Dodman was 13-years-old when she moved from her hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, to a place where they say “cheers” instead of “thank you” and drive on the “wrong” side of the road, London, England.
Fast-forward 15 years, Dodman is now 28, and landed her dream job working at Burberry, back in that same city that she moved to 15 years ago. However, before landing her dream job Dodman decided to come back to her home state of Alabma to study fashion at Auburn.
“Deciding to come back to America for school was hard becuase I had no idea whether I would ever be back in London again,” said Dodman. “But I had always wanted to go to Auburn for college, so I decided that this was what was best for me.”
During her time at Auburn, Dodman was always looking to be the trendiest around campus. Growing up in London, Dodman had the world at her fingertips. She started traveling at a young age, and became inspired by all of the types of fashion in different countries. Dodman has been everywhere from Dubai to Italy to South Africa, her love for fashion and people stems from her visits to these countries.
While at Auburn, Dodman designed for the annual Auburn fashion show and worked at one of the downtown boutiques. Dodman said that she just always wanted to be surroned by clothes, that is when she was her happiest.
After graduation Auburn in 2010, Dodman applied to a handful of places in Chicago, New York and Las Angeles. However, she still wanted to make her way back to England. That was when she applied for a job at the London based fashion company, Burberry.
Dodman applied for a marketing and communications assistant job at Burberry, telling all of her friends and family that she didn’t believe she would ever get the job. However, she was eventually offered the position, but was unsure on whether or not to accept it.
“I loved the idea that the job was at Burberry, but I really didn’t want to work in marketing or communications,” said Dodman. “I wanted to be in the design part of the company, but it was too good of an opportunity to pass up, no one turns down a job at Burberry.”
For two years Dodman worked like a dog. So much that her “feet would blister” from the shoes she wore that made noise every time she walked. Though eventually all of her hard work paid off when she was promoted to communications manager.At this point in her career Dodman decided that although she still loved design aspect of fashion, she also loved communications and she believed that she had earned her promotion.
My day-to-day life at Burberry is even crazier now that I’m the communications manager, I feel like I never sit still and I love that,” said Dodman. “Everyday is different from the next, you never know what you’re going to get.”
Dodman credits her career succes to the way that Auburn prepared her during her time as a student. “Going to Auburn for university was the best decsion I ever made, I learned so much, gained a ton of friendships and it ultimately helped me get my job at Burberry.”
Dodman has now worked at Burberry for seven years, and has no intentions on leaving the company anytime soon. She says she still feels like this is the “best opportunity” she has ever received and she’s not ready to move on yet.
“I’m a firm believer that if something isn’t broken then you shouldn’t try to fix it,” said Dodman. “and right now my career isn’t broken and I don’t feel stuck, so I think I’m going to stay here for awhile.”