A college degree is a must for any decent career. Obviously the more well-known and more highly-regarded the university the better. You would be easily intimidated and drown in a corporate buying environment without said degree and therefore appropriate number of years to your age that it takes to get one.
Sears, K-mart, Target, Walmart will all give you an incredibly solid training (as well as cash), but having worked as a buyer who distributed to all of the above stores, their buyers were pretty much forced to beat up on suppliers until the desired price was achieved. With those stores being so powerful, we all had to comply, even if it was a losing proposition--then they would attempt charge-backs, fees on late shipments that were their fault, etc, etc.
Retailing is such a competitive business these days that things often get kind of nasty, so documentation for your every move/decision is necessary (cya).
Any employer who really cares about the fashion aspect of it assumes that you've generally come by it on your own & they know that most fashion people will put up with all kind of cr*p to work in what they love. That is why asst. buyers pay is so awful and the position takes so long to work out of--& why buyers often treat their assistants so poorly (b/c they were treated badly as assts). It's a pathetic and lousy tradition.
JJohnson, get your degree & suck it up & work for boring Sears for a little while--then move on to a place that you love. Perhaps an internship or part-time job at Sears while you're in school would expedite the process. Whatever you decide, good luck!
( ) but I would love to do that job! BTW I know Sears is in Chicago, but I didnt know that Kmart was 
Oh BTW once more, how old must one be to get one of these jobs? Is a college degree a must, and what is the highest degree one should have? A masters?
but yea..i will do marketing and stuff to reach my goals..I've been taking French for 3 years so I hope that helps!
