I began my career with Harvey Nichols Birmingham in 2005 as a Sales Advisor on the Menswear department, and went on to spend time in the Womenswear department in order to gain a more rounded understanding of our customers and to increase my knowledge of the business.

This paid off in 2007 when I was seconded to the role of Assistant Department Manager on Menswear to cover a period of maternity leave.

I moved back to Womenswear as the Assistant Department Manager in 2010 before being promoted to the role of Retail Manager for Womenswear and Personal Shopping.

Harvey Nichols is an exciting and challenging Company to work for and opportunities are there for talented people to progress and grow within the business.

Having completed a degree in Fashion Studies after leaving school, my burning ambition at the age of 20 was to work in the world of fashion.  I loved the glitz of the catwalk and the fast pace of the ever changing trends.  I also knew I wanted to meet and work with different people every day.

When I heard that Harvey Nichols was going to open its only Scottish store in my home town in 2002, I excitedly applied and was offered the position of Sales Advisor on Menswear.  My journey had begun and I couldn’t wait!

As part of the Menswear team I was lucky enough to get lots of ‘glamorous’ opportunities, like visiting Armani’s Head Office in London for a trend presentation, and being invited to Diesel’s new season launch party at Elstree Studios. These opportunities taught me a lot about fashion, and built my confidence in speaking to large groups when delivering presentations to my colleagues to ensure I passed on the knowledge I'd acquired during my trips.  I was really keen to progress within Harvey Nichols, realising what a fantastic company it was to work for.

Soon, I was selected to take part in the store’s Junior Management Training programme.  This opened my eyes to many new aspects of the company, and sparked my interest to work in a different function altogether - Human Resources.  Being given the chance to prove myself in this department as the HR Assistant to the Edinburgh store was a big challenge for me, having never worked in an office before. The team supported and developed me and, when the next opportunity became available I was ready to take that step up. Further movement within the team opened new doors for me again, and I was promoted to Senior HR Assistant and then HR Advisor.

With the support of the Company I completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management, and whilst completing my course I was seconded to the role of HR Manager to cover my Manager's period of maternity leave.  This has been my biggest challenge to date and I embraced every minute of it, gaining some of the most valuable experience of my career.

Now, at the age of 30, I have been promoted to the position of Senior HR Advisor and work as part of the senior management team.  Harvey Nichols is well and truly in my bones; the Company has inspired and developed me beyond my expectations, and offers the same opportunities to all staff who show the same drive to succeed.  I feel very lucky to have joined such an extraordinary, forward thinking and inspiring company which allows its staff the opportunities to learn, grow and progress.  Who knows where in Harvey Nichols I might be in another 10 years!

I joined Harvey Nichols Knightsbridge in 2001, as a Display Assistant. Having always been inspired by their windows, I was very excited about working with a team of creative people in-store and learning more about the brand.  My role was developed to work between the windows and interiors which gave me an insight to all areas of display. I really enjoyed the challenge of working in a fast-pace environment, and as the business developed I was given the chance to work on the new store set-ups and window schemes for the Edinburgh and Manchester stores.

In 2003 I was offered the position of Assistant Display Manager which was a great opening for my career, especially as Head Office were in the process of changing the direction of how interiors were approached. They wanted the interior schemes to become more theatrical, to have more drama, and to coincide with the direction of the windows. My team now had the chance to create and install new ideas to areas within the store and change them seasonally. This new way of working was received well and we continue to challenge this in store today.

In 2004, I was promoted to the position of Display Manager. This gave me a chance to use my skills and to get more involved in store projects and work with the Buyers to develop destination shopping areas. This was also a great opportunity for me to expand my role and make it more commercial to suit the needs of the business.

My role then developed to encompass all visual aspects of the store and I was promoted to Visual Manager in 2010. This allowed me to extend my role more commercially and work on areas such as pop-up shops, events and visual merchandising within the store. Now we have new ways of working with the Visual Merchandising team, combining this with the visual department to create a stronger direction on the floors.

I look forward to continuing and developing with Harvey Nichols in the years to come.

I arrived in Dublin, from Barcelona, in 2008 and shortly afterwards I secured the role of Sales Advisor in Harvey Nichols, Dundrum. My degree in Advertising, P.R and Communications and my Diploma in Graphic Design helped me stand out as someone with an eye for detail and fashion!

I started as a Sales Advisor in women's fashion where I worked hard and I really enjoyed it. I found a new thing in my life, which was to make women feel attractive, confident and sexy, and my success with this resulted in me building up a regular customer base which is very rewarding. I used my knowledge of colours, shapes and my creative background in graphic design directly to assist my customers. As recognition for my customer service skills, I also got the opportunity to work in the Personal Shopping Department for a month, which was a great experience and helped me build up my skills and confidence. 

Due to my creative background and demonstrated passion for fashion, I was invited by my manager to collaborate with colleagues in a national TV programme, where Harvey Nichols worked with another Store to illustrate how important first impressions are and the role visual displays can play. We created show stopping windows and displays; this was one of the best experiences ever!

Whilst working on our fab fashion floor, I would see the Display team at work, and my heart skipped a beat... dreaming that one day I would walk with them trough our Store as part of the Display team! I used to assist them in any way possible and I was delighted when I subsequently was offered the chance to help them to prepare a window scheme. Six months later, when a short term vacancy arose, I was thrilled when my application to dual role between the Sales floor and Display departments was accepted and I spent four great months widening my professional experience.

And what happened next?! I was offered the opportunity to expand my Sales Advisor role to include visual merchandising responsibilities for the Store, which I am really enjoying. Throughout my time with Harvey Nichols, I have been recognised by winning a number of employee awards with the latest being the ‘Hip and Happenin’ Award’ at our recent Harvey’s Awards Night!

I am very thankful for my career in Harvey Nichols and I still have a lot more to give and experience. Perseverance and hard work certainly pays off!