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| Recent Coach coverage secured in Dazed Magazine |
I envisioned what my dream placement would look like before beginning my year in industry and it always involved the most elite, luxury and independent magazines such as Dazed, Wonderland, LOVE or Another. These were the magazines which I most enjoyed reading, and I considered my consumption of them to be a personal hobby as well as a career ambition. One part of my reasoning to pursue a role at Coach was the fact that getting experience in a luxury brand could get me one step closer to reaching a luxury magazine, and a huge reason for leaving my placement at Forever Unique was to potentially pursue working at any magazine at all. Ultimately, I considered getting a placement at Dazed or the like as a bit of an 'end goal' to strive towards. The idea of reaching this goal did initially feel somewhat unattainable, but nevertheless it always meant a lot to me so I pushed myself to work hard, make connections and leave long-lasting impressions. Eventually, just last month - although it feels like months ago already - my hard work did pay off when I was offered an internship position on the spot during an interview for the role of Fashion Intern at Dazed Magazine.
I was already quite intimidated by the elite reputation of Dazed and concerned about the working environment of the publication based on the negative stories and experiences from the industry about the way that interns and assistants are treated. Throughout my placement year I've been faced with a few uncomfortable situations and difficult decisions, so I gave myself plenty of credit and began my placement at Dazed with optimism and disbelief that I had actually secured an internship there. My optimism was short-lived however, as just five minutes after arriving for my first day (and with no introduction to any of the team members, tour of the building or health/safety to go through) I was sent out with a suitcase full to bursting with samples to be returned to designer brands and PR companies. Returning samples by hand wasn't something I had been asked to do before, and while I knew it would be physically demanding, I still wanted to experience the task as a sort of 'rite of passage'. I seriously underestimated how degrading and exhausting it would be to drag suitcase after suitcase across London for a full working day, and I felt uncomfortable knowing that the expenses I would receive for my month there actually wouldn't even cover the additional cost of travel for returning samples - despite this being an explicit part of my job description - let alone the cost of my commute to and from the city centre each day. My first day of placement left me battered, bruised, sore and in distress.
My second day at this placement caused me even more cause for concern. There seemed to be a serious lack of direction from the several Fashion Assistants who oversee the interns at Dazed, paired with a serious lack of respect. Myself and the other 3 work placements who made up the intern team at the magazine were set with the task of researching unfamiliar and unheard of brands whose clothing designs met the criteria and 'look' for an upcoming shoot. The brief was set via email, so without opportunity to ask specific questions about the task or simply chat and get to know the assistant who set the task, we began to endlessly Google-search for unknown brands. My key issue with this task was the fact that I had been expected to bring in my own laptop, as equipment was not provided. I felt really uncomfortable about carrying my laptop to and from the Dazed offices, especially since I had been sent all around London just the day before. Had there even been a 'placement supervisor' present at all during my internship there, I'm sure that the intense and intimidating attitude towards the interns would have made me too fearful to voice my concerns anyway.
The 'straw that broke the camel's back' came when I witnessed another intern receive seriously shocking workplace abuse in the shape of aggressive screaming and shouting for a simple mistake which could be easily corrected and did no damage to the completion of her task or the running of the day. I was growing increasingly anxious about being there, and felt tearful throughout the day. The other interns there told me how the week before (which was their first week) had been especially stressful, and they had cried every night when they returned home.
I thought that I could handle just about anything that placement year could throw at me, but this was one challenge I just wasn't willing to undertake. My placement year has been motivating, encouraging and overall, a really happy experience. I knew that I simply couldn't continue my placement at Dazed any longer, despite having no back-up plan and having only complete 2 full working days there. It would have been a serious discredit to the brilliant year that I've had to have spent my final month of placement year unhappy and fearful of humiliation by more senior members of the team. While I wish that I could have had a different experience at Dazed, I'm glad that I got the see the reality of working at the publication. Had I not achieved the opportunity to intern with the magazine during this year, I would have certainly pursued a job at Dazed post-graduation. This could have caused me even more upset in the long-run, as I would have been terribly upset to find out that my dream job wasn't really all it was cracked up to be.
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