Behind the Seams with summer intern Stephanie Flint

Hi! I'm Stephanie, a senior at Butler University and the Human Resources intern in the Fort Wayne office. As long as I can remember, I have enjoyed collecting Vera Bradley, and I am extremely excited about this summer. Check back to follow what's happening behind the seams at Vera Bradley!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Vera Bradley 101

For the last three days, the other interns and I have been busy with New Hire Orientation, hosted each month by our Training Department. We met members of the various departments and visited the four Fort Wayne buildings. I never thought I would say that I loved touring a factory or that I enjoyed a presentation about IT, but this week I definitely did.

We started the week off at our Industrial Road office, where departments like Finance, Customer Service, and Direct and Indirect Sales are located. In addition to the tour and presentations, we also had the opportunity to observe some of the Customer Service representatives, whose product knowledge and dedication to the brand is so inspiring!


Industrial Road

Our next stop was Adams Center Road (ACR), where manufacturing takes place. We watched the team there quilt fabric, cut pieces for the bags, and sew and assemble the bags, which completely amazed me. Each of the bags coming from ACR is sewn by hand. Talk about talent.

It was a dream come true for me to see the huge bolts of fabric in all of my favorite colors. My mind was racing with ideas for things I could craft and make with them; the options are endless!

Next up, we traveled to Production Road, where I spend most of my time. Even though I am somewhat familiar with the departments here (Product Development, the Foundation, Marketing, and Visual Merchandising), I loved getting a more in depth look at what they do from the people who know best. The highlight by far was touring Product Development, where the magic happens. Thinking about how each pattern, bag, and collection is created from scratch in this building, where I work every day, reminds me that I truly hit the internship jackpot.

Production Road

Last but certainly not least, we visited Stonebridge, the distribution facility. This is where they store product, fill online orders and distribute merchandise to retailers. All of their systems are so efficient, and seeing how dedicated the company is to quality control and customer experience really reinforces the eight core values, and how they're applied each and every day.

Stonebridge

Unfortunately, there is one location that we did not get to visit ... Vera Bradley's New York office. While I'm sure they would love to take every new hire to The Big Apple to see their product development office, it just isn't possible. But hey, a girl can dream, right?

The view from the New York office - 5th Avenue and Central Park!

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