An Essential: Company Culture
I want to be valued at my future company and I want to feel that I am actually contributing to the company. I want opportunities to grow at my future company. I want something I can work up to and earn. The head of production, Shirley, once started at Araks as an intern. She has now been at the company for over 13 years. I want to be a Shirley.
Feeling like I belong at my workplace is really important to me. I like being surrounded by like minded and driven people but by no means do I mean a lack of diversity. At Araks, there are people from so many different backgrounds with their own stories. There is an intern who comes from Philladephia, who wakes up at 5 am everyone morning. Another intern comes from upstate New York everyday. An intern, whose first day was yesterday, is all the way from California. And then there are interns who grew up in Manhattan like me, whom I have mutual friends with. At the end of the day we are all there to learn and grow as strong females.
Along those same lines, everyone who works at Araks is a female. In some ways I feel empowered by that. Yes, we are all women and yes we can run a company all by ourselves. In addition, I do believe I got lucky with this internship. I love everyone I work with and that can be rare sometimes. This does feed into the company culture in that everyone is super chill and fun. I love that I can share some laughs even when I’m just uploading Instagram posts. I love that we can also blast Drake while doing our work independently. Lastly I love how we are all part of a team. While interviewing with Shirley, she said that everyone does everything at the company and that is really the way it is.
As for the brand itself, I admire that Araks truly cares about her customers. Often times, “is this on brand?” is asked because it is important to stay true to ourselves. We have customers who love the brand and the products and we value that. But at the end of the day, all companies are trying to make as much money as they can. The difference at Araks is that we believe in the lingerie and swim we sell and that makes all the difference. I can’t begin to explain how many times I have heard “I love this” in the office. It so easy to promote products I believe in so much. Also, it is the best feeling in the world when a new collection is released and I know that all of us made it happen. There is a vision and it is brought to life.