All About Internships and Work Experience Placements

[Cicciolina]

Some of them are very insistent upon it (I've heard that Teen Vogue and Seventeen are for example) but some of them are more flexible.

If you were still a student and couldn't get credit, you could get a letter from your university acknowledging and supporting the internship which is a good substitute. I have met interns who have graduated from college though, so it's definitely worth a go.

[Katie123]

guys, if i'm trying to get into buying (or at least get some experience to see if i like it), how should i start when looking for internships/work placements? big shops like browns and selfridges will DEFINITELY not give me a work experience if i haven't had one before, but do i have any chances with smaller boutiques? even if i've had NO experience in buying, just in trend forecasting.

thanks!

[BetteT]

Internships and unpaid work experience is probably the best way.

I would think that you'd have a better chance at a big store (and a more valid experience), if they have an internship program. Are you sure that they want prior work experience? Won't they take students who are earning credits at school? That is pretty much how it works in the U.S. ... since it's an upaid position.

A small boutique won't have a "buyer" and probably won't have an internship program either. It's probably just the owner heading to the various sources and buying what she wants once a month or every quarter. But, if the owner wants some free help for a few months and lets you tail her when she buys her stock, that would be a start. And with your background in trend forecasting, it might be something else that you could offer in exchange for work experience.

[Katie123]

thank you for the reply

well i read that for POSITIONS at browns they asked for 2 years experience...didn't say anything about internships at all

the thing i meant by smaller boutiques was like..not-department store big. i'm definitely not applying for selfridges, harrods, browns etc yet, but i was thinking of basically ANY shop that sells designers but isn't as big as a department store, whether it has a buyer or not.....

does every big shop have an internship program? i was honestly just thinking of emailing a smaller shop and saying 'hi, i'm interested, i'm offering help for free, can i come round?' , not like, thinking of getting hired after the internship ends or anything! that's how i got my trend forecasting internship in the first place. am i being to naive in my approach?

[BetteT]

Oh, sorry ... I assumed you were looking for internships /work experience as Selfridges, etc. ... not a paid position.

Most big companies do take interns ... usually in conjuction with their schooling.

I'm just worried that if you are thinking about becoming a buyer ... that a small shop won't be able to introduce you the the real ins and outs of being a buyer for a big company. And it's big companies that hire buyers ... not small shops. So it would make sense to get into the environment where you would eventually work ... if you want to learn what they do and how they do it.

[Katie123]

yes yes, i completely agree with you but i'm so in the beginning of the whole thing that right now - i know this may sound awful - i'm just trying to get my CV fuller to then apply for a big shop.

after someone saying here that to apply for net-a-porter you need a LOT on your CV i got a bit scared so i decided to start quite small and not be too ambitious, so i'm looking for internships/placements in small but nonetheless good boutiques, just not one of the big ones like department stores!

[HannahA]

I've been independently looking into internships and well... not having the best of luck lol Maybe when I begin my studies in college...

[BetteT]

Most internships require that you are doing it for college credit .... so you probably will have better luck then.

[Katie123]

even in england? because i know of someone that is interning at vogue during the summer...and she's on my course so i know she's not getting any credit!

we have a few months of mandatory work experience next year so i'm trying to build up a good CV because i know that when the time to intern for credits come, everyone will be looking at the same places to go!!

[BetteT]

I don't know about England ... Hannah is in NY.

[Drusilla_]

If it isn't too much trouble, can someone who knows please tell me: what are a Third World law student's chances of breaking into the field? I'll be graduating next year, I'm really not interested in working as a journalist in my home country, and the standard of fashion writing here is abysmal, not to put too fine a point on it (also, the lower-key magazines I love are all based in the UK/US/France/Japan).

I'm fine with an unpaid internship, but will the fact that I live in India and my degree is in law, of all things, be counted against me? I've had to write insane amounts over the last six years, and I know the odd foreign language (Japanese, JLPT-III), it's just that I'm going to have two months free in February and March of 2010 and I'm wondering if anyone will want me. I'm a wee bit tired of legal work and I'd really like to have at least a small bit of experience in something else before I finally graduate- my college will give me credit for it, so it's not a problem.

[heyitsme]

Thanks for your reply

The thing with internships is, I've already done a sleu of them. I'm currently getting my masters degree so I'm a few steps ahead of most people. Also with internships, the only thing they seem to do is be resume fillers. Throughout my interning days, NO ONE I've met has ever got hired after doing an internship (in fashion that is). The people who get hired are always "outside" people and such. Plus, interns are usually only at a company for a few months or maybe a little more, because it's usually for college credit. It's hard to get hired somewhere when you've only been working there for a few months. You have to be there at the exact right time...meaning, you have had to work there a long time, you have to be there when you're graduating college and need to start finding a "real" job, and the company has to actually be hiring at that time. Most times, the company isn't hiring at the time of an interns graduation, so they can't really stay there much longer because they need to start making money. That's just my experience...although I've been around interning for quite some time. Like I said, it seems internships are only things to put on your resume these days.

[christrinity]

Maybe that's the case in the states! I can only speak from direct experience in fashion here in Paris and I can tell you that here EVERYONE or at lest 90%+ have gotten where they are starting from internships, including every single one of us who works in the PR office and that's for a major LVMH brand

[heyitsme]

Yeah, definitely interesting. I mean, I'm sure people here in the states do get hired after interning, but it seems not usually. Since it's so competitive, they usually aren't hiring basic interns who have just graduated, because they are able to attract a lot more experienced individuals. But, every place is different.

What brand of LVMH are you interning for? Are you also going to school in Paris? Either way, sounds like an awesome experience!

[gian-franco]

Hey, I wanted to ask, if an internship in USA is paid, how much do they pay usually?