Summer is officially here. 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 months are very important for your career.
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 for your career. So all you have to do is making the most of your internship by learning as much as possible, creating connections with as many people, and working hard to turn it into a full-time job before it ends.
While if you don’t have any internships planned for the summer, there are still some very useful things you can do that can greatly contribute to your career to make sure that you secure your new job/internship starting in September or this fall(actually you are still in time to secure a summer internship that starts in July/August!).
If you put your career on hold for the summer, 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.
If you do not take advantage of the summer you will delay
Here are the things to do during the summer to prepare for entering the fashion industry
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. In my book I do talk about the different career options in fashion (you can get it on Amazon ). Something else that helps to identify which career path might be the right one for you is reading the stories of those working in fashion to you have more ideas about their jobs and what they do (we have published lots of interviews here and also on The Glam Observer Podcast). Another great tip to understand what fashion job is made 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! Plus this is a great exercise to understand more about the different roles in fashion and learn who are the figures making the industry behind the scenes. If you are ready for something next level, then in the first module of the course Break into the fashion industry you’ll find an entire module explaining 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.
Work on new skills
Take advantage of the summer to learn something new to boost your skills, knowledge and resume as well. Once you have identified the career you would like to pursue in the fashion industry, identify the skills required, both technical and personal and work on them. You have Google, books, online courses… if you believe you are lacking some requirements or programs and tools, just be proactive and learn them. If you want to get a job in social media you might want to learn some design tools such as Photoshop or you can even practice/learn Excel which is required in any job in fashion, or if you want to get a job at a fashion magazine you can practice your writing skills by writing one article every day. You might even start learning a new language or perfecting one.
Learn more about the fashion industry
Knowing as much as you can about the industry you want to be in is very important. The more you know, the more you’ll feel confident in conversations with recruiters, colleagues, peers… One of the first rules of having a successful career is being very knowledgeable about your industry. Learning new things should be a fundamental part of your daily routine, it doesn’t end when you get a degree or diploma. 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. I’ve made a special offer to support you and give to as many of you the possibility to learn more about fashion plus boost your resume with a fashion certification so today you can get the fashion history online course Inside the fashion industry at a special price ($100 off!) .
Refresh your CV, Cover Letter and Portfolio
Your resume, cover letter and portfolio 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.
Work on your personal branding
If in 2021 you don’t consider that recruiters will go on LinkedIn and Instagram to know more about you when they receive your applications, well you might be missing some career opportunities.
One of the first things recruiters do when they receive your applications is actually visiting your social profiles. You can so take advantage of the summer to clean up your profiles by deleting some inappropriate photos or comments and tweets you wrote years ago that are somehow offensive.
Just because a recruiter is going to look at your social profiles it doesn’t mean you have to stop posting personal photos of your vacation or your dogs, but consider that they look at them so make sure they see only the things you want them to see. (Aka it’s better to avoid photos in your underwear). Use your social profiles to build your personal branding and show you know a thing or two about the fashion industry. You can even finally build the fashion website/portfolio you were postponing for a long time.
If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile yet, it’s time to create one. 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 appears in the search results. Plus it’s your best career ally: 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. I teach more about LinkedIn inside the course Break into the fashion industry
Apply, of course!
Last but not least, apply for jobs! Just because you see on Instagram that your favorite editors, stylists, designers are on summer holidays, it doesn’t mean that fashion companies and offices are closed! They are still hiring, posting jobs, doing interviews… so keep an eye 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 (well of course, if you are thinking about emailing your favorite stylist to become her assistant, check her stories and make sure she’s back from the holidays before emailing her 😉 )
If you want to learn more about all the points above I teach how to understand what fashion job is made for you, where to find jobs and internships and how to apply, how to use Instagram and LinkedIn for your career in fashion inside the course Break into the fashion industry. Not ready for the course? Watch this free masterclass.
