Fashion Career Expert: Maria Pesin

Job Search: It’s all About the Training & Exposure

If you’re just beginning your career, the most important factor is to determine how a job you are interviewing for will help your career.  When first starting out, look for a company in your field doing the work you want to do. I have seen many young people take jobs that were not in their field of interest just to get a job. Not a good move and a definite waste of time.

The company should be successful and fairly large. So many times I hear from beginners that they went to work for a start-up company because they got to do everything and grow with the company. In very few instances does that work out. One company that I worked for in the beginning of my career was so short of money that they owed me my paycheck repeatedly. That got very old after 3 weeks. Frequently small companies go out of business and leaving no company to grow with. And if you do everything you do not learn to do any one aspect well.

Get a job in a field where you don’t have any contacts!

I work with a very talented, creative young woman. She has been depressed because she feels very bored and unfulfilled in her current job. She wasn’t even sure how to go about finding a job that she would love. We had a conversation and I convinced her to stop wasting time and just go for it.

I told her to brush up her resume and go to the HR departments of each of the companies (in her case magazines) and drop off her resume personally. With her great style and good communication skills, I know it will take no time at all before someone snapped her up.

The key message here is: do not be deterred. Find out the kind of companies you want to work for and go after them. Make believe you are going after a buyer who is going to buy your product, you!! Then mount a campaign. Find out who does the hiring at the companies where you want to work. Send them your resume with a cover letter telling them why you would be an asset to their company.

Then follow-up with a phone call to set up an interview. Be creative. Once I sent a statue of Mickey Mouse in a magic costume (like the one he wears in Fantasia), to a buyer that I was trying to meet, with no success. I put a note on the box saying “What magic do I have to do to set up an appointment?” It got her attention (she said it was the funniest thing she ever received) and I got the appointment. Remember, perseverance is what it takes.

Good luck!