During the first Glam Observer panel, we talked everything about getting into the fashion industry and our speakers have provided all the girls with great tips and their personal experiences to inspire them.Â
We underlined the importance of internships as your ticket to the fashion industry. But when you have to look for your first internship or fashion job, what do you look for? I asked them, how did they figure out what fashion job was made for them at the beginning of their career.
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“I asked myself how do I see myself in 5 years? And people who have the job of my dreams today, where did they start from? I had just graduated and I left for China for a 7 months internship for a fashion consultancy firm in Shanghai. We were doing consultancy about how to enter the Chinese market, so it was a very business job and I was setting the retails, talking to buyers.. but I knew I wanted to work in Kering and Gucci and work in digital, a new world.   Lots of the job me and my team do today didn’t exist 5 years ago. I was looking for lots of jobs in digital, and I suddenly found a good job offer and I got it. My advice for you is asking yourself where do you see yourself in 5 years?”
Ambra, Digital Product Specialist at Gucci
“To see where others started from, I suggest you to go on Linkedin which is a powerful tool. If you want to become an e-commerce manager, go on LinkedIn and search for e-commerce managers and see the career path of those people, what was their first internship?”
Giada, Glam Observer founder
“When I graduated, and I got back to Italy from America I just knew I wanted to go to Milan and work in fashion and communication, I didn’t know anything else. I started looking for fashion internships and sending my CV and I was lucky to get an internship for a beauty B2B company and I started a social media job. I was looking for a formative internship, I also suggest you they offer you a formative internship where they have a specific plan about all the things you’ll have to do and how they’ll teach you things. I stayed in that company for a month, I didn’t like the environment, what they made me do and not do, they didn’t have a plan for me, so I quit. At that moment I was a bit discouraged because I didn’t know what to do, I sent again my CV and after a couple of weeks, I started working at Alessandra Ianzito PR. I saw that first internship as a failure which is often associated to something negative, but I want to push you to think failure as an opportunity, an opportunity to understand what you like and don’t. You’re young so you’re allowed to make mistakes and change jobs different times. As they were already saying, if you already have an idea, look for others’ experiences and their career paths.”
Elisabetta Pistoni Digital PR & Influencer
“I agree too. I had an experience in a design office and this also helped me understand that becoming a fashion designer was not my thing. It was all pretty and I learned a lot, but it was not for me. I did an internship with social media and then when I realized I wanted to become a stylist, I started looking for stylists who needed help. Stylists always need assistance. Ask to help stylist at the beginning, show you’re available and want to help and be a sponge: don’t do it for the money, but to learn: I want to stay the longer I can and learn the more I can even just listening to the stylist’s conversations. Try, made mistake because they’ll help you to find your place.”
Carolina Molossi, Bookalook Co-Founder
“What I want to add is that people sometimes give up when they see on the job offer they need a person who has a specific degree. Don’t give up and apply to see how it goes. After 3 days I arrived at Vogue they told me to go inside the wardrobe and check if the items were all there. At some poi,nt they told me: A pony is going to arrive with this look, and I was like? What’s a Pony? A real pony? Then I understood a pony is someone who brings packages and I would have not never understood it if I didn’t do something out of my comfort zone. I was an assistant but with a different background and then I realized what they were saying and it was a precious experience that helped me for the future. So when you’re looking for an internship go for it and don’t think too much about the background required or what you’re going to do, because at the end if you are willing to do and not just staying there looking around you’ll make it. Do whatever they ask you even if you think is a boring thing such as going in the wardrobe to check if everything has arrived.”
Serena Castrignano Vogue Talents Editor
“Sometimes you think is simple but you have responsibilities in everything you do. Don’t be afraid of the failure or doing unpaid internships, look forward: if you’re in a showroom checking items observe the product, who we are sending this to, what journalist requests this item. Give all yourself, don’t give up and don’t’ be lazy even if you don’t like it, do it as they asked it and at your best because this will pay you in the long term. Even staying in the cold outside the events you can learn something and you’ll need it to understand which internship will be better for you in the future. There are difficult moments at the beginning.”
Francesca Valsecchi Jr Brand Manager Coty
