TMFD Alumni Andi Curtis
David Merriman
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03/15/2017
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TMFD Alumni Interview
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- [00:00:15.796]Well, I'm Andi Curtis.
- [00:00:17.787]I graduated from the, well at the time
- [00:00:22.053]it was TCD, Textiles, Clothing and Design department
- [00:00:25.726]with a Master's in Textile Science in 1997.
- [00:00:30.683]I got a job at Cabela's right out of college.
- [00:00:34.137]My current position in the industry
- [00:00:39.680]is called a tariff classification manager.
- [00:00:43.461]What I actually do is classify a product
- [00:00:47.685]to the U.S. harmonized tariff for import into the U.S.
- [00:00:53.790]I've been in this current position for almost four years
- [00:00:58.197]but I've been with Cabela's for 19.
- [00:01:01.183]One of my most valuable experiences was
- [00:01:05.202]getting to work with the textile testing lab.
- [00:01:11.504]I had classes and at the time,
- [00:01:15.328]UNL commercialized textile testing
- [00:01:19.829]and several retailers took advantage of that
- [00:01:22.098]and so I was able to really get a feel for
- [00:01:25.528]fabric performance standards, including fading,
- [00:01:30.725]sun protection, shrinkage, and the various strength tests.
- [00:01:37.877]So, that was really valuable and it helped me decide
- [00:01:42.387]where my career started in quality assurance
- [00:01:49.362]and that knowledge has still influenced
- [00:01:52.648]my career to this day.
- [00:01:54.891]The other thing that was most valuable to me
- [00:01:59.765]was learning about care labeling and garment labeling
- [00:02:03.281]guidelines from the Federal Trade Commission.
- [00:02:08.226]To this day, I am about the only person in my company
- [00:02:12.843]who's really an expert on that.
- [00:02:15.509]So, it's again, very valuable knowledge.
- [00:02:18.856]That's a tough one because it is changing.
- [00:02:21.208]It's hard to gauge what the future is going to look like.
- [00:02:27.435]But really, one of the biggest things is
- [00:02:33.352]proficiency in Excel and spreadsheets
- [00:02:37.445]because that translates throughout business
- [00:02:40.517]but it's a very key program that all of the apparel industry
- [00:02:47.211]uses to do various reportings, metrics, things like that.
- [00:02:58.661]Also, communicating well, ability to,
- [00:03:02.370]I think as we get more advanced in social media,
- [00:03:09.941]I think people are losing the written communication skills
- [00:03:14.522]that were previously important.
- [00:03:17.931]So, I think students should still try to cultivate
- [00:03:21.989]that skill as well.
- [00:03:25.096]And spoken communication, too,
- [00:03:26.896]being able to get up in front of a group of people
- [00:03:29.381]and talk about what you know.
- [00:03:31.384]It's, if you're comfortable with the subject matter,
- [00:03:35.080]it really is not that difficult.
- [00:03:39.027]Just how many different positions exist
- [00:03:43.923]in the apparel industry.
- [00:03:45.858]There are so many supporting roles.
- [00:03:47.285]It's not just about design and merchandising.
- [00:03:52.791]There's people who do sourcing.
- [00:03:54.327]There's people who deal with inventory and planning
- [00:03:58.646]and we even have a group that deals with
- [00:04:01.768]calendar management, to make sure that the
- [00:04:04.661]POs are written on time, to keep track of lead times.
- [00:04:12.485]You have to be able to understand what
- [00:04:15.782]factory's capacities are
- [00:04:17.885]and how that works for your product.
- [00:04:21.122]And then, my current role, in the imports
- [00:04:25.889]and harmonized tariff aspect, everything that we make
- [00:04:31.528]in a different country has to have a harmonized tariff
- [00:04:34.050]assigned to it to be imported in the U.S.
- [00:04:39.638]And I've taken my knowledge of the
- [00:04:40.959]product development process and I'm able to translate that
- [00:04:47.921]into tools for the current product development group
- [00:04:52.507]to help them achieve lower duty rates whenever possible.
- [00:04:56.837]So, I really wish I had known about some of these
- [00:04:59.707]different aspects when I was still a student
- [00:05:02.452]because then I maybe could've,
- [00:05:07.794]not that any of my choices were bad,
- [00:05:09.499]but I could've maybe made some different choices
- [00:05:13.877]and been more, taken more charge of my own career.
- [00:05:22.047]And, which, that leads me to another point,
- [00:05:27.077]that students have to, you have to be your own advocates.
- [00:05:33.653]I really kind of waited for years for someone to
- [00:05:37.483]take me under their wing and really help me advance
- [00:05:39.992]but that might not happen.
- [00:05:42.030]Some people do get lucky and that happens
- [00:05:44.694]but it might not happen for everyone.
- [00:05:46.912]So, you have to be an advocate for yourself.
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