Creating your own roles

Ella Dame is a recent graduate who majored in communication. Ella is a news intern with the College of LAS and enjoys fashion as one of her hobbies. 

It was November 2023, and I was a junior majoring in Communication. I knew it was the time to start exploring internship opportunities for the summer and with a major so broad, it was hard to know what specialty I wanted to go into. I began my search on LinkedIn and Handshake but quickly began to feel overwhelmed with options and internships in sectors I couldn’t see myself working in.

I ended up taking a step back and going through the companies I followed on all my social media accounts. I tried to sort through and figure out what made me attracted to certain companies and what values were important to me. An overwhelming amount of the types of organizations I followed were aligned with the retail space. I hadn’t thought of purposefully seeking out clothing brands I was familiar with and inquiring if they offered internships.

Fashion has been a hobby of mine since my junior year of high school when I started following fashion influencers on YouTube during the pandemic. While I had not been a part of fashion extracurriculars or taken any college level classes on it, I knew it was a personal area of interest and something I could be passionate about.

Both& Apparel, a clothing brand I’d been a longtime follower of, recently posted about a celebrity collaboration they did with actor Bella Ramsey. I bought clothes from the collaboration and was closely following their online presence as they interviewed Ramsey and posted about their breakout role in the show, The Last of Us (2023).

While I thought it may be a long shot, I went on LinkedIn and searched for Both& Apparel’s account. Their website hadn’t shown any trace of open positions, and their LinkedIn was the same. I decided to send them a direct message anyway and asked if they were going to be hiring any interns for the upcoming summer. They ended up following up with a resume request before setting up a time to meet with the company CEO and founder Finnegan Shepard.

Getting an internship can feel both necessary and stressful for students. However, by focusing on my passions as well as attempting to get experience in an environment I had none in, I was able to feel genuinely motivated to discover a role. During my meeting with Shepard, he explained that the company had never had an intern, but he respected my bravery to send a cold message asking if they offered such a position.

I remember Shepard saying, “I actually see a lot of myself in you: hungry for opportunity and willing to make your own path.”

After a few different conversations about my goals as well as the company’s, Shepard generously agreed to create a winter break internship position for me that involved mentorship from every single lead creative team member. Through the internship, I gained invaluable experience in copywriting, marketing, graphic design, sales, campaigning, and outreach strategy.

Reaching out to a company I loved resulted in the organic creation of a dream internship role that hadn’t previously excited me. It was an experience I will always be grateful for. Finding an internship (or a postgrad job) can feel all-consuming and confusing. I feel my story is a reminder that staying true to what is important to you and going out of your comfort zone can result in otherwise unachievable outcomes.