Day Job Interview: Alician

This is the fifth installment in the Day Job Interview Series.

If you're interested in being interviewed, please email me at teapot [at] dailygusto [dot] com.

Alician, Product Design Coordinator

1. Where do you work, and what do you do?

I am the Product Design Coordinator for a major furniture manufacturer. I basically look at fabrics and measure various parts of sofas.

2. How long have you worked there?

Almost four months. I was the buyer for our sister retail operation for five years. I left for two years to work for a furniture importer and came back to the manufacturing side in April 2004.

3. Does your job require regular hours? If so, what are they?

When I'm in the office, it's generally 8:30-6-ish. When I'm at the factory, it's usually 8-6-ish (but the first 20 minutes are spent eating yummy biscuits from the southern cafeteria…and I wonder why I'm gaining weight on this job!?!).

4. Do you like what you do? Do you respect it?

I like what I do for the most part. If I really think about it I feel horrible because all I do is help make pretty furniture when a lot of my friends are actually doing good things and helping people. But then I have to remember that I have had a love affair with fabrics for as long as I can remember, and this is probably the best thing for me. I like to think I'm helping people by making their environment pleasing.

5. What’s the best part of your job?

Trending (what most people call looking at magazines, watching TV and shopping, we call trending).

6. What’s the worst part of your job?

Corporate politics and complaining people.

7. Do you consider your job a career, or is it something you do to make money to subsidize other pursuits (or to bide your time until you can get your career job)? If not, what do you want to be when you grow up?

When I was in Junior High School, I decided I wanted to be a buyer. I got a degree in Fashion Merchandising and have been doing it in one form or another ever since. It can be quite stressful and time-consuming. When I was unemployed for 3 months earlier this year, I tried to figure out if it is really what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, and I came to the conclusion that furniture/fabrics/design is what makes me happy. Some days I feel like it's not what I want to do forever, but most days I feel pretty certain it is.

8. Caffeine: preferred source/amount per day?

I have exactly 2 cups of coffee with cream and sugar every morning. No more, no less.

9. Describe the type of people you work with. Are they similar to you (age, interests, etc.) or very different from you?

Overall, I think the people I work with are pretty different from me. Even the people who I work the most with are very diverse. There is my very creative, intelligent boss who is a couple of years older than me (who suffers from a serious case of OCD), her boss who eats very healthy as a rule but will stop at Dairy Queen for a plain vanilla ice cream cone at 8:45 am if he passes one (VP of Merchandising… also suffers from OCD), a 70+ year old millionaire who lives in a castle in Chicago, has a second home in Vale and a driver, an extremely sweet girl who *is* Charlotte from Sex and the City, and our admin who is very sweet but very wealthy and gets more mani/pedi’s than anyone I know. Oh, and the 70+ year old Chairman of the Board who just likes to hang out in our Merchandising room and chat because it's more fun than anywhere else in the office.

Most of the people my age are former sorority girls that I would have hated in college, but we get along just fine now and have some fun every now and then. The majority of my office is older, wealthy men (mostly VPs of something-or-another) who have been with the company for 20+ years, and their administrative assistants who are usually 40+ year-old women. I think there actually may be more admins than VPs.

The other group of people I work with (at least every other week) are the people who work in the factory in Elliston, VA (just outside of Roanoke). They're very different than the wealthy VP’s in the McLean office… maybe not the most educated folks but some of the sweetest people I've ever worked with (and whew, do they know a thing or two about upholstering a sofa!). Maybe they just like me because I can throw on the Roanoke accent that I've lost over the years….

10. Do you have people at work with whom you hang out socially, or do you keep work/personal life separate?

I occasionally socialize with the people my age, but they are usually too busy going to the gym to go to happy hour.

11. Do you travel for your job? If so, do you get to go anywhere interesting?

As I mentioned earlier, I'm at our factory in Elliston, VA at least every other week tweaking new products. I also go to High Point, NC at least four times a year for the fabric and furniture markets. When I worked in the retail division, I went to much more exciting places, like India, China, the Philippines, Singapore, Paris, London, but now I get High Point and Elliston. Hum…

12. What do you remember about your job interview?

My job interview was bizarre because I already knew (and had worked with previously) three out of the four people I interviewed with. Even the one person that I didn't know had heard all about me, so they really didn't know what to ask me because they already knew me. The Chairman, CEO actually said, "Well, I already know I like you, so do you have anything to ask me?" That was right after he took a cell phone call where he talked with his friend at length about golf.

Alician lives in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband and cat Simone. She loves gardening, cooking, and tattoos. All that, and she has great style.