How to figure out which fashion job is made for you

From the outside, fashion seems a fascinating world, but unless you are part of it, you won’t know how it works until working in the industry.

I know it because it is my story. I was fascinated by this world and thought that having some of the best fashion companies on my CV would have made me proud and happy. On Linkedin, I found roles like E-commerce Manager at Dior über cool, but I had no clue about the role of an e-commerce manager. Most of the time, when we are at the beginning of our career or when we desire to change career path, we are lured by role names and the prestige of fashion companies without really understanding what are the daily tasks required for a role. Up until a couple of years ago, I didn’t know a thing about the fashion industry.

It is always difficult figuring out which path to take at the beginning. It is different for everyone and a lot of people change idea until they find the right role.

It is rare a person finds right from the beginning a role marching their profile. Surely, the first thing to do is understanding the macro area. Are you passionate about communication? Marketing? Editorial? Understanding if we like being in contact with the product or prefer staying behind a computer all day long is crucial. The role matching our profile depends on a mix of factors: our personality, passions and studies.

It is only once you will be hired you will be able to understand if your new job is right for you. Working with other teams and departments will help you figure out how works a fashion company and introduce to another side of the business you will be fascinated by. But what happen before? How can we understand where to start from?

When I began looking for information on the fashion industry to understand what was the role matching my profile, I found nearly nothing online, especially in Italian. I decided to launch Glam Observer because I thought there were hundreds of girls like me, who want to work in fashion but who don’t where to look.

Given that I didn’t find anyone in Italy who was proposing the content Glam Observer offers, I began doing some research in English to understand the mechanism of this sector. I read many books, studied the stories of the most influential personalities of the industry to understand what they were doing on a daily basis and what they did to be where they are today.

I then started taking on online classes offered by US schools like Parson or FIT until I attend a Master in Luxury and Fashion Management in Milan.

These classes enabled me to understand how works a beauty and fashion business and what are the different figures composing it. After one year of research and study, I knew more or less which path I wanted to take. I have always been interested in business and numbers. I was fascinated by Marketing and Merchandising, two roles that combine numbers and product. I was also interested in the digital field which led me to think that working for an e-commerce was the right path for me.

Figuring out your professional career is never easy, but there are things that can help you. I would have loved to have someone explaining to me how a fashion company works without having to attend a Master or taking a class. Nonetheless, education is important and I keep on learning new things every day to improve myself and the blog. I am not saying that if I had been more informed at the beginning, I wouldn’t have attended those classes, but I would have wanted to understand what was the right path for me. Time is precious and no one wants to lose even one second of it.

That is why we decided to launch the GO Membership. We thought and created it for all the girls who, just like me, know they want to work in fashion but don’t know:

• what to study
• for which role they should apply in this sector once their studies
• how to write a CV
• what is asked at interviews in fashion companies
• how to deal with tests (because I only discovered right after I got my first interview that fashion companies tested their candidates before hiring them)
• how to negotiate a salary
• how to give their best in the office to turn their internship into a full-time job

We are here to help and guide you. Become a GO Member now to have access to exclusive content, the members-only newsletter, the FREE Girl With A Plan Shopper and much more!

This post was originally published on Jan  24th 2018