I’ve been thinking a lot recently about what it really means to be ready for your dream job in fashion.
It’s not a degree from a fancy fashion school or 3 internships and 2 jobs at your back. As you don’t need a fashion degree or experience to break into fashion.
You need to be passionate, though. But passion alone, despite getting you noticed, doesn’t always get you hired.
Many people also bet on their looks and sense of style. But unless you want to become a stylist, I have bad news: no one cares. Fashion is not as superficial as one would think, and your looks are not a criterion of judgment when filtering applications.
So what gets you hired?
I realized it’s about being prepared, with the tools that make you stand out the second your application lands on someone’s desk.
And that’s when it hit me:
You can’t control if a recruiter opens your email.
You can’t control if you get ghosted after an application.
You can’t control if they already had someone in mind.
But you can control this:
The skills you show up with when they finally call you in.
The way you confidently complete a trial task during the interview.
The knowledge that tells them “I can start contributing on day one.”
And Excel is one of those skills.
Excel for Fashion
After working for 10 years at Kering, Alexander McQueen, and Net-A-Porter, and being the CEO of Glam Observer, I can confidently say that Excel is by far the most requested skill to work in fashion.
Fashion doesn’t only thrive on creativity; it’s also a business. And where there is business, there are numbers. Those numbers are written, tracked, and analyzed in Excel every single day.
From buyers, marketing, and e-commerce to designers and stylists, every role, whether creative or analytical, uses Excel to some extent.
That’s why it’s a common practice for luxury and fashion companies to test candidates on Excel during job interviews (even just for internships and assistant positions!)
Excel is the kind of skill that gives you confidence. Whether you want to feel confident when you find a job posting with this requirement, walk into your job interview knowing your game, or not stressing about (and actually looking forward!) to performing your daily tasks, Excel gives a confidence boost all the way.
It also gives you proof. Because while recruiters don’t hire candidates based on their hard skills only, skills still matter. They make you stand out instantly and present you as a true professional from the very first internship.
Finally, Excel gives you answers when the job description says:“Must know how to analyze sales, create reports, support marketing launches…”. Many tasks — from organizing the work to calculating things — are easily done on Excel.
What if I told you you won’t have to guess and spend lots of time figuring out how to do those things?
That you can understand what recruiters and your boss are talking about — and how to do those tasks fast and without giving you a headache?
I’m doing a free live webinar (available on replay) on this exact topic:
“4 Excel Tricks to Impress a Fashion Recruiter or Your Fashion Boss”
📆 Join live TODAY, Wednesday, April 30th.
In this webinar, I’ll show you…
- What fashion workers (buyers, stylists, pr, managers…) use Excel for
- My experience with Excel in the fashion industry
- How I passed the Excel test during the job interview for my first internship at Alexander McQueen
- 4 Excel formulas/tricks to impress your fashion boss or recruiters and pass the job interview test
If you show up live, I’ve got some special bonuses + Q&A time waiting for you!
Click here to register (even if you can’t make it live but are interested in the replay!)
Let Excel be the thing you can control, while everything else is still uncertain. You’ve got the passion. Let’s back it up with skills.
