This is a guest post by Julia Lucia for Student Stories.
5:45am –Wake up and roll out of bed. I like to have time to fully wake up, get ready, and eat breakfast; I hate the feeling of being chaotically rushed in the morning. Then I go through my usual primping regimen: the most detailed part being my make-up routine, which has been perfected over the past 8 years. I consider myself to be somewhat of a connoisseur of mascara, an eyelash architect, if you will.
7:45am –My train leaves for Penn Station. I have 3 playlists for my commute that I go between, depending on my mood: 1. A mix of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday for when I’m feeling romantic, which is more often than not. 2. Norah Jones, for when I’m feeling nostalgic. 3. A variety of pop music: Mumford & Sons, Lorde, The Lumineers, which basically covers all of my other moods.
9:00 am – Make a stop by one of Stone & Strand’s designers’ studios to pick up the jewelry for the day.
9:30 am – Grab my second cup of coffee at my favorite corner café in SoHo, Gasoline Alley, and go directly to the office to start the work day.
10:00 am – I start each day by spending 45 minutes on Stone & Strand’s Pinterest; pinning everything from new products on our website to fun and inspiring photos.
11:00 am – I begin each weekly photo shoot by setting up all of the jewelry that will be shot for the day. We start with on body photos and I’m proud to say I can officially add “hand model” to my resume. Complimentary weekly manicures have become a standard, a definite perk that I was not expecting; my go to color being Essie’s “Ballet Slippers.”
1:00 pm – We flex our creative muscle and take fun Instagram shots for the Stone & Strand account; playing with props, textures, themes, etc. We try to find inspiration in anything, from sassy colored lipstick tubes to old wooden doors on the streets of SoHo.
2:00 pm – Mid-day I’ll return to my desk to work on our current online marketing campaigns. This could range from re-designing a product add for a Facebook campaign to completing a marketing analysis of a Retargeting campaign.
3:00 pm –Head with the team to a meeting with a potential new designer to check out his/her collection. It’s amazing how quickly one gets used to trying on $10,000 rings or $15,000 bracelets. At any given moment I could have a hand full of Crow’s Nest Feather Rings on totaling over $50,000.
5:30pm – I leave the office to drop off the daily orders at USPS/FedEx/UPS and head uptown to attend a networking event. I’ll usually stop to grab a slice or two of pizza for dinner, after all it is NYC.
6:00 pm – While walking to the train, I make my daily “How was your day” phone call to my boyfriend, whom is 6 hours away in Pharmacy School.
7:00 pm – The networking event starts and I settle in sipping on a glass of complimentary wine and nibbling on some fruit and cheese. I have gotten to rub elbows with the Global Creative Director of Revlon Cosmetics, the co-founder of the marketing website Contently and one of the founders of EasyBib, just to name a few.
9:00 pm – After the event wraps up I head to Penn Station to catch my train home. I normally very happily get a cup of coffee from Dunkin Donuts; a medium French Vanilla with skim milk – in case you were wondering. If I’m feeling wild, sometimes I switch to Hazelnut.
About the Author:
My name is Julia Lucia. I am a senior Italian Literature and Language Arts Major at Binghamton University, State University of New York; however, all of my experiential education has been in the fields of marketing and business development. Currently I am the Marketing Intern at Stone & Strand, the world’s leading online fine jewelry destination, based in NYC. Upon graduation in May, I hope to pursue a career in social media and communications. My ultimate career goal is to combine both my traditional education in Italian Literature and Language and my experiential education in marketing.
