Career Pret-a-Porter

April 15, 2015

With umbrella, charm and pocket square: a wide variety of positions and jobs come together in the fashion industry. From retail to marketing to the creative sector, the fashion industry embodies diversity. This is also needed, because the fashion sector not only has to be in tune with the times, but also ahead of the times in terms of careers. This requires young, motivated talent. An encounter on the sidelines of Berlin Fashion Week.

The Fashion Week in Berlin is comparatively small internationally, but has conquered its place. Because – unlike international fashion hotspots such as Milan, Paris or New York – it also relies on the young talent sector as one of the main segments. The fashion trade fair offers the ideal environment for niche providers, young designers, young labels and fashion startups. Quite a few companies recruit their young talent here. These include, for over eight years, the German fashion chain Peek & Cloppenburg (P&C). The company, based in Düsseldorf, employs 12,000 people and has 66 sales outlets in Germany alone. P&C is organizing the 'Fashion meets Future' event for interested graduates and students. The two-day event aims to show newcomers the facets of the fashion and textile industry. People come together in a relaxed atmosphere, like on this day in a hotel in the heart of City West. By way of welcome, Dr. Igor Matic, member of the P&C management board. “It depends on your personality, not just what you did at school or training,” he explains. His own career is a prime example of lateral entry: after studying philosophy and history, he became a consultant, then came to tool manufacturer Hilti as a sales manager and then to the management of P&C. “Give yourself time to develop and become competent,” Matic calls out to the young, smartly dressed audience. »Understanding a job does not mean being able to do a job. It's like learning an instrument or a sport.« After company presentations, the graduates are supposed to use a case simulation game to show what they learned from the lectures. To do this, they get together in groups and are supposed to carry out brand and location planning in the area of the women's boutique goods segment. Which brands and products did well and should be reordered? Which products did not arrive? At the end, the results are presented by each group, followed by detailed and constructive feedback.

On day 2, a visit to the 'Premium' fashion fair is on the agenda. The aim here is to put what you have learned into practice. Leyla Samadi's career at P&C began five years ago at 'Fashion meets Future'. Today she is responsible for talent management in the human resources department and speaks to young colleagues herself. “I saw the notice at my university and just wanted to find out more information without obligation,” she says. She applied spontaneously, was invited and, at the invitation of P&C, spent two days in Berlin around the fashion fair. “Before that, I didn’t have much to do with fashion,” she admits. Nevertheless, she applied as a trainee. For applicants, HR managers value a mix of practical experience, preferably related to fashion or in retail. However, this is not mandatory. “The grade is not a cut-off criterion for us,” emphasizes Leyla Samadi. In addition to economists and business students, P&C also has graduates of fashion courses such as fashion management, as well as lawyers and humanities scholars. “An authentic personality can usually make up for any lack of specialist knowledge,” she explains. When 'Fashion meets Future' comes to an end this evening, P&C will definitely have won one or two graduates' hearts.

P&C's 'Fashion meets Future' will take place again in summer 2015. You can apply here .