Michelle's job log: 5

The story so far... Michelle left university last year and found a job a few months later as an assistant to lecturers at Manchester University. But her goal is a fashion career.

The interview

So I was invited to interview at the London College of Fashion to do the PG Certificate in Fashion Buying and Merchandising. The night before the interview I stayed up reading up on the latest trends and memorising some of the key functions of a fashion buyer/merchandiser.

I was going to go quite casual but then decided on a shirt and trousers with some killer heels. I got my train from Manchester at 8:55 which got in at London Euston at 11:10. When I got there I went to the toilets just to check what I looked like, then jumped on the tube to Bond Street, and luckily the college was literally right outside the tube station. By then it was about 11:43 and I reported to reception and was sent straight up to the interview room, making it just on time for 11:45.

When I went in, there were about eight girls and two men; one was the tutor and the other another member of staff from the college. I immediately started chatting to the girls next to me (just trying to get a feel of my competition) - one was from Edinburgh and the other from London and both were 22. 

Waiting

The tutor told us briefly about what we would have to do: a maths test of 20 minutes and a written test also of 20 minutes, as well as an interview. He then picked me and one other girl to go to interview first, whilst the others began the tests. He led us to another room and then asked which one wanted to go first, I immediately said ‘you can’ to the other girl so that I could have a bit more time to think about my answers and predict what he might ask. I sat in the corridor and read some of the leaflets and notices on the noticeboard for any last tips, and I paced up and down thinking wow this place is quite grotty, more so than I expected anyway.

Then another girl joined me. She had applied to the course previously so had done it all before, I grilled her for any sort of information and she told me that the maths test was ‘really hard’.

Tell me why?

The conversation was interrupted by the tutor and I was called in to be interviewed, the first question being the obvious one ‘so why do you want to study fashion buying and merchandising?’ and although I was well prepared for the question it’s as though I started to question my reasons myself. In my head I was thinking, do I really want to do this? Thinking back to a few articles I read the night before which basically said that despite the role of the fashion buyer seeming glamorous, it was far from it, often involving long hours, extensive travelling and monotonous admin work. I tried to block the negativities out of my head and gave him my reasons, somewhat unconfidently. My whole interview was rubbish, I thought - he didn’t ask me any of the questions I expected he would and seemed to interrupt me when I was talking, which completely threw me off.

When it was finally over I had no time to contemplate the whole thing as I had to go straight back to the other room to complete the maths and written test. The maths test I thought was simple: one of the questions was what is nine squared? The written test was a newspaper article about people’s buying preferences and we had to summarise the article and discuss any important aspects within the article, which was simple enough. I finished bang on time, and left and walked straight onto Oxford Street and went shopping. I was so relieved the interview only lasted an hour as on the letter it said I may be expected to remain at the college until 5:30. So that was that, and the wait started to see if I had got in.

Result

Anyway, since I started writing this I received a letter saying that I got accepted onto the course! The start date is February 9th though, which just seems so near now. I’m thinking I might just defer my entry until October, so that I can try and get some funding or save some money even though I do really want to do it now, but I just have to be realistic. So that’s my plan for this year, I’m going to save up and do things sensibly, so for now it’s back to work, but with an added incentive.

My previous job logs 

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