One Month as an Intern at Kontoor Brands, Inc. (KTB): A Learning Journey

On July 2, I started my internship journey at Kontoor Brands, a global apparel company best known for iconic brands like Wrangler, Lee and Helly Hansen. It’s hard to believe it’s already been a month. These 23 working days have been filled with learning, exploration, and new experiences.

First Days: Settling In

My journey began with onboarding, Meeting HR, exploring the office, and understanding Kontoor’s work culture. I got to meet people from different teams including those working from other countries. I also had my first online meeting with the Responsible Sourcing team.

Soon after, I received access to key datasets, tools like Smartsheet and Power BI, and even a LinkedIn Learning account. These resources became a big part of my learning journey.

During the first few weeks, I:

• Completed mandatory courses on child labor, forced labor, legal practices, worker wellbeing and many more…
• Learned how Kontoor maintains transparency in its 5-tier sourcing system
• Got access to sample CSR data and began cleaning and analyzing it
• Attended daily and weekly meetings with teams from Hong Kong, Kenya, and Bangladesh
• Studied real audit reports and learned how risk is measured and reported
• Worked with the Higg portal and Wordly data

I also learned technical skills like:

• Creating dashboards in Power BI
• Writing formulas and using Power Query
• Understanding key statistics like Central Limit Theorem, Z-scores, and Margin of Error
• Combining datasets and visualizing audit trends across quarters and regions

Building Something Real

In the third week, I started building a Risk Map, Heat Map dashboard using Power BI. This dashboard shows factory audit data, region-wise issue counts, and severity levels. I received feedback from my supervisors and improved the visuals to make them more clear and useful.

Later, I added factory-wise and audit-wise comparison pages. I also worked on a report using Kontoor’s official template and submitted it to the team.

People and Culture

One thing I truly admire at Kontoor is the openness of the team. Everyone is supportive. Feedback is shared clearly, and guidance is always available. Even though I work mostly with Hong Kong Teams, I still feel connected. The daily CSR meetings help maintain communication. Every task I complete gives me more confidence in my skills.

One month feels short, but it was full of lessons. I learned more than just tools. I learned how real companies handle data, how decisions are made, and how responsibility is shared.

This internship is pushing me forward not just as a learner, but as someone preparing for the professional world. I’m excited for the remaining month and everything it has to offer.