Recruiting Process for the Fashion Industry

To increase your chances of landing a job, it is important for you to use all of your available resources. The recruiting process has many steps including career exploration, industry & organization research, applications, networking and interviewing. The Villanova Career Center has resources including Handshake, Big Interview, Vault Career Guides and many others (including our staff) to help you along the way.

  • Common Entry Level Jobs include Merchandise Assistant, Associate, Coordinator, Assistant Planner, Merchant, Buyer
  • Applications for internships: Internship applications for the summer are typically open at the end of the fall semester or in the early spring semester. Corporate and larger companies tend to launch applications in the fall.
  • Applications for full-time positions: Applications for full-time positions typically open in the spring semester for a May graduation. You may also want to consider a Rotational or Leadership Development Program, which is often a popular route for professionals in the fashion industry. These programs typically open in the fall semester. It is also not uncommon to pursue an internship post-grad.
  • Check employer websites for interviewing information & application details.

  • Behavioral Interview Questions are a set of questions to assess whether you have the soft skills and motivation to succeed at that organization. These often include general questions about your background and why you want to work for the organization, combined with behavioral-based questions asking you to give examples of past experiences. Use the S.T.A.R. approach to structure your examples; Situation/Task that you were facing, Approach and actions you took to address the issue, Result of the actions you took. Learn more about “Developing Your Interview Stories” in Big Interview.
  • Practice with Big Interview.
  • Portfolio: Be sure to have examples of your work and bring them to the interview. You can also have your work online (e.g. Wix, Squarespace). Also, come prepared to talk about your favorite fashion trends.
  • The Career Center offers one-hour mock interview appointments that can be scheduled via Handshake to further develop interview skills and receive feedback. Students can also reserve interview rooms within the Employer Engagement Suite. For more information on interviewing, please visit the Career Center’s Interviewing webpage.