“We hire for potential, not a finished product”, this is what Lucy Maguire told me during our podcast chat when I asked her what they look for when hiring new candidates at Vogue. The pandemic is challenging companies to rethink traditional ways of doing business—thus providing an opportunity to reform outdated recruiting practices.
More and more companies are focusing on other things in a candidate rather than a prestigious university or an endless list of skills. The question in fact is not whether the employees have the right skills; it’s whether they have the potential to learn new ones.
So what does exactly mean that companies hire for potential? Especially when it comes to onboarding young resources to the team they know they can’t consider the experience because students and recent graduates who are just at the beginning of their career don’t have enough. So they will focus more on your personality because they know that if you have a good foundation, then you can learn everything on the job, you’ll develop your potential once you’re inside the company!They will look at your personality to see if you are actually one of those people who have the potential to grow.
I still remember what the recruiter told me for my first fashion internship: “We didn’t hire you because you were about to complete a master’s in luxury and fashion management we have seen something in you through your unconventional application approach”. That initial gut feeling they get about a person is the critical factor when making hiring decisions and what drives the first impression is your personal traits and the strategies you use in your application. The more creative you are with your application strategies the more you show to recruiters and future bosses that you are one of those people who think out of the box, one of those people with potential. Personal traits are important as well to show that you have the potential.
What I’ve noticed among my students of Break into the fashion industry is that those who can get a job faster are people who have great personal skills (which doesn’t mean being an extrovert)and that, combined with the correct application strategies, make them win in job interviews, in the selection process and in general in the job search phase.
So what are the personal skills you should master and show to fashion recruiters?
- Let’s go back to the definition of potential which is the ability to adapt to and grow. Already from its definition, you could say that these two, adaptability and growth, are the first skills that companies look for in a candidate.
In this article, I talked about the growth mindset which is one of the most important mindsets you need to work in the fashion industry. Many people falsely believe that their education ends once they receive their diploma. Learning is no longer a one and done—it’s now lifelong. Recruiters today are looking for candidates whose skills are self-taught. They want to understand if you have a proven commitment to self-improvement if you are a lifelong learner. Remember, potential = ability to grown and learn. If you can’t demonstrate that you are investing in yourself to grow and learn, how can you show that you have the potential?
Curious employees learn quickly and find better solutions, recruiters know this and want to assess your level of curiosity. Online courses are great to demonstrate curiosity and you can immediately add them to your resume. They show not only curiosity and potential but prove you have acquired new skills at the same time. Books (nonfiction books: a book on the history of fashion, a marketing book, career books…) are great as well to prove that you are an ongoing learner, but it’s more a thing you’ll say during a job interview than something you’ll add to your resume.
If you are in front of a recruiter during a job interview or in front of your boss at work and you still believe that you are not enough for the job, you feel inadequate, self-doubt, low self-confidence…you are not on the potential path. If you are the first to doubt yourself, how can other people trust you? No one wants to hire someone who is insecure and who believes that they don’t have the capabilities to work there or do the job. Even if you are at the beginning of your career and you believe that you still need to learn a lot just be driven and positive that you can learn everything you’ll need to be the best at your job, Whether it’s becoming a master of excel, photoshop, WordPress, or any other tool, be confident that you can learn everything. Remember they are looking for potential which means they are looking for someone who is confident about the fact that they can learn everything on the job. They are not looking for someone who knows it all already. So even if right now you don’t have all the skills, it’s totally okay, but it’s super important that you believe in yourself. If you don’t believe that you can acquire the skills on the job,you are sabotaging your career.
Show fashion companies that you are ambitious, enthusiastic, passionate driven and committed to results. The company hires you because you have to make your boss’s work easier and better, to make your team more efficient and in general contribute to the overall growth of the company. Share ideas, exceed expectations, don’t just do the work they assign you, think about the next step already.
Being determined is important, but at the same time, you have to be humble and ready to learn. Just because you graduated from a top school or you already did some kind of experience, this doesn’t make you the most expert. So show that you want to learn and grow every single day. Remember, they are hiring for potential, which means they want to hire people who want to learn and that can grow. Knowing it all is not the right way to show you have potential.
At this point, you probably know that we have partnered with Marie Claire for two fashion internships. When I sent out email notifications with this news to the newsletter many people replied to that email asking for more details when everything they needed to know and the details were already written in the email. If you approach the job search process in this way and you ask the company or your future boss for more details when you already have them, this is not a good sign. As the boss I might see it as a sign that you do not pay attention, you are careless and that you might miss important communications at work. We all live in a very fast-paced world but make sure to be fully present when dealing with these kinds of things, not everything is like scrolling your Instagram feed, you need to be fully present for things such as your job search or when you are at work or you’ll miss some important details that will make you lose career opportunities. So before asking a question to your future boss and recruiter make sure you have done your work and you read all the documents and any previous communication (emails) .
The fashion industry is tough and competitive, and it is true that the requirements are high, but as you can see this is no longer about a list of skills or what school you attended. They have high expectations when it comes to hiring people who can achieve excellent results thanks to personality, attitudes and mindsets. Be smart, drive, curious and with the desire to improve and learn new things every day.
So to recap, the fashion industry is hiring for potential, which means they are not looking for someone who already has all the skills, but who can learn new ones.
Two things that say a lot about your potential and that recruiters look at are:
- the way you apply. Using unconventional strategies and going above and beyond demonstrates that you are resourceful and a person with initiatives. If you want to learn ways to impress recruiters register here for this free masterclass
- your personality traits. They want to know that you are really someone with a growth and open mindset.
