Kent State: My Internship and Studying Abroad

My study of fashion merchandising will contribute to my long range career plans by giving me an in depth look into the business side of the fashion industry. The fashion merchandising program at Kent State has a graduation requirement of studying abroad/away. They have studying abroad programs all over the world. Kent State also requires an internship to graduate. This would give me first hand knowledge and experience and help to further my career.

By interning while I’m still in college, I would get early experience in the fashion industry. I would get to see how the fashion industry works in the real world and not just a classroom. If I get my masters in business, I would have early experience and a higher education level than a lot of the people applying for the same jobs as me. Studying abroad would give me experience in a different country or part of the world that I can use in my career. I would get first hand knowledge about the operations of retail, the aspects of buying, and apparel merchandising. I could also meet new people and make relationships in different parts of the world while studying abroad that could lead to job opportunities.

By learning about different jobs in the classroom and applying those skills in the real world, I would be able to build up my career and have multiple different jobs in my career. This way I could gain more experience in the fashion industry and combine the skills and connections I make from studying abroad and and the skills and connections from the different jobs and have more opportunities. By studying abroad, I could make connections with the people and professors I meet and potentially be introduced to more job opportunities when I graduate because of these connections.

Since the fashion merchandising major is more focused on the business side of the fashion industry, I would have a lot more career options. With the business side having more jobs, this would be the perfect opportunity to start with small jobs and build up my career to the more professional and higher paying jobs. If I excel at my internship, I could potentially get hired back at the same place for a real job after I graduate. Kent State gives you a road map of what classes you would take and it shows that I would take a lecture class and then usually have a lab over it. This way I would learn how the industry operates and then be able to be hands on and actually work the stuff out. I would get to apply the skills I learned while I’m still learning and be able to determine my strengths and work on my weaknesses.

I would be able to make so many connections through my internship and studying abroad and use these connections to get job opportunities. Using the skills from my internship, I would be able to already have hands on experience and use it to my advantage. Getting my masters in business would potentially allow me to further my career and lead to other opportunities.