How to find a job in the fashion industry is a question I often get asked. And as someone who has successfully done it four times I think that I have kind of mastered the art of it. I might have already mentioned that I am not inclined to long term commitments (unless we talk about my love, in this case the eternity seems like a fragment of a second) and I used to leave my job as soon as I could afford to, just to start all over again a few months later. So here are my techniques that have helped me not only to obtain the much desired contract but also to do it in a short amount of time.
Premise: experience has teached me that it is very important to choose well your first employment. If your dream is to work in the luxury, starting in a fast fashion or low cost company can make things a little bit more difficult when you want to upgrade, especially in countries like Italy where the employers are not flexible at all. In my case, I began my career in the shoes and accessories field and when, later, I was trying to get into the clothing (my dream) the interviewers were telling me that they prefer someone with experience in that area. Believe me, it was worse than negative karma print from the previous ten lives. The situation was ridiculously hopeless until I met my last employers who believed in me and gave me the chance to enter in the wonderful world of dresses and evening gowns. Thank you, guys <3
- Network – while I was finishing the university I was reading a lot of tips on how to find a job and this was always the first one. But how could I use my network, when I didn’t know anyone working in the fashion industry? Then I started telling everyone that I wanted a fashion job, no matter what. Friends, acquintances, enemies, everyone was aware of my intentions. Do you know about the six degrees of separation theory? According to it everyone is six or fewer steps away from any other person in the world. In my case it was the forth connection that turned out to be the lucky one. I learned about an open position and sent my resume
right away. Everything else is a history 🙂 - Let them know – want to work for a high-end jewelry company? A hat maker? A couturier? Let them know about your existence. Flood all the companies of the desired field with your (nicely written) resume. This is the tactic I use the most that has the highest return of investement. There was one short period of my life when I must have gone completely insane and was looking for a job in Dubai without even ever being there. I had booked my flight for a short escape from Milan and in the previous weeks I sent my resume to any company I could trace on the web. The result was two Skype interviews and two arranged meetings for when I would arrive in the UAE’s pearl. After the first hours spent there I knew that I couldn’t live there so things were left as they were. About six months later I also received a proposal to work for a fashion company in Qatar. Not
a bad result, right? All of this thanks to the massive cv flooding I had put in action. - Find the right people – I always try to get my email sent to the right person. Whenever possible I avoid generic emails like info@companyname.com because I can never know if my application will be read and forwarded to the right person. This part can be tricky but here is where Linkedin turns very useful. You can either send a direct message to the person who you would like to read your resume or take the name and send him/her an email – in this case you should know the email format of the company, but even if you don’t they are usually quite intuitive – name.surname@xyz.com or n.surname@xyz.com or viceversa, etc.
- Squeeze the job websites – another way to get precious email information is to monitor the job announcements related to the fashion industry. This is particularly useful for jobs outside Europe. I have noticed that in the other continents it is quite normal to put an email reference at the end of the announcement. Open it even if it is for a general managaer while you are just looking for an internship. You never know what you might find. This is how I landed a job in Bangkok in a moment of desperation. I saw an advertisment for a product manager in a fashion company, I immediately sent my spontaneous application for another position and three weeks later I got a permanent contract (that I didn’t sign, but this is another story).
This is what has worked best for me. The most difficult thing is to find a job in the fashion industry (actually in any)
without a previous experience but it is not impossible. Just remember that where there is a will there is ALWAYS a way.
Have you ever used some of the above tactics? What are your secrets for the job hunting?
Love,
