From student to engineer

By Teresa Mouro Pinto and Yara Neves

Yara Neves and Teresa Pinto are Junior Product Designers at FARFETCH and guess what they have in common with José Neves? The love for fashion! They accepted the challenge of contributing to the shaping of the luxury industry.

As part of the first remote Plug-In Programme, their FARFETCH journey is similar yet unique. They will share their expectations, challenges and motivations as interns, covering how they felt challenged as designers and motivated as human beings to grow within the FARFETCH culture.

How FARFETCH challenged me every day and provided opportunities for personal growth

Hi! My name is Yara, I’m a Junior Product Designer from the UK Platform Creative team and proudly, the first member that’s based in the Lisbon offices. Let me tell you about my Plug-In experience at FARFETCH!

Being a FARFETCH intern: fear vs reality

One of my fears as a trainee was exactly that, just training and never actually having the opportunity to add real value to the team. Maybe I’ve watched too many TV series, but I always had this image that as an intern, you’d spend a lot of time beside the copy machine or making coffee (and I don’t even know how to make coffee… It’s bitter and makes me shrivel when I smell it, just a no no). In summary, I wouldn’t have the chance to contribute to the team and the little I could do (coffee) I’d do poorly. I won’t lie, that made me feel nervous.

But to my surprise, my first task didn’t involve deciding how many pages to print, my manager at the time challenged me to help her create a workshop for designers within the context of the FARFETCH rebranding. Every day we would meet and brainstorm ideas. The tasks went from doing research to coming up with concepts that would help us create an effective and fun workshop.

The second project I was involved with was the all-time fashion brand reference, CHANEL. The challenge was to enhance the current mirror experience in ways that would allow the fashion stylist to help the customers better curate their looks and elevate the luxurious shopping experience. I was very excited about collaborating with this brand, so far my contact with Chanel were the non-stop rolling TV perfume ads near Christmas.

I was even surprised in a meeting when I heard the French accent… I know, I know… duuuh! But it just gave me a reality check “Ok this is real.. I’m actually collaborating with Chanel, I’m working in the fashion industry!”

I had the chance to do research, work on the product usability and create wireframes.

Having the whole cake: professional and personal growth

Growth and learning are things that I cherish deeply and that FARFETCH allows their community to explore deeper. While doing the internship, I’ve completed 3 Udemy courses: from copywriting, to productivity and even something not work related, interior design decoration! Since we’re working remotely, I figured I should at least level up my background when we turn the cameras on for meetings.

Waking up in the morning, while commuting on my way to work — from my bed to my desk — I felt motivated and challenged because the internship wasn’t boring, I had the chance to be exposed to different projects and even to learn new things unrelated to work. This dynamic and diversity that FARFETCH offers, plus not having tasks that involve coffee beans, is something that I’ll be forever grateful for and strongly recommend for others to experience.

How FARFETCH taught me to push myself to be the best product designer I can be, without compromising my well-being.

Hey! My name is Teresa and I am a former Fashion designer, and now a Junior Product Designer in the business operations platform team. Having just finished the Plug-In programme, I will tell you about the highlights of those 6 months.

Joining FARFETCH: Business and values

Due to my fashion background, I was thrilled to start working in a company that I have been following for years. Yet I was still surprised to see how trailblazing the business is. All teams are focused on the future, and colleagues push each other to exceed. While being a very demanding company, FARFETCH still recognizes the great work from its employees and cares for their well-being. It is very open to improvement, promoting regular conversations on topics such as inclusivity and equality. I was glad to see that its values are not just for show, but are present in day-to-day work.

Investing in myself: Fulfillment and well-being

Throughout my internship, I particularly felt the values Be brilliant and Be human. With this internship, I learned how important it is to feel well and fulfilled to be the most motivated and effective self.

My internship was not focused only on finishing the required tasks, but I also defined goals for myself and was able to explore specific areas that I was interested in or wanted to develop my skills in.

Although this was my first experience as a Product designer, no one ever made me feel that my perspective was not as valid as everyone else’s. I was always empowered to take space on my team. I was assigned my own projects and had support throughout them.

Even though we were working remotely, I always felt empathy and support from my team. I had great guidance from my mentor, who helped me find my rhythm and create methods, without ever imposing any specific ways of working. I also had my buddy (a Plug-In alumni) that was constantly reassuring me that feeling overwhelmed and insecure was part of the process.

Working remotely was something that I had not been fond of, however, I believe it was very well handled and it is a great starting point when your team is across different offices. By meeting everyone remotely, there is less differentiation between the colleagues from my office and the ones from other offices.

I was not sure the Plug-In programme was going to live up to the hype, but actually, it exceeded my expectations (and I am gladly perpetuating the hype). You are offered the tools and safe space to learn, and I am pleased I started my career as a Plug-In.