I may be aging myself, but remember when the Wednesday issue of WWD was the holy grail of finding a job!!??!
It seems to me that Stylecareers and Linkendin have been the most effective at making the job search successful. The bigger companies have these online portals which seem to just equate to throwing your resume down a hole, hoping its found. Recruiters have also helped, as I’ve garnered personalized relationships with certain agencies and I knew I could count on them to get me something I wanted.
What’s been your experience and who’s been the most effective?
I feel you… WWD really dropped the ball. StyleCareers really took over this area. They are more personable than LinkedIn…you can actually get someone by email (even though I think LinkedIn is important too…you know a recruiter will look you up on LinkedIn). StyleCareers recently critiqued my resume (for free) and gave GREAT pointers. Did you know adding a keyword box at the bottom of your resume will help get it picked up by applicant tracking systems at these bigger companies? I had no idea! I also really like their tailored job alerts and news articles pertaining to the fashion industry. They have been a big help to me!
I’ve always had the most success with utilizing my personal network, but LinkedIn has been a fairly good source of work as well. I hear directly from managers and HR depts that way. I don’t work with independent recruiters unless I know they already have a direct working relationship with the brand they are recruiting for - Otherwise they are more often than not just a waste of time. I use style careers the way I used to use WWD / less to apply for jobs, more to keep an eye on industry churn.
Stylecareers has been the most successful for me. I’ve been through a lot of recruiters who have contacted me mostly through Linkedin, though those job interviews I have been on through recruiters have mostly been a waste of time.
Keyword box is like a text box from your word processing program. The content could start with your LinkedIn skills inventory, each skill “keyword” from your resume in a comma delimited format. Separating this from the body of the resume and placing it at the end of the document some folks put a visible box around the keywords. The keywords in the text box can also come from the target job description(s) that may look awkward on your resume for so many reasons (the company has an office so interactions are all face to face, archaic processes, related industry segments) The idea here is to produce a list of words that best captures your experiences/skills and that best aligns with the position description(s). After creating the text box content, you can visibly hide the text box content by making the font in the box and the box border white.
LinkedIN has never worked for me it is discriminatory and the HR’s that utilize that definitely don’t like names like mine that are ‘foreign’ even though I am a born Indigenous American woman of color. A lot of those platforms are only beneficial for white and white-passing people even if they ARE illegal and working here under visa. Meanwhile people like me that are INFLUENTIAL in art, beauty, fashion, marketing, social media and tech… we always get sidelined. My network and referral networking is #1 but also just commanding my own agency works. That’s it.
I used them for freelance work, never full time placement. I stopped getting as many calls from them several years ago - They were getting more jobs for junior designers than they were for senior level, but I have had good relationships with a lot of people there, and a few have called me when they went on to work directly in HR departments or for other agencies. They were also very helpful when I was considering a move to another city they had offices in.
Suggest to step back from stereotypes or labeling and passionately embrace your brand of being influential in art, fashion, marketing… Maybe for LinkedIn you could experiment with initials for your first and second name, or a make a brand name for yourself, or some combination of the two. I am a big fan of the brand name - used like a nick name. With a little research came up with Everett (https://nameberry.com/babyname/Everett) The name Everett is a unisex name of German, English origin meaning “brave as a wild boar”. Aligns with being a force for transformation, power to make a real difference, and a guiding influence for fashion - make the focus that in your brand name, first lines of your profile summary, and in the first lines of your position summaries. See how that works for you!
…and the dirty little secret in the fashion industry is that some companies use third-party recruitment agencies to avoid hiring people of the ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation.
Yes, Back in the day could not find copy of WWD in the office on Wednesday’s… Have been extremely lucky, resourceful to land great jobs on my own without a recruiter but last employment prior to Covid-19 was listed on Stylecareers website☺️
Stylecareers is the leader in the fashion job search market. I also like BOF for the higher end or luxury market. LinkedIn has great tools but its algorithm cannot differentiate between the different types of designers. So a fashion designer who signs up for a job after will also get postings for graphic designers, ux/ui designers, technical designers etc. I’ve written to them a couple times about improving this issue but their response was it’s not as big a deal. WWD dropped the ball.
I’ve mostly used LinkedIn with moderate success, but my most recent jobs have all been due to word of mouth. StyleCareers isn’t utilized much by fashion companies in my immediate area.
I have been very discouraged with Style Careers. The majority of posts are from recruiting agencies, and if I apply for the job, I rarely hear back. I have seen the same jobs posted so many times, I am doubtful they exist - I think the agency is just collecting resumes. 99% of the recruiters I have worked with are unresponsive, uninterested, and often rude and disrespectful. Fourth Floor is the worst.
LinkedIn is hit or miss. I have found the best way to find a job is through your personal network.
To be fair, most of the companies in fashion/retail are laying people off and/or going bankrupt. The agencies are the only ones posting jobs. Normally, StyleCareers limits the number of jobs from agencies to only 20% of the total ads. COVID is hurting everyone.
Understandable that it is mostly agencies posting right now, and I have no issue with that. However, my negative experiences with agencies goes back many years. No one I know has a positive opinion of recruiting agencies. I was referred to the owner of an agency by a personal friend of the owner, and she was rude and dismissive. One of many episodes experienced by myself or a colleague. I don’t feel that I can avoid agencies completely, but there are a few that I will not engage with - I deserve to be treated with respect, and I simply will not accept less.