The #TRYHARD Diaries: Landing My First Fashion Internship
(Credit)
Landing my first New York City internship from the West Coast was no easy feat. There were a few factors here that made this incredibly difficult: I was located on the West Coast and was NOT going to a school known for being fashion forward. I attended Oregon State, and had zero experience interviewing for corporate fashion roles. So why would a company even bother interviewing a girl with all of the previously mentioned issues? New York is full of fashion students who can drop by on a whim and have internship coordinators pushing for them to get these roles.
I really wish I would’ve created a comprehensive list of all the place I sent my resume to between the fall of 2012 and early spring of 2013. In those early days my resume was met with absolute silence. Around February of 2013 I was extremely disappointed that not a single person or company had gotten back to me. I was 20 - 21, around the age that most fashion kiddies are when they start their first rounds of internships.
I had an extensive background in retail and a portfolio of my fashion merchandising class projects that my teachers were convinced would get me noticed. I was also one of the founding members of my college’s student ran fashion publication. As someone who has by nature always been extremely competitive and an overachieving #TRYHARD type I was at a complete loss.
(Knowing what I know now, I get why this all happened but, at the time it was crushing.)
Finally after months of applying I got an email from the Public Relations Manager at Marc Fisher Footwear for an initial phone interview. I was ecstatic! I was equally nervous and equally excited to ramble on about all the “fashion-y” things I was doing at school and how I thought I was being soooooo innovative with my school’s new fashion publication.
Fun Note: At the time Oregon State’s Merchandising and Apparel Design departments had a really “fun” hierarchy of who mattered within the program.
I want to say it took about two weeks before the Manager who interviewed me got back letting me know that I had landed the internship. In the end my enthusiasm for my program and my extra curricular activities won him over! I can’t express enough that when you’re first starting out and really trying to land those first internships how important it is to sell yourself and be enthusiastic for what you’re working on. When you don’t have a lot of relative corporate experience or even previous internships – landing an internship with a bigger more corporate company can be hard. One of your best resources are you internship coordinators at your schools and I would strongly suggest when you’re applying to companies you’re interested in to see if there is alumni from your school currently working with the company.
(This was the outfit I wore on my first day at Marc Fisher Footwear in 2013! I can't even tell you how long I stressed over this outfit and how I'm cringing a little looking back on it now - haha.)
I am also a believer in sending a well written email to lower level coordinators and managers at companies just to start a dialogue. One of the things I’ve certainly struggled with over the years is finding a mentor of sorts or someone who can offer even the slightest glimpse of insight into some of these companies or how to better position yourself for these roles. I myself as well as many of my colleagues who aren’t from New York or don’t have super typical “fashion girl” backgrounds are huge advocates for offering advice and being a resource however we can. We know its hard!
P.S. It’s still kind of hard.
Here are a few wonderful online resources for finding your first internships:
Fashionista
Freefashioninternships.com
LinkedinIn – Of course!
Indeed.com - be wary of the keywords you use in your search
Is anyone out there in #STEEMIT land currently working on securing spring internships? I know its that time of year!
I'm happy to help in any way I can and between myself and my colleagues we have a pretty decent rolodex of contacts throughout the fashion industry in the New York City area.
The #TRYHARD diaries is a passion project of mine to provide insight about breaking into the fashion industry to anyone who might not be sure where to start. From experience, I know how hard it can be to break into the fashion industry, and want to be a resource for as many fashion #TRYHARDs as I can!
Check out my first post in these series: An introduction to #trying to make it in the Fashion industry.
#fashionindustry #fashion101 #fashionpr #fashioninternships #internships
Okay, first of all, I love the way this post was written.
But also, isn't it sad that us millennials (or whoever comes after millennials) have had to scrounge for internships? It essentially kicks out (most) people who don't come from a place of privilege, particularly in a city as expensive as New York. Unfortunately I've found that the single most important factor in breaking into any industry is making connections, unless you get extraordinarily lucky--for instance, stumbling on the right recruiter at a moment where they're desperate to hire anyone who looks remotely qualified to start ASAP--that's how I found my first career job. That itself is barrier #2 to people who are not coming from a place of privilege, because people with successful parents tend to be exposed to successful or influential people from an early age. (To clarify, I'm not making any assumptions as to your background in particular; there are of course exceptions.) But your advice is good--I agree with the strategy of reaching out to lower level people and seeing what intel you can get.
It is so sad how we have to scrounge!
While I feel like internships are VERY important and allow for you to get some real world experience under your belt while still in college, I find the fact that most are unpaid is grossly disgusting (all of mine were). There is definitely a level of privilege involved in interning I do agree. I myself took out a private student loan to fund my very first summer in New York. This loan was able to cover my flight, housing, and allotted me a certain amount of money to spend while I was in the city for the summer (though I have no idea how I survived on that amount of money for 3 months when I look back at it now). I ended up paying this loan off by selling my car right before I moved back to New York to live fulltime.
Connections are absolutely everything which is why I always stress to never burn bridges! You never know where people are going to end up! Coming from a rural farming community and attending a college that is definitely NOT on the same level as an FIT or Parsons I found it very hard to get ahead with limited resources and connections when I was first starting out. I always envied the kids whose parents funded their lives or the kids who could walk into an interview decked in designer when I was pulling together stuff trying to be on the same level. And once you fall into the temp-freelance trap it's hard to climb out of there as well.
Perma-lance is an entirely different post I’ll be tackling.
I could go on forever! But, my goal here is just to be a resource as best I can speaking from my experiences.
Do you live in New York as well? I’d love to hear more about what you do and where your journey has taken you.
Thank you for your feedback! <3
I lived in New York for a couple of years (2013-2015), but I moved back home to LA. New York just wasn't for me (I suck at tolerating real weather!), but then again, I'm not in the fashion industry. I currently work in the digital media industry, but I'm a former academic, and a lifelong side hustler. I tutor high school kids, freelance write, and work part time for a crypto exchange. I'm just the sort of person who constantly needs to be working on stuff and creating new things, which is why Steemit has been so great for me so far! Hopefully side hustling can be my full time thing soon--that's my goal for this year. :)
I thought I knew some things about tolerating weather having come from Eastern Oregon but, the winters here are just a little to long for me! I’ve been dreaming of making a pilgrimage to LA or Florida. I’m 110% not a California person though, I relate to hard to Amy Schumers feelings on what it's like walking down the street in LA (Why is that octopus out on Sunset?).
I feel that side hustle mindset and I know my platonic soulmate @taylerworrell can relate! I find that when I’m working full time like I am now, especially in such a corporate company I have more down time then when I’m working on freelance projects and it kills me. I always feel so behind when I’m not super busy or stressing! Which I feel like might be a side effect from all the internships where they demand the world from you… As a strategy minded person I’d love to talk about the steps you are taking to making hustling your fulltime – as I am attempting something sort of similar and would love to compare notes. If you’re down for sharing your trade secrets :)
I moved to LA for a bit to pursue my fashion photography ( I am from London) and its a LOT more commercial you won't get so many opportunities for high fashion s just depends on your preference. I find people in LA expect to get paid whereas in NY and London we are willing to do a lot more for free this is good and bad.I noticed in LA. a lot of people with like 0 portfolio or something in London we would consider pretty bad just expected to get paid for tests from the photographer who wouldn't be making any money from this shoot. This mindset just seemed to keep them stuck and with rubbish portfolios. In London and I assume New York we test a lot and build our books where all creatives give up there time and the stylists in general a LOT stronger than any I saw in LA and I think really people in LA just expect to get paid right away without any real skill level. I also find it weird how they expect a photographer who is also testing to pay them especially when their portfolio is much slimmer and not as good as the photographer. It's just a different mindset good perhaps for making money but also somewhat delusional for becoming great. I think problem we ended up finding here though is people working for clients for free /cheap. That has seriously diluted the industry to where everyone expects everything for nothing, but I thought the testing was great to build skills and books when everyone is gaining from the experience and no one profiting more than the others. I think borrowing clothes was weird in LA too they had to pay to borrow here pr loan for free so that added to the fact none of them wanted to test unless it was a paid shoot and it just meant it was REALLY hard to find talented stylists etc over there.
I love to get the West Coast vs. East Coast perspective – so thank you for this! I feel like being based out of New York for just about anything creative is a double edge sword. On one hand you get the whole, I’m trying to hack it in New York in one of those most oversaturated cities in the industry so there is a certain pride in that. On the other hand… unless youre a super established insider its so hard to break into the industry AND GET PAID.
As you mentioned there is some amazing talent out here and everyone is just scrapping by, especially in the beginning working for free and its so tragic because it feels like at this point - by the time all of the creatives are 25+ and have been buiding their books already for quite awhile you wouldn’t think it would be out of the question to get paid! My girl @kenseyjean is an amazing photographer and shes touched on her social media sometimes about her experinces in the industry that sound very similar to yours.
So weird that PR wants to be paid to loan samples out there! I get it for celebrity dressing but for a test shoot or an editorial in general? No way!
Have you shot in New York before? Is it New York where you were finding its hard to find talented stylists or LA?
I promise that LA isn't as bad as they say it is! It just depends on where you are. I avoid any neighborhood with "Hollywood" in the name, or anything adjacent to them. It's really the transplants coming to LA who were the most popular kids in their small town high schools and want to emulate Entourage. They tend to move to those neighborhoods. For those of us who just grew up here in the suburbs it's a totally different experience. There's a lot of cool stuff here, and the weather is unbeatable!
My main thing right now is getting my foot in the door with part time gigs and seeing if something turns out to be sustainable and reliable enough. Would be amazing to be one of those people who make their living on here (or even part of it) but I am under no illusions that would be easily accomplished overnight.
Hi : ) invite to my profile, everyday new fashion inspiration : )
So excited to hear your journeys in the #TRYHARD series!
I'm excited to share <3
you are always so inspiring!
Speak for yourself lady! You yourself have a lot amazing things going on. Thank you <3
This is such a cool post!
I lovvvveee fashion, and I try my best to blog about t but it is not easy on this platform, yet! Can't wait to hear more!
Thank you, I’m so glad you like it! I’m really hoping to see the “Fashion – Creative - Lifestyle Community on here really grow and I’m sure as it does it will become easier to blog on here. What kind of challenges are you experiencing currently that make it more difficult?
congrats on this! New York is a great place to be for what you are doing too x
I love how the comments in this post are a West Coast vs East Coast dialogue. Growing up in farm town Ohio, I was always drawn to the promise of New York as the beacon of opportunity. After finishing my undergrad in Columbus, Ohio, I took a totally different direction and moved first to Montana, then Washington state. Basically, you and I went the opposite directions haha. I've loved the Pacific Northwest so far. The mentality of the people on this side of the country aligns better with my own. And I love mountains. So much.