent me some common interview questions ahead of time. I researched a lot about competitors, Urban Outfitter’s specific assortment, and who their customer is. I worked with a lot of my mentors for interview prep. Before the interview I drove to Tallahassee, which is about an hour and a half away from my hometown, and got to pick out my interview outfit entirely sourced from Urban Outfitters. I flew to Philadelphia and actually got a rash from neck to toe the night before my interview. That was just a minor set back. When I got to Philadelphia and Ubered to the Navy Yard, we got to do a tour of the Home Office first before two thirty minute interviews with different senior buyers. The Home Office was beautiful- it was like a dream. They had food for us, I met a lot of cool people from all over the nation, it was a great time. I did the interviews and channeled my inner confidence and just went with it.

S: Was it intimidating seeing all of the other intern applicants?

T: Oh my gosh.. so intimidating. Most of them were rising seniors, current seniors, or graduate students, so I was the youngest person there which made it very intimidating. People had these big portfolios and were talking about their previous internships in New York City. I just went into it with a mindset that this is a great experience anyways- I’m here to learn, and there is always next year. I wasn’t putting any expectations on it and just had fun. I even ended up making new friends in the waiting room!

S: Obviously you stood out amongst all those applicants to have been offered the internship position with the company. What advice would you give to people looking to stand out when applying to their dream jobs?

T: You have to be authentic when you’re interviewing. Let your unique personality shine through, because it’s really easy for people to get lost in the process when they’re so focused on projection and saying the right things. I think recruiters, or whoever is interviewing you, would rather hear your authentic experience rather than trying to put it through rose colored glasses. Also, this is most likely common sense, but research the company. It is key to understand what they are looking for in the position you are specifically applying for and the values of the company.

“Let your unique personality shine through, because it’s really easy for people to get lost in the process when they’re so focused on projection and saying the right things.” - Tatum Snelling

S: I know that your internship got disrupted due to the outbreak of coronavirus; what was your virtual replacement experience like and what has been the most valuable thing you’ve taken away from it?

T: URBN inc, partnered with the NRF to give us a supplementary program called the Retail Industry Summer Experience (RISE). Basically what it is is webinars that you can watch weekly. I tune in to about 2 or 3 a week based on topics of interest, and they’re really cool. They’ve been about professional development, sustainability, supply chain… and really all topics that relate to the retail industry. It’s been really valuable for me and probably the closest to hands-on learning as you can get right now. However, it’s definitely not the same thing as an internship because you don’t get that direct decision-making as you would in person. There is a Q&A portion of the summer experience, but over 70 people are tuning in, so you miss that face-to-face interactive component. It has been more about taking notes and absorbing the information, so I will definitely be applying to internships for summer 2021. That being said, through RISE I have gotten to learn about more areas of interest going back to the cross functional positions in the industry. I have also learned a lot more about other companies, because other brands like Levi’s and American Eagle Outfitters also partnered to create this program. The entirety of my sophomore year going through this process, I was very URBN focused. I applied in September, had my first video interview in October, moved on to the next round in November, and went to the final interview day in December. It was very URBN, URBN, URBN!, whereas this has given me a comprehensive scope of other retailers that also have internship programs.

S: After everything you have learned and all the changes that have occurred these past few months, have your goals changed? Where do you see yourself next?

T: I don’t know if my goals have necessarily changed, but I have definitely learned how to pivot and adapt and move forward with challenges. It was all a great lesson for the future. I would love to try for the URBN internship again next summer because it was never promised to you that you’d get that. I just think it's having that psychological flexibility to learn as much as I can in the meantime and be a fearless networker. And, it’s hard to say where you see yourself next because you just don’t know. Again, I think it’s important to remain flexible and accept opportunities that might seem scary or intimidating. It’s beneficial to strive to get the most out of different retail experiences, which makes you a better employee in the long run.

Below is an image of Tatum on the day of her Interview in Philadelphia: