Get your colors in order with Pantone.

I think I discovered Pantone my sophomore year of high school when I was attempting to find out how to become a designer in the fashion industry. This was right before I stopped denying the fact that I had no patience to learn to draw or sew.

For those who have not felt the excitement of discovering Pantone, I will try and break it down a bit. In the simplest form, Pantone is a company that focuses on color communication. When it comes to the fashion industry, Pantone creates a color swatch card system that streamlines color needs and usage from the concept stage to the designer stage to the manufacturing stage.

The image below is of a Pantone Fashion Color Report. These reports come out for each of the fashion seasons and the are incredibly inspiring.
Click Here to See the Report for Fall 2010.

Some things you can do with these reports:

1. Get acclimated with the big colors of the upcoming fashion season.

2. View various designers sketch styles.

3. Find out why certain colors are so hot each season.

4. Discover the "Must-Haves," "Color Rules," and insight on fashion trends.


Click Here to read a Fall '09 article about Pantone in GD USA.

Set up an opportunity for yourself: Part 1 Local Boutiques

Here is something to do today that has the potential to fill another blank line on your resume; in most cases it can be fashion related and get you a few contacts to add to your network; in all cases, it will be a great professional experience that you may be able to talk about at an interview. Note: If you are looking for a job right away, this isn’t the list for you. This list is for those with time to network an gain mini-experiences that could be useful to on the job hunt one day.

1. Find the closest mom & pop shop boutique to your house, or something that is not quite a large chain retailer.



2. Make up a resume or a business card (so contact can call you after you’ve spoken with him/her… instead of chicken scratching your name and number down later). Here is an example card Columbia has designed for its students.



3. Go into the store and ask to speak with the manager or owner (please).

4. Tell them about your fashion interests and mention you are a student and then do one more of the following:

a. Find out if they have any events coming up that you could assist them with (planning, execution, whatever).

b. Find out if you could help them stock items when new shipments come in (it is good to learn to deal with shipments and restocking if you have never done it before… this can help you get your first job in retail).

c. Find out if they have any interest in you working on company social media outlets for them (it is a great tool to know how to use these social outlets from a business perspective. It is now a necessity to understand these methods no matter what company you are working for… if you don’t know them, your job competition will.)

d. Find out if they would be interested in you interning one or two days a week so that you can learn the ways of a store; buying, visual merchandising, customer service, etc.

Note: I realize not all companies need to be using social media… but it helps to have experience that has taught you why a company doesn’t need to use them, over not knowing the difference either way.

Do Not Skimp on the Cover Letter.

Obviously I’m not going to write out a full cover letter for you because I would not be able to write anything but what has turned into my own cover letter --though I am pretty open to a peer review and critique.

Regardless, I would like to dedicate this blog post to something that tends to be the more difficult, and terrible done portion of answering a now hiring ad.

I am not going to say that I know the best way to compose a cover letter, or even that I know exactly which cover letter will get you the job. I simply hope to make a few points about what you might want to consider adding into the next CL you have to write. Note: these are all points of advice I have accumulated from the Marketing Yourself course (Columbia College Chicago- highly suggest you take this class no matter what your major is; look it up!), as well as from my mentors and some other people that have looked over my work.



Key Points to Make –

1. Mention why you are interested in the company and position you are applying for (it is very important to send them a “personalized” letter and not just a general cover letter. If for example, you aspire to intern for Elle Magazine, you will want to search their website for a Media Kit. This will have information like the magazines mission statement, demographics, readership and ad rates.



2. Make a statement deeming why the company should hire you that will stick in the HR person’s brain.

3. Look at the job description and explain at least two of the points from your resume more in depth (approximately 2-3 sentences). Do not say my strengths are organization, blah, and blah. Be specific and give details of your experiences that support the qualities they are looking for in a new hire.

4. Thank your reader for their time, offer them a few ways to contact you with any questions, and let him/her know that you will be following up with him/her in x amount of time (two weeks is good), and MAKE SURE YOU FOLLOW UP (if you’re not going to follow up, don’t even bother applying for a job). Click here to read more about following up.

Formatting –
1. Match your resume design to your cover letter design. Use a template!
2. In your heading you will want to include a direct contact name for the company if at all possible. If you have someone's email address but do not have his/her full name, Google the email address -- you will find it.

Distribution –
1. Before you send out your cover letter have three people read through it, print it out and read it yourself (and make sure it prints right and no margins are cut off).
2. Sometimes companies want you to paste the cover letter in the actual email message and only attach the resume.
3. Sometimes companies want you to attach both the cover letter and resume. If this is the case, I have been told that you should write something like:



Here are some more tips from someone who I feel is one of the best professional development coaches out there.