Golden Rules: Meadowmere Lane

Today Intern Memo sits down with Chondita Chatterjee, founder of Meadowmere Lane of Southhampton, a fashion firm that sells uniquely functional, but very a-la-mode handbags for women. She and her partner, Andrea Nadosy, met during their freshman year at Harvard and became best friends. Like many freshmen, they stayed up late into the night doing things like having conversations and suddenly an idea was birthed. Years later, while Chondita was working as a management consultant, she spent her spare time turning the vision into a reality and that reality is a collection of some pretty sick handbags...

Intern Memo: As a woman who has had success in the corporate world and as an entrepreneur, what is your advice for how an intern can really stand out--no matter his or her field?

Chondita: Energy and enthusiasm are critical. When someone hires you as an intern, they are not expecting you to know the ins and outs of the industry or your role, but they are expecting you to be the freshest, most enthusiastic face on the block. You're too new to be jaded and complaining at the office cooler - so keep that to a minimum! I have heard many interns complain about having idle time, not enough interesting things to do. This idle time is a great opportunity to build important relationships. Walk around the office and ask your superiors if they need help with any projects. Everyone has a "lower priority but still important" list of to dos that they never get around to. They will be thrilled to have your help! Whatever you do, don't obsessively refresh your Facebook newsfeed all day. You are in the office, you may as well do something enriching, so read industry related articles, take that accounting tutorial that is on the server, etc. It is very impressive when an intern tries to be informed about pertinent industry news and events. Some people like scanning the Wall Street Journal or other papers in the morning. I found creating Google News Alerts to be really powerful. Every morning, I would get 5-10 articles about my client. As a management consultant, this was immensely helpful. It is a low effort way to look really on top of your game.

Intern Memo: How can an intern maintain the balance of professionalism and style (other than toting a Meadowmere Lane bag of course)?

Chondita: Totally depends on your industry. If you are lucky enough to intern in a flexible industry, you will be able to use a lot of your normal school clothes to work. Generally however, despite more relaxed summer dress policies, most offices in NY are not jeans friendly. Rule of thumb is that you should be more formal than your colleagues, at least till you are full time. You look like a kid (to them anyway) and you don't want to reinforce that image by walking in with your flamingo print flip flops. I think the way to play it safe is to look at the most formal colleague who is at your targeted level, and use them as a guide post. Also, if you are in a client intensive industry, always keep a blazer at the office in case you ever get pulled into a meeting.

Intern Memo: What was your favorite internship? What did you do?

Chondita: My internships were most helpful because they showed me what I didn't want to do. I had been really gung ho about going into banking, and was psyched when I got my "dream internship" the summer before my senior year. I quickly realized that it was not for me and was able to make smarter choices during recruiting the next fall, applying for consulting jobs. That said, I think my favorite internship was my first one, which I got coming out of high school (a little eager, I know). There are a few things that made a major difference. The first was having an awesome supportive boss. She was a super busy, high powered Director at this bank, but she decided to make herself my mentor. This was well before I realized how critical cultivating mentors were. I had a project for the summer and there was a lot of satisfaction in seeing it finished at the end of my internship. They were still using my report as a reference when I went back to visit a year later, and that was really gratifying.

Intern Memo: You started Meadowmere Lane while working at another job, what are your recommendations for pursuing more than one career at a time?

Chondita: Doing two careers at once is an exercise in multi-tasking. A critical factor is having the support and understanding of people around you. The consulting firm I worked for has a really flexible leave of absence program, so I started Meadowmere during 6 months away from my job, and then continued to run it while working. It was definitely a challenge and one I could not have done without the help of my business partner, whom I met as a freshman at college. She was able to pick-up the slack when I was caught up with my "day job," working for two months in rural Germany for example. Meanwhile, all my consulting colleagues knew I had a business on the side. I always let them know that our client was my priority, but they were flexible about letting me run out to FedEx an order in the middle of the day or what have you. The thing you should remember, particularly early in your career, is that you are totally the master of your own universe. You have every right to keep your options open, whether that means looking into other jobs, starting something on your own, helping friends with projects, etc. Some jobs simply don't have time flexibility for that sort of thing, in which case, you will probably need get out of one thing to start another. Also, to anyone in finance, most banks have very strict rules around outside investment, so just be mindful of that.

Intern Memo: How should an intern in NYC spend his or her free time?

Chondita: Happy hour! :-)

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So that's what happens when fashion meets entrepreneurship... A formidably articulate and cool person. Enjoy the weekend, and please let us know if we're not covering your industry or your concerns. We'd be glad to see what we can do.

And one more thing, if you feel like the grass would be greener at another internship, chances are the it probably is! Check out this video of EA interns if you need proof. It's dorky but enrapturing, just like gaming.

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