All About Internships and Work Experience Placements

[BRALRO]

HI, I'm a fashion student doing my Erasmus in Milan and am interested in internship opportunities here.

Does anyone know websites where Milan students go to look for internship opportunities or other way? Thanks!

 

[LastNight]

I am a graphic designer and I graduated from University last Summer. So far I've completed 3 internships and between placements I've been working freelance on various different design briefs. The reason I got into graphic design was because of my passion for fashion magazines and photography, however at University I lost sight of the goal to work at a fashion publication and focused more on branding and typography design.

My internships were at a marketing agency, an interior design studio and I just finished working at a branding/digital design studio and now I feel somewhat at a loss as to what to do. I have a lot of experience, a full CV and portfolio but not enough examples of work specifically geared towards editorial design and I feel like I'm now at a disadvantage - employers understandably want to see examples related to what they do. It feels like I've just woken up, looked around and realised I'm a million miles from what I actually want to be doing.

I'm based in the UK (Manchester) and there are magazines in the city that I am planning on contacting. I'm wondering if I need to create some work of my own that shows my skills at editorial layout, the only thing stopping me is that it would be neither a University brief, nor a real-world project and I would just be making it up myself (which seems a bit stupid.) However, if it shows my abilities in that area then it surely would serve the purpose?

If anyone has any advice or some good knowledge about interning in the design department at magazines then I would be massively appreciative. I guess I don't really have a specific query, I'm more just interested to know about other people's experiences. Thank you in advance for any help you guys might have!

 

[BetteT]

Let me ask you this ... are you seeking a paid job, or just another unpaid internship? I would think that for an internship (at least in the US ... not sure about the UK ... maybe they call entry level "jobs" internships there) that you won't need to produce any of your own work, since you are there to learn about how the business runs, make connections and to provided just "grunt work". So, all you would have to do is to convince them that you are reliable, work hard, will do anything they ask with a positive attitude.

If this is actually paid work or an entry level job, then it's totally another topic. I think we should move this discussion to another thread (which I will have to dig for ... but I think there is one for finding paid work/applying for jobs in fashion and there is one for working a magazines, too.). There might be information in those threads that might give you some insight.

 

[Andrea.RL]

I don't have experience in that field, but I guess it could work both ways. As Bette says internships are "programs" to teach you about the job and you'll most likely be starting with the grunt work. But today it feels like there are a lot of people competing to get internships and even though you're there to learn some places look for people with prior experience or some level of skills so you have to show them what you're made of and what you know, and stand out of the crowd. In fashion design school, they had us working on our projects to fill our portfolios so we had something to present to the fashion houses we were striving for/at the interviews. I remember checking out the websites of a few of the students in my year at that time and recognized their work from school as well as reading on Facebook that some were working on personal projects for their portfolios all the while they were already interning.
I don't know how it would work for you, but if that's something you want to do, maybe collaborating with freshly graduated students in photography or other could be interesting, and it wouldn't be "making it up just for you" :-)

 

[LastNight]

Thanks for your replies guys! For my previous internships I've always had to submit a portfolio of design work, it's the done thing when submitting an application in the graphic design field, everyone wants to see examples of work whether it's a paid or unpaid internship or a full time job and my internships have always been paid or at least covered travel and lunch expenses.

I feel like I definitely need to complete another placement or internship before I can apply for full time jobs, especially as I need more relevant experience in the editorial design world. I'll have a look for those threads you mentioned BetteT but if you find them before me I'd really appreciate having a read through them!

 

[BetteT]

Ah ... sounds like you know more about what they want for graphic arts interns than I do.

Here are a few somewhat related threads, that might interest you:

How to Get Work in Fashion Magazine Publishing (see Post #1 for related threads)

All about Resumes / CV's and Cover Letters for Jobs and Internships

Fashion Jobs- Interview Tips

 

[LastNight]

Thank you so much! I'm definitely going to read through these and hopefully pick up some tips.

Thanks again, I really appreciate it

 

[FashionNenetl]

Internship in Paris

-Hey,
I am going to study in Paris in the second semester and I would like to assist some fashion stylist or get the chance to intern at a fashion magazine.
Does anyone know any sites that offer such kind of internships?
Thank you for your help.

 

[JaneCurtain]

-Hey,
I am going to study in Paris in the second semester and I would like to assist some fashion stylist or get the chance to intern at a fashion magazine.
Does anyone know any sites that offer such kind of internships?
Thank you for your help.

Bonjour!

FashionJobs is nice...
Then, I would advise you to directly email the editors, stylists / or sometimes just follow, like, comment their Instagram and eventually ask in they would need some help

Good luck !

 

[JaneCurtain]

I have only one suggestion:

Did you use French when you emailed them? If not, maybe try try again that way. I'm assuming that it's probably a prime requirement that you be fluent in French in order to work there. So, if the email was in English, they may have opted to ignore your request for information.

Their language is a source of pride to the French people ... and you will be in Paris, probably working with mostly French speaking employees, so I think this will be important.

True, although fashion companies based in Paris are more and more getting used to hire non-French people