Author: scott_matton

Today was sadly our last day as a family at Vector Textiles which left a somber mood over all of us. We came into work and got both of the PowerPoint’s we were working on finished early. This allowed us to go to the Transfer Co food hall in downtown Raleigh for lunch. We met a fellow work experience member there as she had a night shift at a hospital. When we came back we tidied up the final PowerPoint’s and prepared to present them by reserving a conference room to talk to Mr. Self and show him our findings. He was more than satisfied with the work we had done and we were happy to have worked for him. It was a good two weeks. 🙂

What’s this? Me!

 

Will and I with a background of outer Raleigh behind us.

Making a call to Mr. Self to let him know we were ready to present.

Today was mostly a continuation of yesterday and its work. As soon as we got to work we picked back up where we had left off by creating a PowerPoint that Mr. Self would be able to use for marketing of Vector Textiles and the use cases for its different products. Soon enough, lunch came and we went back out to Cook Out where we went last Tuesday. After lunch we tidied up the PowerPoint to make sure it was in good form as Mr. Self was coming to look at it at 3 o’clock. We then got his feedback on the presentation and will get it in final form tomorrow.

Will and I showing off our PowerPoint as we were ready for Mr. Self. 

A group photo of the group after a tiring day of work on the PowerPoint.

Mr. Self was a little late for us to show the PowerPoint so we tidied it up a bit more!

There were free Google stickers!

Today we started work on our final project, a PowerPoint that Mr. Self can use to exemplify the current state of the market and what the goals for the company will be. We were in the office the entire day and have worked on compiling all of our research and information into a visually engaging PowerPoint while still having all of the information needed on it. As there are multiple uses for Vector Textiles products, this may be an ordeal so we needed to get a start on the PowerPoint today. It is definitely good to have multiple people in our group so we can coordinate the creation of new slides! In addition to the PowerPoint, we have also done some extra research on harmful chemicals at Mr. Self’s request.

Team Mawan in all different moods after today’s stressful workday at HQ Raleigh.

Will and I discussing slides and making sure that the content of them is up to par for a presentation in the real world.

Today was the day of the tour at the entomology lab at NC State. We arrived at the building at 10 o’clock on the dot and first got to sit down with the professor and hear him and Mr. Self talk for a little bit. This helped a lot for my understanding of how the business works and what they are exactly trying to do. After they were done talking, a graduate student named Grayson gave us a tour of the entire building. We got to see all sorts of machinery such as two different centrifuges and water distillers. We also got to go into the breeding room for mosquitos where Grayson just stuck his arm into a box of them. We also got to see some of what they were working on but we were not allowed to take pictures and I don’t think I am able to talk about it. This trip was really exciting and helped to give me insight into more of what the professors are trying to accomplish.

Mr. Self’s dog Lyda. She is completely attached to him and he takes her everywhere!

A box of mosquitos that Grayson had previously experimented on and was keeping alive.

My workspace after lunch, we are no longer in the conference rooms!

Today was our second market research day in stores. We split into the same two groups as our second day at work. This time, Will and I got to travel to Cary for a jaunt into Bass Pro Shops. Here we were able to interview customers on what they would think about insect resistant clothing that was all organic, no chemicals involved. The most interesting person that we got to talk to and got information out of was actually one of the employees who was stocking the shelves. She said that she had a lot of personal experience with bug-related maladies as her mom had died from Lyme Disease and her daughter in law came close to death from a mosquito bite. Will and I found this to be very impactful and it gave us an idea of what the market could truly for this sort of product in the US and beyond.

Will King and I on our trip to Bass Pro Shops. One of the customers we surveyed was nice enough to get a picture of us with a taxidermy bear!

The fruit stock at HQ Raleigh had been replenished with a bundle of bananas and more apples and pears in the fruit jar!

Unfortunately, most of what we worked on today for Vector Textiles was under NDA so I cannot say much about my actual work. However, our work environment changed as another company had in our normal workspace. This led to us getting moved into a small conference room. All we had was a small table and a whiteboard to work today so we all had to cram onto the table. Today did come with some extra perks though, there was free food at lunch and we were able to get some snacks for the conference room as long as we cleaned up afterwards. At the end of the day, we had another meeting with our mentor, Mr. Self, and debriefed with him today. We talked about the things under NDA and more of the market research that we completed yesterday. One more exciting thing that occurred today was that a trip was set up to the textile engineering labs at NC State for Monday. As something that I am interested in studying, I cannot wait to see the labs and talk to the professors.

Us at the start of the day when we were relegated to the small conference room, still high in spirits though.

We put the Vector Textiles logo behind us so we could feel like we were working in an office.

Late in the afternoon working with our snacks and Adam working on market research.

Today I would like to dedicate this blog to a story about a helpful store clerk. At our work experience program today we split into two groups of two to gather field data to do market analysis. When Will King and I were at our first location, REI, we were a little nervous to start. However, one of the sales associates was very helpful and gave us plenty of insight into the clothes we were asking about. She told us things like how many washes you could get without wearing out the chemicals. This helped us greatly in our research and she gave us more insight into how many people were interested in this type of clothing. She said about 5 people per day came in and asked about this. I sadly do not know her name but Will and I are very grateful to her as she helped us greatly and we would not have gotten our report for the day done without her.

When we came into the office this morning the peaches had been restocked!

Will and I at our first location, REI, before the helpful sales associate gave us information.

Looking at the product that the sales associate showed us at REI.

Outside our last field research location, Great Outdoor Provision Company.

Today I arrived at HQ Raleigh for my first day of work experience. I showed up 20 minutes early because I did not know if I would be able to find parking. This led to me standing around while I was waiting for my group to arrive. When Mr. Self and his dog arrived, we got to our workstation in a company called Riot’s space. As our team (Mawan) got to work, we first got set up on the workspaces internet. After we were all set up, we were given a complete tour of HQ Raleigh so we would get to know the space. After the tour, we got to work. We got set up by creating a Slack for us to communicate, which is basically a workflow program so we can let each other know what we are doing. After this, we devised a plan for the week by setting goals and creating a timeline for what we need to do. After our plan was afoot, we broke off to do independent research which will continue throughout the week. I also worked on getting a survey created so that we will have an organized place to keep all of our data from market research. After this, we went to lunch at a nearby CookOut and came quickly back to work. After lunch,I researched the toxic effects that permethrin, an insect repellant, has on humans and why it may be bad for us. This took a substantial amount of time because there has not been much research done on this chemical. Through this, I got to learn a lot about the way insect repellant clothes are made and how they work.

The building where my work experience is located, HQ Raleigh.

 

Our team working diligently on market research.

The main lobby of HQ Raleigh.

A calendar showing events we were shown on our tour of HQ Raleigh.

Team Mawan getting lunch at Cook Out