If you work in any part of the fashion industry, there's a high probability that at one point or another you grueled away at an unpaid internship. If all went well, you ended up getting hired or picked up paid work from the brand, agency, or publication that you so generously offered your services to. Now, thanks to Condé Nast, the publisher of glossy mags like GQ, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and Details, you can circumvent the whole unpaid internship process. Instead of working for free, you can pay the media giant $8,500 to take a 10-week course in fashion journalism, retail, PR, and marketing.
We're not saying you won't learn anything from the course, but, in Condé Nast's own words, the course doesn't specialize in teaching anything specific. Instead, it offers a 101 on the fashion industry. “What we offer — particularly on the 10-week course — is a broad sweep of business-facing courses intended to enlighten our students about how the fashion industry really works,” Susie Forbes, an editor at Condé Nast told The New York Times.
But unlike the internship that gives you a chance for a career after your due diligence is up, Condé Nast doesn't feel the obligation to open its hiring doors to any of its publications. “We’re not a feeder school for Condé Nast. Our editors and publishers don’t want to feel obliged to take our students,” Forbes added.
Great, you're out eight and a half stacks, learned brief, freshman-like information, and you're back at square one, where you'll more than likely pick up an unpaid internship anyways.
[via The New York Times]
