“Read. See. Expand“: that’s how you’ll get somewhere in fashion. And no, these aren’t my own words (I’m no fashion career expert, and certainly not the kind of girl to quote herself. Yet). They come from Emily Zak, Vogue’s Retail Editor, during her address at the WEXO-sponsored LSE Fashion Society career event last night.

So in case you’re confused, this week’s blog is a bit of a departure from the norm. Last night our offices at WEXO Towers were inundated with well-dressed hordes of LSE fashionistas eager to learn from five guest speakers. Our stylish and incredibly experienced panel included: Chloe Lonsdale, founder of MiH Jeans; Kinvara Balfour, fashion writer and London Editor of Daily Candy.com; Austique’s co-founder Katie Canvin; and Ruby Dhillon, manager of Gucci fragrances at Procter & Gamble.

Needless to say, we found ourselves in the company of some pretty driven and well-connected women.

When I wasn’t furiously flooding the WEXO twitter account with event tweets, I drew on five different routes to success that our guests highlighted:

1. Experience is everything. Put in the work at internships and placements, and you will be rewarded.
2. An artistic and culturally-aware approach will get you far. If references to ‘A Love Story’, the history of French couture houses and the difference between raglan and dolman sleeves are lost on you, you need to read more. All the fine details are magnified when it comes to a feel for and knowledge of fashion.
3. Starting a fashion company needs a business-savvy approach. Now that sounds almost redundant and obvious, but meticulous planning can hardly be stressed enough.
4. An opportunity to get your foot in the door may spring up at any point. Always be prepared, and don’t forget about the importance of nearby, untapped contacts.
5. A strong work ethic and passion to succeed in any enterprise will be invaluable in fashion. If you’re resilient, this is the industry for you.

Wow. Fashion and the military seem to have more in common than autumn’s trends of olive-green parkas and utilitarian detailing, huh? Persistence is key to making it in fashion, so we thought we’d help point you in the right direction towards building up your style knowledge. Our panel suggest checking out blogs from the Coolhunter, Jak & Jil, Garance Doré, Nowness, Fifi Lapin and of course Vogue.com. In their view, blogs are a new and exciting platform for fashion, but still can’t quite match the reach and presence of good old-fashioned print magazines.

Got more questions of your own for our panel? We’ll be collating them here in the comments section, or on the wall our Facebook fan page. Here’s your chance to unleash any burning questions of the fashion sort. We’ll also be posting video footage from the night soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Overall if I learned anything last night it’s that hard work and a refusal to fail will be the perfect ingredients for anyone looking to break into the industry. On that note, forward march!

Tshepo Mokoena

Photos courtesy of Chu Ting Ng at TheQualified blog.

Internships, internships, internships: At my university that’s all anyone seems to talk about, and this time last year it was starting to freak me out!

You see, at the London School of Economics I am surrounded by lots of really clever economists and finance geniuses, not to mention those who study law or management. These are the lucky few who have their career paths laid out in front of them; the ones we give evils to across the library floor, the ones who have it all too easy!

‘But what about the rest of us’, we chant in chorus, ‘what hope is there for us?’

Well today I am here to tell you not to panic. There are in fact a huge number of internship opportunities out there for people just like you and I in a wide variety of industries and roles, two of which I would like to share my experience of.

During the past year I have been working as an intern one day a week at the one and only WEXO, looking at ways to develop their student marketing campaigns. This has given me a great insight into what it’s like to work for a growing start-up and the sort of responsibility this entails.

There are loads of advantages to working for a small firm, particularly as an intern. Because there are fewer employees than in a big corporation you get much more of an overview of how the whole company runs, and hopefully get to help out with lots of different aspects of the firm. This is a fantastic opportunity if you are not sure what role you see yourself doing in future (which let’s face it, most of us don’t). The breadth of experience available at small firms is invaluable and I believe there is a huge amount of satisfaction in seeing your ideas come to life.

It’s a steep learning curve and you may feel like you’re being thrown in at the deep end at first, but I believe it is definitely the best way to learn. From a social perspective, working at a small start-up is usually a lot of fun and more laid-back than may be the case at some of the bigger firms. Moreover the people you work with are the sort of people who are really entrepreneurial and full of great ideas. This is what I really love about being part of the super cool WEXO family.

On the other side of the coin, you have the ‘Big Guys’. These are the firms with thousands of employees, those annoyingly long application forms and really structured internship schemes. I have to be honest the combination of these factors was rather off-putting for me; I was intimidated to approach any of the big firms like L’Oreal and Procter and Gamble because I felt like a very small fish in a very big pond!

I finally plucked up the courage to send my application off to P&G on the day of the deadline and if I’m honest I didn’t expect a response. However, it turns out the work I had been doing at WEXO was pretty interesting to the ‘Big Guys’ and I was fortunate to be offered a summer internship working in Sales at P&G.

This was a fantastic experience and I was able to learn a huge amount about the world of business, how to persuasively present my ideas and how to effectively manage a group of people as well as sales skills relevant to my role. I met some great people at P&G and made some excellent contacts. I’m not going pull the wool over your eyes however: there were some really long days, and the work was challenging but fortunately there were lots of people to help me through and teach me the ropes. It was great to be able to work so closely with some really knowledgeable people.

I truly believe that getting yourself an internship is an invaluable career opportunity. For me personally, it is really a case of: ‘You don’t realise just how much you don’t know until you’ve done one!’ I truly feel in a much stronger position applying to jobs now than I would have been without these experiences on my CV. Of course for employers, the fact that you have gone out there and used your free time to learn new skills and take an interest in the world of work is a big tick in their box!

Whether you chose to intern at a small start-up or a big corporation is a personal preference. Both offer fantastic opportunities to learn and personally develop your own skills and confidence. If you can, try both. You can never have too much experience! WEXO have some amazing opportunities on their site that I would definitely advise applying for. Equally you should have a look at some corporate schemes and really work out what you feel suits you best.

There really are so many opportunities out there for people just like you and me.
Now it’s up to you to make them your own!

Emma Roberts

If I learned one thing from interning as a marketing assistant at Abercrombie and Kent Travel, it was the pretty big difference between how new and well-established companies work. I realised after my first month that A&K wasn’t the same as the start-ups I’d interned for before, like Third Year Abroad and Extreme. It was not so free and easy. My managers were much older, more experienced and had their way of doing things: they expected nothing less than perfection! I left with some really useful contacts and experiences in terms of understanding what was expected in a solid, long-running multinational company like A&K.

For example there are things I took for granted when looking through role descriptions, such as

1. the importance of time keeping;
2. working to a deadline;
3. prioritising and organisation;
4. using one’s initiative and;
5. communicating efficiently with other people to achieve a result.

The advantage of work experience with reputable companies like A&K comes from understanding the importance of these skills, and also picking up others. On a practical level, I learned about editing images, using Excel beyond only spreadsheets, using new software like Common Spot Web Content Management as well as how to write press releases, and executive reports. This kind of know-how is what turns into loads of confidence when applying for jobs.

The final great thing about work experience is that you can discover what sort of work you enjoy doing, the kind of people you enjoy working with and what kind of things you want to get better at. And if it’s not going well then you know you can change direction when it’s over, no strings attached, having made some great contacts.

Alex Janson

The place was the Brighton Institute of Modern Music, where I trained as a vocalist on a one-year diploma, having completed my BA in Development Studies at the University of Sussex in June 2009. The time came when I muscled my way onto a work experience mailing list within the school, normally reserved for students on the degree programme. An unpaid radio broadcast assistant position was posted at Tony Marks’ New Music Show on local station Brighton Juice FM and looked like an exciting combination of music editorial and hands-on experience with bands in the studio. I applied immediately, and had my interview booked by the end of the day. Time to brush up and start listening to the show, huh?

My first task was to research and write up a nine-question interview for new LA band, Girls, before I’d even met Tony. That night I heard my own words crackle over the radio and felt the kind of excitement that’s recently pushed me towards finding work opportunities in the music industry, and world of media in general. Fast forward a few days: I’d managed to get through the interview and was in the studio for my evening shift. Each week I was responsible for setting up the main sound-bites for the show’s highlighted tracks, as well as for preparing interviews with bands on nights when I wouldn’t come in. Alongside great research and editorial experience I was given free gig tickets where I could blag them with friendly Brighton bands, and learned how to think fast and find solutions under the time pressure of the ever-ticking clock in-studio.

Right place, right time and a great insight into the world of small-scale radio broadcasting: so sums up my time at Juice.

Tshepo Mokoena

Anyway, I must admit that I was ecstatic! Not just about all those hours, coffees (and red bulls) in the library finally paying off, but the new slight sense of relief I was now experiencing in regards to my job hunt. The ‘it must be easy to get a great job doing exactly what I want’ vibe which my friends and I celebrated and relaxed in the knowledge of for the next week (well a month if I’m truthful).
In hindsight, the economy and headless suits slightly brought my reverie into a premature end.

All I wanted to do was travel when I left university, but I knew that at some point I would want to knuckle down and make something of myself. I didn’t know ‘exactly’ know what I wanted to do, but got stuck into various jobs to try my hand – in property, fashion and pr with a variety of corporate and start up businesses. I enjoyed my jobs and learnt invaluable skills along the way, but got slightly tiresome of being the bottom rung of the ladder, and not really knowing how long my job would be available for.

It was at this point after receiving through the daily vacancy email results and a recruitment company progress meeting scheduled for the following week that I found an advert for an internship at Ivy Lettings.

Now I had always fantasised about working in the travel industry as I think many graduates do these days; the idea of combining a serious career with the travel bug which never truly leaves your system. The internship was to work for a small company holding a niche position in the travel market – offering a ‘home from home’ experience in London for travellers. Having experience in marketing, properties and travel – I applied immediately!

I met Guy in the Westfield’s centre, (perhaps a secret shopaholic?!) and chatted through what I could bring to the company. Only then did I learn that by ‘small company’ it was just 1 person and it was a rare chance to get involved with an entrepreneurial company from its early stages with opportunities for growth all around. I was shocked to say the least but impressed! (And my first impressions were indeed correct with his eyes flickering towards the Mac store and our office now being the Mac showroom of Kensington!)

It is a very different thing working for a small business and even more so when on your first day you move into the new office and organise everything from phone lines and stationary to where the nearest coffee shops are as you haven’t got any kitchen supplies in yet. But without a doubt it allows you to feel part of something new and exciting from the very beginning, and even better, has given me such as diverse role that I don’t think I could ever go back to the corporate side of things.

Working in a small team can feel strange at first and the team meetings are granted a bit strange/pointless with just the two of us. But the over-riding advantage is the vast role variety and opportunities which only a small growing business can offer. No two days are the same, with meeting new clients, new properties, website management and marketing schemes as just a few, as well as business expansion ideas and strategies when you get the time. There are so many new avenues to explore that there is never a dull moment. I believe that business really does work to the motto that you reap what you sow, and just as it was the most satisfying moment seeing those percentage marks pop up on the computer screen a couple of years ok, it is rewarding to read rave reviews on the internet after your hard work and watching the business expand –we’ve just taken on a third colleague!

The best thing about small businesses also rings true with internships – the opportunity to get stuck in and try things! No one can ever be good at everything, but only by trying your hand at diverse tasks and inevitably doing things wrong at some point will teach you your strengths and being able to play to these is key with employers. Being thrown in at the deep end can be daunting, or rather IS daunting but only in hindsight will you realise how many skills you learn and perhaps discover that you never knew you had. Even often overlooked aspects such as the confidence you gain working with unfamiliar people and meeting new clients are invaluable skills which employers will look for (especially in that all important confident hand shake).

The willingness to try and get stuck in is what employers will be most impressed with and might be the deciding factor in turning an internship or opportunity into a full time position.

For the past 4 months, I have been working for new start-up, made.com, an online furniture company, backed by Brent Hoberman, that cuts out the middleman by ordering in bulk and thus delivers at affordable prices. Design or furniture was never something I thought I’d start having an interest in at all so it took a while for me to come round to the idea. My responsibilities here have been varied; I am first port of call for all customer and press enquiries (which can get pretty busy), I also write the design blog on our site and have started doing the copy for product pages. It is a varied role and although I am still trying to explore and pinpoint what I would ideally like to do as a career, it has been an enlightening experience. Working in a small start-up company is educational as you are exposed to all sorts of vocations and involved in many different decisions. Opinions count and working in a small team makes you feel like you’re really part of it.

Since starting here in April, our collection has tripled and we launch a new product every week. This means there is always something to do and with our first deliveries, lots of customers to deal with. This can be quite testing but it does teach you to be patient and deal with all sorts of angry, frustrated or sometimes even happy people!

Looking back over the past few months, this has been time well spent, as I had come to the end of my tether with temping agencies and tedious, unrewarding roles. I have now gained more hands-on experience, feel like a part of something and I’m still not entirely sure what I want to do but I’ve learnt a lot and it has undoubtedly been a good starting point.

Nicola Seagroatt

I’ve just been down at the 2010 Secret Garden Party wearing my other hat as manager of gypsy swing band, Mano de Dios. They blew away the Main Stage on Friday and the Gaia Soundscape Stage on Sunday. I’m not entirely sure what happened in between but bizarrely there was much talk of generals, the humidity and mead. We even found ourselves playing at a gig in Oxford on the Saturday night. What was interesting about going to the festival as a manager though was realising the amount of people involved behind the scenes and seeing how many vocations collaborate to make events like this happen.

I’ve met a lot of WEXO users recently interested in getting into the music industry and I’m lucky enough to share an office with a new era music company. The impression I get is that that most people looking to break into the industry still want to work in A&R – finding the next big band. But with traditional revenues at the major labels in decline due to free downloads etc there’s just not the same requirement or the same kind of job role as detailed in a very amusing way in the book Kill Your Friends (essential reading for an inside perspective on what life used to be like!).

But the thing is that there are plenty of other roles available in the music industry and it’s worth finding out more about jobs in the worlds of synchronisations and publishing or looking at working in the big revenue contributors of Live (e.g. Live Nation) or Merchandising (e.g. Brothers Entertainment Merchandising). We’ve got plenty of music companies on WEXO too.

We’ve got a long way to go but if you’re interested in management, I’d be delighted to speak to you and the most informative reading (if a little dry) I can recommend is The Music Management Bible. Otherwise the video above is me interviewing management maestro Terry McBride on why not to be a Civil Engineer, why to work in the industry and how he sees it changing…

2 weeks to recover and we’ll be back at The Big Chill and Standon Calling (reduced tickets here) on the 7th and 8th August. Hope to see some of you there.

Robin Kennedy
Co-Founder & CEO
WEXO

I became interested in this internship after hearing Paul Harrison, managing partner at Carve, talk at a WEXO ambassadors meeting earlier in the year. His impressive presentation described the effect social media is having in changing the way companies think and operate and made me keen to learn more about what Carve do.

After doing my own research on their website and reading some articles about social media on the Internet, I applied to become a summer ‘twintern’ at Carve. Following an interview with Paul Harrison and Adelaide Harrison, I was offered to join the team for a month.

My experience at Carve has completely surpassed my expectations. Not only were the Carve team extremely welcoming, they have also taught me a great deal. What I loved about the internship was that I was immediately given useful work to do, with real clients to engage with. For instance, even after the first week at Carve I was accompanying the team to meet clients, taking part in devising strategies and helping to write proposals and presentations. I found being able to have this level of input and responsibility was invaluable as work experience.

Looking back on the following few weeks of the internship, I am amazed at how many different projects I was able to work on. In one month I worked on projects for music companies, wine companies, charities, banks and online video companies. What was exciting was that each company required a different strategy and approach, which brought a great deal of variety to the experience and kept it very fast-paced.

My internship at Carve has been a hugely rewarding experience and one that will undoubtedly help me in the future.

This experience has emphasised to me the value of real work experience, which may have a direct benefit for gaining employment in a similar area or provide an invaluable insight into employment opportunities you may have been unaware of to help your career choice.