On a scale of Subway Sweeper to Ice Cream Taster we’d probably pin our fashion jobs around the eight or nine mark, but it seems we’re in the minority. A new survey conducted by New York talent recruitment firm 24 Seven reveals that only 48 percent of those in the industry are content with their jobs — down from 51 percent last year.
Apparently fashion workers are also less satisfied with their work-life balance. Only 14 percent of the 1,300 asked were “highly satisfied” with their jobs. The happiest hailed from luxury markets and the least fulfilled are slogging it out for high street brands. Surprise, surprise.
BUT we are getting paid more! So if you’re willing to toil on in this horrible career path, subjecting yourself to the horrors of beautiful clothes on a daily basis in the hopes of being amongst that 32 percent of employees who saw their pay rise by at least 10 percent in the past year, we’ve put together our five top tips for making the industry less insufferable.
Take advantage of freebies
“You were calling, boss?”
One of the best things about working in fashion is all the free stuff. You will never be short of canvas tote bags, USB sticks and nail polishes called Cougar Attack or Sugar Daddy.
If you work in fashion and have purchased a mascara in the last 24 months, you’re doing something terribly wrong. And if you have ever scratched a PR company’s logo off a coffee mug and reg-gifted it to your dad, you’ve been doing this for too long.
Learn to find a happy medium, where your cosmetics bill is cut by at least half and your friends cover every bar tab in exchange for dry shampoo.
Wear ridiculous clothes
There aren’t too many jobs where you can wear overalls or blue hair to a meeting and still be taken seriously. We really do feel for people who can’t brighten up dull days with a healthy dose of neon green, or who have to work under the sovereignty of ill-fitting suits and toe shoes.
You also get brownie points for a wearing crazy outfits while standing next to an off-guard elderly woman on the subway, because obviously your shoes “made her day.”
Have a neurotic personality
Eccentricity doesn’t have to stop at your outward appearance. Fashion is a job where yelling down telephone receivers and at your computer screen is generally not frowned upon, especially if it’s because Taylor Swift totally tried to upstage Dita von Teese at the Fragrance Foundation Awards.
Become best friends with your Starbucks guy
You’ll be drinking so much coffee that they’ll know your order by rote and will never misspell your name, even if it’s MyKynzy or Wheatney.
Network, network, “network”
When you work in fashion, networking is part of your job. You get paid to go on Facebook, check Twitter, go to parties and sip specialty cocktails. But “networking” is a word that is very hard to define, and this is something you should be taking advantage of.
We’re not saying you should slack off, but we are saying it’s worth chatting up that Ken doll who was hired to pass around h’ors d’oeurves. He might have “connections.” This is also a great excuse to go out every night of the week, simply because “you never know who might be there.”
