It’s Probably Not Your Fault You can’t get a Job in Fashion: The Problem with Non-Creative Hirer/Recruiters

(Jun. 12, 2022 ● Oslin Pierrette)

I recently got interested in trying to join magazine/editorial teams. Or a media conglomerate. I had a lot of my own work on me. So I packaged some up and tried to see if I could obtain one of these positions, but haven’t gotten answers. I was contacting multiple people, but nothing much. I was really confident in what I had. Felt it was great stuff. So I was confused on how to get a response.

I got a bit obsessive. Started looking at the people who had the positions in the editorials and media companies, like the writers. Finding some names, going through their articles. I’m reading them, and they were really bad. Like some very non-stimulating stuff, it evoked nothing and was very bland. Exuded someone who had a lack of care and respect for the culture. In a multitude of things. Whether it was music, film, fashion, culture, etc. I started to see a pattern of this. So the question was just burning in me. How the heck are these spineless bland writers getting positions? Especially when they’re so many talented people who really want to work in these positions, struggling to find positions.

That’s when I started to research the hiring teams/recruiters for creatives. I started to see a huge problem. The hiring manager or talent acquisition was just a recruiter or on another hiring team somewhere else. Then a hiring intern somewhere else. So who are these people? They just wanted to hire people. These aren’t creatives of the culture? So on what basis gives them the validation to vet the talent. If they aren’t a talent themselves. Understand the culture themselves. You have to be in it. To understand who has the talent, because then all you can do is see a surfaceble résumé. You can only validate people on paper. Don’t have the intrinsic skill to see intrinsic value. No matter where they worked and who they knew. You’ll see their intrinsic essence in their work, expression, and in them in general, if the hirer had intrinsic culture insight. Which it seems they lack. “People who don’t know what they’re looking at, need shiny objects…to tell them what’s going on.”

So seeing that is just really frustrating. Lot of people who are not of the culture, are dictating the culture. Also there’s this saying that it’s not what you know, but who you know. That’s cool, but it shouldn’t be the major deciding factor. It doesn’t matter who you know. At the end of the day it should be about your work.

Like most artists, they come from impoverished places. They don’t know anybody. So why now is there such a culture of needing these glossy credentials and résumés. Having to know this or that person. Which leads to these pretentious spaces. Where everybody is desperate to be cool, instead of focusing on the work. There is a heavier investment in getting next to these profiled people. Creating relationships only for self gain. You’ll meet some groupie-like people. They’ll tell you their highlights. And it’s of all the high profiled people they can get next to. I don’t blame them, because it’s taken some people a long way,  rewarded them more. Not my thing though.

But so many people just don’t have access to these credentials, people, or things to build their résumé. They also don’t have time to invest in internships. So why can’t their work, especially if it’s worthy enough be valid. That’s bothersome.
I just would like to get rid of these sentiments in the creative space. Lot of these hiring teams suck. Enabling these bad “creatives” that just have good connections, and privileged credentials. Which enables so many to invest in getting connections instead of talent. It’s just an equation that heavily hinders the culture.
For creatives, there just seems to be a glaring issue. Especially when the magazine companies are covering things of culture that these people don’t really represent or maybe care for. But they have the positions. In NYC, in the scene, you’ll see all this culture. Full of some of the most talented creatives you’ll see, but they’re struggling. Then we go to NYC cultural mags or media. The people who have the positions don’t look like any of the culture I just saw. I don’t have the answers. Just confused about a lot of it.
 

Cont… Where Do These Recruiters/Hirers Come From

(Jul. 6, 2022 ● Oslin Pierrette)

With further research. I came up with even worse findings. I just think about a lot of these companies, more specifically these media and magazine companies. They don’t have the best idea of what they’re doing. I was looking up multiple hirer/recruiters’ work history. I was finding that they come from the most random of places. One person is coming from a wine company. Some are coming from the healthcare industry or the tech industry. Some of it was just some random businesses. Like the most random one was weight watchers.

So how do these recruiters have the ability to vet creatives? What is the process? You can look at someone’s résumé in the healthcare industry, I assume. That can give you a good idea of what they can do and handle, also with recommendations. In creative spaces though. If you aren’t creative. Which you’ll see a lot of these people’s running things are not. How can you decipher the portfolios you have to look at? A creative, even myself, can go to see someone’s work on their instagram and see, “that person got talent.” If you aren’t a creative though. Someone’s work might not resonate with them. Which is fine, but maybe you shouldn’t be in a position that deals with creatives. I just despise corporate incompetence in creative spaces.