Dreaming a career in fashion and actually getting a job is not the same thing. Many times, in fact, the first problem at the beginning of your career path in the fashion industry is understanding what might be the right job for you. The fashion industry has many roles, and especially if you’re new in this industry, you don’t know them all.
Whether you have clear ideas or need help to understand what fashion job is made for you or have any other doubts regarding this industry, Â an informational interview is always a super powerful tool you should consider.
What is an informational interview?
An informational interview is a meeting with a fashion professional, not used for media purposes so it will not be published on a site or a newspaper and neither for hiring, but it serves you to better understand about a particular role.
Let’s say you want to work at L’Oreal, asking a few questions to those who work in the company, will help you to understand how the environment is and in particular, about a specific role.
Job titles can be fascinating, E-commerce Managers, Product Specialists, Digital Specialists … but what do these people do every day when they arrive at the office?
An informational interview serves to make things clear.
How do I request an informational interview?
Use LinkedIn do research and reach out to fashion professionals. Start the conversation by saying you admire his/her work and that you’d like to ask a couple of questions and advice as you are new to the fashion industry and have some doubts. Ask to meet-up for a coffee and better, if you can bring coffee over, so people don’t have to leave the office and will be more willing to help you.
An informational interview is also a great way to start building your network. At the end of the informational interview, keep the connection with that person and reach out later to ask to remind you if there is any job opportunity.
You will not receive answers from everyone, but I assure you that there will be someone willing to answer some of your questions to help you.
Create an excel sheet with a list of your favorite companies and the roles that seem most interesting to you and start looking for the fashion professionals to reach out.
The informational interview is not only useful at the beginning of your career to find the first job, but can be very useful later when you want to move into another role, for example.
Fashion is a competitive industry, and we all know this. Being able to enter this sector is not as simple as it seems, but it is not so complicated, especially if you know a trick or two about it. In our online course How to Break into the fashion industry, we reveal the industry secrets and provide students with the tools they need to get their first job or internship in fashion and master their networking and personal branding skills. Enroll now if you want to get your dream job or internship quickly!
