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How do you get internships with a major in apparel design?

Because I'm going to major in apparel design and I want to know how you get the internships on your own without being referred by your professor? #design #undergraduate

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Vivian’s Answer

Hi A'Briana,


I have friends in the fashion design industry and most of the time, they are either referred to the job by someone they know (most of the time those are people in the industry that have more years invested in and a person someone trust) or they get the internship based on their portfolio. You mentioned that you will be majoring in apparel design, which is great. You'll be able to create pieces to showcase in your personal portfolio. I recommend posting them online, on Behance or SquareSpace. Good luck!


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Brandi’s Answer

Although my career pathway is not in apparel design (it's in UX design), I believe I can provide some support in this area based on my career journey so far. With UX design being a very popular/in demand career field it meant I had to self learn everything about the discipline through a lot of free online UX design courses, trying to build up my portfolio, and then applying my skills to different UX design internships. Through my self-driven journey I was able to intern at 2 government departments, a game startup, and a Fortune 500 company, all without the help of a professor. Now every single one of my UX design internships except the Fortune 500 one was unpaid, although I learned a lot through them and they became the stepping stones for me to eventually intern at that F500 company. I would say be open to unpaid internships because since you're a student, I believe what's more important right now is building your experience, money can come second (although if you already have your degree I personally believe the money would be #1). Use these experiences to not only build a strong portfolio, but also a network of people who will vouch for you and be your reference when trying to get a paid appeal design internship. Having actual experience and/or a really strong portfolio is what paid internships are really looking for (really both, but one or the other its fine as well). To summarize, if you're fine with an unpaid internship make sure to compile all of your apparel design work thus far and/or work on (personal) projects to showcase your value as an apparel designer. If you want a paid internship use your previous (unpaid) internship experience to support your credibility for a paid internship or have a really solid apparel design portfolio. Also, go and try to find online as well as physical communities that can reinforce your skillset and knowledge of the space. I'm in several different Discord, Slack, and LinkedIn groups where I can talk to other designers, ask for advice, go to design-related events, and so much more! I would recommend starting with a Discord community called "Design Buddies", which has many different design disciplines were you can even talk to those in the apparel design field and ask them for more information about your question! You can join here!: https://discord.gg/designbuddies I hope what I said helps!
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