7 Things to do this Summer to Boost your Career in Fashion (even if you don’t have a job yet!)

Summer is officially here. If you are among the lucky ones who have secured a summer internship, then your summer is already packed with this great and precious opportunity to boost your career in fashion. BUT if you don’t have any internships planned for the summer (actually you are still in time to secure a summer internship) there are still some very useful things you can do for your career in fashion to make sure that you secure your new job/internship starting in September or this fall.

Although this may seem like a “quiet” period for your career in which you relax and might think to postpone everything to September, in reality, these next weeks are very important. If you put your career on hold now, then it will be harder to start with a fresh new job in September. Imagine instead if you could secure your fall internship or a new job within the next weeks and then enjoy the rest of your summer knowing a work opportunity is waiting for you at the end of it. 

This is a time of the year when you have more time to finally do things that you never have time to do because you’re studying, taking exams, working… If you do not take advantage of the summer, you will delay your entry into the fashion industry by missing job opportunities that are open when you are not ready.

So here are the 7 things to do during the summer to prepare for entering the fashion industry and boost your career.

7 Things to do this Summer to Boost your Career in Fashion

1. Identify the right fashion career for you

If you still do not have a clear idea of ​​what career might be for you, use this summer to understand it, so that you will be ready to look directly for job offers that reflect your passions and skills. A great tip to understand what fashion job is right for you is to go through the job boards online and read as many job descriptions as possible. You might not be fascinated by a job title but then when you read the tasks involved in that job, you might discover that it’s actually made for you! Reading all the jobs posted online is very useful to understand more about the different roles in fashion.

If you are looking for more places to read more about careers in fashion, check these resources: 

I wrote this article about the different departments in fashion industry.

In my book Your Fashion Dream Plan, I wrote an entire chapter about the different career options in fashion (you can get it on Amazon ). 

Listen to The Glam Observer Podcast where I interviewed people working in fashion.

These episodes are great to start with:

Sara Moschini, Head of Fashion at Grazia.IT on Fashion Week and Career

Manuel Sinopoli on managing social media at Vogue and Miu Miu 

Stylist Hetty Appleton-Miles on styling the runway, changing creative director and her personal style

How to become a Buyer for a Luxury Fashion Brand with Kiana Brooks

From working with Suzy Menkes to Vogue Business Trends Editor – Lucy Maguire

Kelly Harrington Vintage Archivist, Trend Forecaster and Designer at H&M and Denim Expert

If you are ready for something next level, then in the first module of the course Break into the fashion industry, you’ll learn about the different careers in fashion, the skills required, and how to get started for each plus a practical exercise that will help you identify the career in fashion made for you.

2. Work on new skills

Take advantage of the summer to learn something new to boost your skills, knowledge, and resume as well. If you believe you are lacking some skills or programs that are required in your dream job, don’t just give up and look for another job, but be proactive and acquire the skills you are missing. If you have no idea what the skills required in fashion are, Excel is the most requested skill in any fashion job. (click here to check out my course Excel for Fashion). You might even learn or practice a second or third language that it’s always useful in fashion. For example, you could practice French if you want to work in Paris or Italian if you want to work in Milan. 

3. Learn more about the fashion industry

One of the first rules of having a successful career is being very knowledgeable about your industry (check out my online course Inside The Fashion Industry). Learning new things should be a fundamental part of your daily routine, it doesn’t end when you get a degree or diploma. The more you know, the more you’ll feel confident in conversations with recruiters, colleagues, peers…Take advantage of the summer to learn more about the fashion industry through books, alternate your summer playlist with some fashion and career podcasts, read industry websites, watch some fashion documentaries and take some online courses to boost your resume as well with a certification. Online courses are perfect as you can take them from everywhere, so even if on your vacation you could spend 30 minutes of your mornings taking an online course.

4. Refresh your CV, Cover Letter, Portfolio and LinkedIn

Do your resume, cover letter, portfolio, and LinkedIn Profile need a refresh? What a better time to finally update them. Try a new resume template, update your portfolio with your latest works, or create/simulate new projects to add to your portfolio so you can show them to potential employers. If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile yet or you haven’t updated it for a while, it’s time to create one or refresh yours. Take advantage of the summer to learn how to use it to the fullest.

Do you know that fashion recruiters use LinkedIn not only to post job offers but also to search for candidates directly? LinkedIn works as a search engine. Therefore, the more a profile is set correctly, the first it appears in the search results (AKA the more chances you have to get discovered by recruiters and land a new job). Plus it’s your best career ally: it’s in fact the place to network, do your research about a company and the people working there, build your personal branding, receive work proposals, and find jobs at the same time. 

5. Build your fashion portfolio

Have you always wanted to build your fashion website to use as a portfolio to showcase your work or blog if you want to write for a fashion magazine, but you never had time to do so? Well, maybe this is the time! Starting your own website is easy and cheap or free at all! It’s also a great way to showcase your tech skills and add to your resume the knowledge of CMS (content management system platforms), which is super useful if you want to work at a fashion magazine. In the course The Fashion Writer Accelerator you’ll also learn how to build your fashion blog/website.

6. Keep applying, of course!

Last but not least, apply for jobs! Just because you see on Instagram that your favorite editors, stylists, and designers are enjoying their holidays, it doesn’t mean that fashion companies and offices are closed! They are still hiring, posting jobs, doing interviews… so keep an eye out online to find new jobs and internships you can apply to and if you don’t find opportunities, email your favorite brands to secure an internship this fall. If you want to get the latest job and internship offers every Friday straight to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter 365 days of fashion.

7. Learn how to apply correctly for jobs and internships

Whether you want to apply for jobs to secure one last minute or you want to be ready when you’re back from your summer vacation, learn the best way to apply for fashion jobs and internships so you won’t miss any opportunities. There isn’t anything worse than missing forever your dream job just because you didn’t apply correctly (and just for the record, you cannot apply twice for the same job once your application has been submitted, so it’s better that you do it the right way from the beginning.) The fashion industry has its own hiring codes so the standard application strategies don’t work. I teach the correct strategies to apply for jobs and internships in this free masterclass. Register here for free.