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I plan to move to NYC after I graduate from college for my career. I'll graduate May 2012. Right now I'm 19 years old. I'll be 21/22 in 2012.
A little about me:
-I'm a Fashion Merchandising major, I might become a buyer, stylist, visual merchandiser or someone's assisstant. I think I'll be making maybe about $60,000-$85,000 per year.
-I might have roomates because there are other girls moving up here as well soon.
-I might go to grad school for my masters in Journalism, I'm thinking about Columbia or NYU.
-I live in DC and I go to school and play in Arlington, Tyson's Corner, Georgetown.
-I'm single
-I like going out to clubs, resturants and i like parks
-I would prefer a nice neighborhood with a low crime rate.
Since its 2 years away, its not easy to answer that question. There are a lot of factors that go into play such as how much you will be making and how the rental market is at that time. I know a girl who I went to school with who works for a big name label, and even with a degree from a prestigious school she did not make that much money starting out. Try to get a summer internship here in order to get your foot in the door. THe upside is that you know people here, so there is always the possibility that you will have roomates to split rent with or to stay with until you find a place. If you can stay with them over the summer during an internship that would be ideal, since many of these internships are unpaid. Once you know how much you will be making and where you will be working, you can decide on an apartment. Everyone is different, but many people find out where they are working first before they decide what neighborhood to live in.
Save as much money as you can, work on getting that internship, and then see where that takes you. Good luck!
It's great to have career goals, especially at your age! But I need to set you straight on fashion/ retail starting salaries.
IF you are lucky/ talented enough to get into Bloomingdale's/ Saks/ Macy's training programs to become an Assistant Buyer, your starting salary will be right around $40-42k. No bonus. After you become a buyer in another 5-7 years, you'll be making $65-70k. These jobs are highly coveted and the most desirable companies are notorious for low salaries. I know because it's my industry.
If you go the "stylist" or "assistant" route, your starting salary could be as low as in the $20k's.
Generally in fashion, the more "exclusive" the company, the lower the pay. Many design houses don't pay their interns at all and pay in the $20-30k range for starting salaries.
If you want to climb the income ladder as quickly as possible, try to get into one of the top training programs (listed above) and then be willing to take a buyer or planner job at a down-market company, like Ross Stores. You can eventually make good money (I am 30 and making 3X my starting salary from 2002, but I had to leave my "dream job" company to move to TX and go down-market), but it's going to take a long time if you want to stay in the city and do it there.
I plan to move to NYC after I graduate from college for my career. I'll graduate May 2012. Right now I'm 19 years old. I'll be 21/22 in 2012.
A little about me:
-I'm a Fashion Merchandising major, I might become a buyer, stylist, visual merchandiser or someone's assisstant. I think I'll be making maybe about $60,000-$85,000 per year.
You will not make that much. I promise. And all of those careers are very different. Have you interned yet? Buying is more than picking out pretty clothes at the market (as my merchandising math teacher LOVES to point out).
If you want to be as stylist you usually have to freelance which means having a credit card with a huge limit and buying the clothes and taking them back. Or working at a magazine where the entry level salary is $25,000 and you work from 8am - mid night sometimes.
Which school do you go to? There are amazing fashion schools here and everyone networks like crazy. I have a whole page of contacts at high end and low end stores. And I have the advantage of being here. They call me up and I can interview the same day.
Quote:
-I might have roomates because there are other girls moving up here as well soon.
You will have roommates.
Quote:
-I might go to grad school for my masters in Journalism, I'm thinking about Columbia or NYU.
Why journalism if you want to be a buyer or a stylist? Won't help your career at all.
Network, intern, network, graduate, network, get a job. In that order. Picking a neighborhood will be the easiest thing you'll do between now and starting a fashion career in 2012.
FYI, a good friend of mine graduated from FIT and finally got a fashion job 2 years after graduation, and she makes a little under $30k. You're not going to make $60-80k starting out... and the competition for jobs in your field is FIERCE.
Your best bet to start off in NYC would be to go to school here, that's what I would suggest.
I go to school in Arlington, VA at Marymount and Fashion is the best major at my school. We have an annual fashion show put on by the student called Porfolio in Motion where students showcase their designs and their work, merchandising students are specialists for show whether it will be backstage, for the models/choreagrphy, pr, etc. We all choose the designer of the year and we invite them to our school, this year for 2010 Isabell Toledo and Ruben Toledo are our designers for the year. Last year it was Jason Wu, there year before it was Cynthia Rowley and we have had Micheal Kors, Valentino, Carolina Herrera, Oscar De La Renta and I think next year we may try to get Karl Largerfield.
Also at my school we have a fashion club in which all merchandising and designs students have to join because it's required for our grade. I've been a backstage assisstant, a dresser and a volunteer for several regional fashion shows, galas, and events around the DC area. I've only been in school for 2 years and I've done many between 30-40 fashion shows.
I'm doing my internship abroad for school credit in Shanghai or either Hong Kong. I'm trying to get an internship right now in NYC for the summer but I really need to be working full-time to be paying for my expenses for my next school semester. I have some connections in NYC, a family friend of mines used to be a model for many designers in the industry and he has offered to take me in the summer and work with me to find an internship but I need money to pay for my school. I'm trying to get a job at Zara right now because I think it's great company to start at and there are some in NYC so if I'll stay with the company while I'm NYC i'll be building experience for myself and I'll have a job while I'm looking for another job.
I orginally wanted to go into Journalism/PR/Communications before I discovered fashion. I think it will set me apart from the rest of my competition and I would love to work in PR and journalism someday also. I thought about double majoring in fashion merchandisng and Communications but I want to graudate ASAP. So I just might go to grad school for it.
I go to school in Arlington, VA at Marymount and Fashion is the best major at my school. We have an annual fashion show put on by the student called Porfolio in Motion where students showcase their designs and their work, merchandising students are specialists for show whether it will be backstage, for the models/choreagrphy, pr, etc. We all choose the designer of the year and we invite them to our school, this year for 2010 Isabell Toledo and Ruben Toledo are our designers for the year. Last year it was Jason Wu, there year before it was Cynthia Rowley and we have had Micheal Kors, Valentino, Carolina Herrera, Oscar De La Renta and I think next year we may try to get Karl Largerfield.
Also at my school we have a fashion club in which all merchandising and designs students have to join because it's required for our grade. I've been a backstage assisstant, a dresser and a volunteer for several regional fashion shows, galas, and events around the DC area. I've only been in school for 2 years and I've done many between 30-40 fashion shows.
I'm doing my internship abroad for school credit in Shanghai or either Hong Kong. I'm trying to get an internship right now in NYC for the summer but I really need to be working full-time to be paying for my expenses for my next school semester. I have some connections in NYC, a family friend of mines used to be a model for many designers in the industry and he has offered to take me in the summer and work with me to find an internship but I need money to pay for my school. I'm trying to get a job at Zara right now because I think it's great company to start at and there are some in NYC so if I'll stay with the company while I'm NYC i'll be building experience for myself and I'll have a job while I'm looking for another job.
I orginally wanted to go into Journalism/PR/Communications before I discovered fashion. I think it will set me apart from the rest of my competition and I would love to work in PR and journalism someday also. I thought about double majoring in fashion merchandisng and Communications but I want to graudate ASAP. So I just might go to grad school for it.
You should really try and be an NYC fashion week volunteer. Its like gold on a resume. I volunteered for 10 shows last season for designers like DVF and Herve Leger
You should really try and be an NYC fashion week volunteer. Its like gold on a resume. I volunteered for 10 shows last season for designers like DVF and Herve Leger
Also consider the fact that you have to be qualified to get into Columbia or NYU. These are some of the best journalism schools around. They accept former editors of college newspapers, people with lots of writing experience, a portfolio to show for it, near the top of their class, top GRE scores, etc, and then you'll also need to pay for it, and private school loans + entry level jobs in NYC are hard to mix. Grad school is not a second bachelor's degree. Most of the time they require a lot of prior knowledge in the field you want to go into, and if you don't, and you get in, they will most likely make you take a lot of pre-reqs that WILL feel like a second bachelor's before you can even start the grad program. Grad school is to advance your current knowledge, not to start from fresh in a new area, and again, as I stressed before, Columbia and NYU's programs are really, really, really competitive. Even CUNY's j school is selective. So, if you're into fashion and that's what you have experience in, go with that, and get really good at it. Consider instead a masters in a fashion-related field, and THEN move to NYC, after you secure a job here, and/or have interned here.
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