JOB DESCRIPTION

 Sand + Fog Intern

Working for a candle company is as enjoyable as it sounds. Not only are the people you work with some of the most creative and passionate people you can imagine, but also the kind of people you aspire to become. Every day entails thinking outside the box, coming up with new solutions to existing problems, and stepping a little further out of your comfort zone. 

For starters, let's begin with a brief description of the company itself. Several years ago, three opportunistic women saw a major gap in the candle industry. Upon realizing that there were not many attractive, reasonably priced candles, these determined women decided to take a leap of faith and begin a new business venture, Sand + Fog. Starting with only a handful of scents, four colors, and four candle vessels, their mission was to provide customers with affordable candles that not only smelled good but looked good too. Today, Sand + Fog is in over six thousand stores worldwide and has over one hundred scents, sixty vessels, and thousands of lid designs. 

Being an intern at Sand + Fog means doing any task that comes your way. The job has many upsides including having a voice in the decision processes, learning new skills, and -- my favorite -- walking out of the office each day with a few new candles. Although you never know what the day might bring, the one thing you do know is that the day will not be a dull one. 

Most days at the warehouse are quiet and laid back, but of course, there are some exceptions, particularly when a buyer comes for a meeting. To get a better understanding, the typical day as an intern at Sand + Fog involves: 

• Selecting candle vessels, scents, and lids for buyers
• Handling shipments 
• Organizing 

Now that you know the basic roles, let's get into their descriptions. 

Selecting Candle Vessels, Scents, and Lids

The work of picking out candle vessels, lids, and scents for wholesalers and retailers occurs in these ways:

• Finding out what the buyer desires
• Choosing vessels, lids, and scents that best align with the season or customer's needs

Several times a month, buyers from various well-known companies such as Costco, Nordstrom Rack, Target, Homegoods, TJ Maxx, and Marshalls, travel to Sand + Fog's warehouse in Huntington Beach, California. After settling in, the buyer immediately begins discussing how many candles they are going to buy, when they will need the shipment, what month the candles are for, and what their consumer's preferences are. From there, my job was to pull candles from the shelves that I believed best aligned with the needs of the buyer and their customers. After narrowing down some vessel choices, I would then start pulling colors and scents for them to choose from. For instance, if a buyer was looking to buy candles for the summer, I would bring out beach-inspired vessels such as the wicker and cane and then provide the buyer with some summer scent options like “California Beach House” or “Clean Waves.”

Handling Shipments

In this role, the intern packs new ideas for vessels, scents, and colors and ships them to the manufacturer for production. 

• Finds new attractive and appealing vessels, colors, and scents
• Packs 
• Creates a shipping label 
• Brings packages to UPS

As an intern, I was also responsible for handling the shipments. Because Sand + Fog has had continuous growth over the past couple of years, the company is always searching for new vessels and scents to get inspiration from to send to their manufacturer. On shipping day, we would start by discussing the things we liked and disliked about the vessels and scents from our competitors. After narrowing down some of our options, I would then begin to wrap and pack the top five vessels and scents into a box, load up my car, and drop the boxes off at UPS for further shipment. While this task may seem easy compared to others, it is vital that these products make it to the manufacturer without breaking so that we do not have to reship them.

Organizing

The final role of a Sand + Fog intern involves organizing and sorting. Interns achieve this by doing these few things: 

• Organizing lid bins based on the season and lid design
• Organizing shelves based on vessel types, colors, and scents

Although organizing may not be the most enjoyable part of being an intern, it is crucial for any company's success. Because Sand + Fog has over one hundred scents, sixty vessels, and thousands of lid designs, organization is necessary throughout the warehouse to ensure easy accessibility. This job not only entails sorting lids and scents by design and season but also organizing the vessels by type and color. For instance, when organizing the Winter lids, I would start by finding and placing all the Christmas-themed lids together in one section and then sort and distribute them based on their lid design. So essentially, all the lids with gnomes on them would go into a gnome bin, all the Santa lids would go into a Santa bin, and so forth. Next, I would tackle the scents. These were the easiest to organize since all I had to do was smell each candle and then separate them according to their season. For example, I would place scents such as “Winter White” and “Cinnamon Vanilla” into the winter section and “Ocean Mist” and “Tahitian Vanilla” into the summer section. Lastly, I would finish off my organizing duty with the vessels -- which was often the most tedious and time-consuming part. I would begin this task by simply grouping all the same vessels together and then end by color-coordinating them. Overall, organizing was not my favorite task, like I said earlier, but in the end, my internship with Sand + Fog was an incredible opportunity I will not soon forget.