All About Internships and Work Experience Placements

[fashionmuse]

Wondering.......After graduation I plan on going to a community college that offers fashion merchandising....I am curious does going to a community college (nota reputable "fashion school" ) hinder my chances of getting an internship??

honestly, it depends on the internship you are applying for. if it's a highly competitive internship you may have to work harder to get an interview. when my friend was an intern she told me that she saw her boss going through applications and pretty much threw out the resumes as soon as he saw what school they went to.

 

[LoveKatFashion]

^Eekkk throughing out resumes?? Thanks for the info, maybe I will have to revalute my schooling!

 

[fashionmuse]

^ in her case, he didn't want to hire anyone who went to a party school. so community colleges would be different but some employers unfortunately will choose someone based on their college than their experience.

i got to a fashion college and every interview i've done for a fashion internship so far has mentioned that they prefer to hire someone who's from a fashion-focused college versus a state university etc.

 

[BetteT]

Just curious, since Kat and I were talking about Marketing and PR and internships.

What are you studying in fashion school?

And, more importantly, what kinds of internships were you applying for where they want you to be in fashion school? Were they business related, such as Marketing/Buying/Merchandising? Or were they more on the creative side, magazines, styling, in a designer's ateltier?

 

[fashionmuse]

i'm majoring in fashion business. the internships i interviewed for were a retail management internship with coach and a pr internship with ford models.

i'm also in contact with a merchandising internship at ralph lauren and another one with chanel (although i am not sure what this one will be about). both of them recognized my college and said they hire most of there interns from there and another art school in the city.

 

[LoveKatFashion]

Thanks for the info fashionmuse! Curious, is the program your majoring in called fashion business, and do you go to a fashion college??

 

[fashionmuse]

it's a fashion business program, my college generally specializes in art related majors but it isn't a fashion college like FIDM or FIT.

 

[LoveKatFashion]

^Cool! I would love to go to a school like that....was looking into the art intsitutes and a 4 year fashion marketing PR program is 80 thousand dollars

 

[Crying Diamonds]

Hey, I'm a third year fashion design student in the U.K. as well as the avalanche of work I am doing at the moment I am trying to secure an internship for when I graduate.
Several labels have got back to me from Antwerp and asked me to go for an interview, but what they need is a 'scheme', such as Erasmus or Leonardo, as so I am getting money to live on and they don't have to pay me.
My tutor sent me the email to our Erasmus scheme at my university but it turns out that is only for currently enrolled students and not for graduates (as well as the fact that it's more of a 'study exchange')
I'm absolutely gutted about this because I was extremely excited about the idea of working in Antwerp, is anyone aware of any other schemes that I could apply for as so I might afford to stay in Antwerp for a six month internship?

Thanks

 

[lozzaxharris]

How long do you think is a suitable length of time to wait before re-applying for an internship? I applied to be a contributor but I never got a reply back. Sent a reminder message a week later too. Do you think its silly to actually ring up the office, I might sound ridiculous but I would like to know why I got turned down so I can sort it out

 

[fashionmuse]

^once i submit an application i usually wait about 4-5 days for the interviewer to contact me. if they haven't then i always call. emails can be unreliable so i thinking calling them would be a better chance.

 

[yesitsdagny]

I was offered a really great fashion marketing internship at the most prestigious Estonian fashion company but as I live in the other end of the country, the internship is unpaid and I have no place to live there I'm probably going to dismiss this opportunity.

 

[fashionmuse]

i need some advice! last thursday i interviewed with my dream company for an internship and it went really really well. she told me that she was interviewing for people this week and that she would make her decision by the end of this week (which i guess is today) i sent her a thank you note on monday but she didn't respond. she takes a while to respond to emails so i'm not that worried but i'm just wondering if i should email her and ask a question or something, just so that i stay in her mind?? she's looking for 4 people and i don't know how many people she's interviewing (my guess is not many since this position wasn't advertised anywhere) but i want this internship BADLY so i don't know if i should just wait until tomorrow to send her an email.

 

[BetteT]

First .... do not expect to receive and email back from your "thank you" email. It's not usually done. Secondly ... it would have been more noticed if you had actually mailed her a nice thank you note, if you wanted to stand apart from the others .... but it's too late for that now.

At this point ... if she is on schedule, she's probably getting ready to notify everyone who was selected ... the decsion most likely was made already. So, I don't think there is anything you can do to infulence her any further at this time, to be honest. But if you have something new to add to your arsenal of qualifications, I don't suppose it would hurt to send it over as soon as possible and tell her that you are looking forward to hearing from her. If the decision is made ... it won't matter. If it isn't .... it might tip the scales a bit ... if you have something important to add.

 

[fashionmuse]

during the interview i showed her a project that i had done for class that was based on the company i was interviewing for and she was really impressed so in the thank you letter i told her i would be happy to send her a copy if she would like. so that's why i was thinking that maybe she would respond but it doesn't matter.

i'm thinking that this is going to take longer than today to make a decision, during the interview she told me that they didn't have any spring interns because she took too long with her process. but who knows. i've been communicating with her for weeks before the interview was scheduled so maybe i have some advantage there.

 

[fashionyork]

Yes I will definitely look into that and ask the cc directly. But I was wondering if anyone knew if the Conde or Hearst would not allow me to receive credit at a community college, since that's not where I actually go to school? Or is that not a problem?

hey there. I was wondering if you figure it out the community college situation? i am in the process of changing schools and thought also of starting something in a CC to save some cash and try for those internships. Hope t*t worked out for you

 

[fashionyork]

BetteT, I just read the whole thread, and learned quite a few things from everyone's questions. Thank you for the insight.

I worked assisting stylists in NYC for fashion week and for fashion shoots, and also did my own styling gigs. I built an ok portfolio, but now I believe it is dated. I moved out of the city for a few years and now I'm going back. I plan to apply to a few colleges and my goal is to work as a stylist. What do you think would be my best approach?

 

[BetteT]

Your approach to get an internship for a stylist? Internships is what this thread is about ......

If you want to learn how to become a stylist, go here: All About Becoming a Fashion / Wardrobe Stylist #2
And the beginning of this long, long thread is here: All About Becoming a Fashion / Wardrobe Stylist

 

[fashionandstyle1]

Hey guys, question for you! I have already received an internship at a local lifestyle magazine, but as a backup I went on interview with a similar local mag and I *might* get that one as well. So, if I end up taking both of them, I was wondering if it's dishonest in any way not to tell each mag that I'm also interning at their competitor's mag at the same time? Is this something I should tell them or is it not a big deal? At the second mag, she said that they have to always keep an eye out for what the competition (ie the first mag) is writing about and try not to duplicate their stories...so obviously I won't be taking ideas or anything.

I also intend to put my internships on my LinkedIn page, so if I don't tell them and they see it on there, would they think I was being dishonest or anything? Any advice would be helpful, thanks!

 

[fashionandstyle1]

hey there. I was wondering if you figure it out the community college situation? i am in the process of changing schools and thought also of starting something in a CC to save some cash and try for those internships. Hope t*t worked out for you

I ended up getting an internship at a local magazine, and my interviewer was actually the one who suggested that I try to get credit at a community college instead of paying my private school tuition. So that answers the question of whether or not it's okay to get credit at a school you don't actually go to...at least for this specific company.

However, I found it very difficult to find a community college that offers internship credit, because many of them require you to have a certain number of units at the school before you can enroll in the internship class. So, you have to do some homework and look around in the area you want to find out what their rules are for getting into the class. Hope this helps!