Finance Major Interns in Fashion Industry

While many finance majors choose a path in investments, wealth management or banking, Dominique Brillantes ’15 found fashion.

An international business/finance major with a French minor, Brillantes spent this summer at a corporate internship at Nordstrom’s headquarters in Seattle as a financial planning intern, working with numbers but surrounding himself with the products and influencing the creative process.

“I believe the hiring panel selected me because they wanted a finance major who loved fashion,” he said. “You have to think like the customer and understand the market — know what is happening in the fashion world with trends, colors, competition, silhouettes, fabrics — to truly understand what you’re analyzing.”

Brillantes, who was born in Calgary, Canada, but who lives in Tampa, said his role as a financial planning intern was to live out the Nordstrom philosophy to “add color behind the numbers.”

“Numbers and data can be dry to some people and working alongside the creative teams designing the products, you need to understand how to effectively communicate the information to these individuals,” he said. “We are their support to give them the best recommendations throughout the entire process from trend concepts to analyzing sales performance.”

While most of the topics covered in Brillantes’ UT business classes were focused on the finance industry as a whole, everything about this internship was learning about retail finance.

“The concepts and theories are very new to me,” he said. “However, just the skill set and the thought process of always questioning why and what does this number mean is the biggest take away from those classes.”

Brillantes would start his days in downtown Seattle by ascending to the 10th floor above Store 1. His overall responsibility was to impact the creative decisions of the Nordstrom Product Group based on analysis of current and past products. He also forecasted sales for the belt and hosiery departments at the start of each month and summarized end month performance against Nordstrom private versus brand labels.

“As I get a taste of the retail industry I can really see where I want to go in the future within this industry,” said Brillantes, who was inspired by the many upper level employees he met who started out on the sales floor.

He said the best piece of advice he has received was to focus on his current job and do it his best, being careful not to get too carried away in what is to come.

“I always like to think ahead and plan for everything. However, if you limit yourself to constantly focusing on what’s next, you might not see an opportunity or not give it your all, because you are too worried about the future,” Brillantes said.

In his future though, Brillantes wants to continue to utilize his finance degree within the fashion industry.

“I want to be an influencer and a game changer within the industry,” Brillantes said, “so why not work for a company that also aspires for the same.”