University of Sunderland graduate, Caitlyn McAdam, returned to give Fashion Journalism students an insight into her life working at huge fashion retailer, Matalan.
Caitlyn meeting the Fashion Journalism students at their conference
Caitlyn graduated with a first class honours degree at the height of the Covid pandemic after creating her Christmas themed magazine, Noelle. She then spent a year working in the media hub as an intern, before bagging a job in Matalan as a Social Media Executive in London.
When reflecting on her Fashion Journalism background she said: “It covers a lot, you could be a journalist or a stylist or do social media, that’s what i loved, there’s not a set route you have to go down which was really nice.”
She gave current students lots of advice when it came to standing out to potential employers, her main point was to just do as much as you can.
“Put your name forward no matter how big or how small, you might have to do stuff for free but it’s so important to get as much experience as you can. Do everything you can while your at uni and do a lot of things outside of uni as well, like I set up my blog which just showed I was keen and showed what I was capable of doing.”
Whilst at university, Caitlyn’s blog really took off and gave her some great opportunities that have helped her to this day, she said: “Even going to PR events that I was invited to and creating content through that, it’s kind of what I do in my job now so I think that massively helped.”
Caitlyn and Liz (Fashion Journalism Programme Leader)
Although Caitlyn’s success seems smooth sailing, there were a few challenges, working on a magazine during a pandemic and organising photoshoots via FaceTime are just a couple of the obstacles she took in her stride. Another struggle she had to navigate was imposter syndrome.
She said: “I’ve got quite big imposter syndrome , I sometimes think things aren’t good enough and I do put quite a lot of pressure on myself, every since I was younger, I would stress quite a lot but sometimes it’s not a bad thing it just shows how much you care and that’s the same in my job role because I care about the content we put out and I want it to be great, especially when you’ve worked so hard on something.”
Her advice to students that suffer with imposter syndrome was: “Really just believing in yourself and thinking you can do it, you’re going to make mistakes along the way and you’ll have slip ups but you’ll learn from that and any experience is good experience.”
Now, Caitlyn juggles lots of tasks at work that require confidence, from racing through the streets of London sporting a Black Friday sale A-board to channeling her inner Mr. Motivator while working out with Matalan’s homewear collection. She said: “I have got that mindset to just get on with it and it is great fun.” Her top tip to anyone struggling with confidence was “I would say just not caring, kind of just think you are living the dream and enjoying yourself.”
Behind the scenes of Matalan’s Black Friday social media posts
While at Matalan, Caitlyn has had huge success on her social media campaigns as well as smaller videos that her and her team produce. Their “Mat and Alan” video gained almost six million views. Caitlyn said: “We loved Mat and Alan, because it just put us on the map and in the conversations with other brands in the comments.”
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Another of her favourite moments at Matalan was her recent trip to Cape Town in South Africa for a social media shoot. She couldn’t reveal much yet but she did say : “The experience was great because that was such a big moment for me in my career, It was such a good opportunity to go and I felt like I really had to show myself and show what I can do.”
Caitlyn plans to stay working at Matalan for a while, she said: “I’m learning all the time while i’m there so I still think i need a lot more to get under my belt. I love my team and the girls I work with. It’s just fun all of the time, no two days are the same. It is hard work but we just have a lot of fun with it and I think that’s what I enjoy.”
For more advice from Caitlyn about how to maximise your University experience and break into the fashion world see our article here.
