Have you ever worked as a Visual Merchandiser in retail? How did you get your job?
Asked by Pumkin Pie
I just finished my degree for fashion merchandising and I'm interested in possibly going into visual merchandising in retail, but it seems like a hard job to get. For instance, today I went for an interviewer at Forever 21 and when the interview asked me about what type of work I was interested in, I told her visual merchandising. She responded telling me, that's going to be tough because most companies will only hire you for that if you already have experience. Of course I've taken a course where I did visuals and I have about 1 1/2 year of retail experience where I now and then have done visuals, plus an internship where I did some visual merchandising at the boutique. But the person I interviewed with made it seem like it's unlikely to get hired unless you specifically had a job as a visual merchandiser previously. So, how in the world can I get this type of job?? Because it seems like the training in school, work, and the internship don't necessarily count, at least at that company... Anyone worked visual merchandising before?? How did you get into your position?? Oh, and I did state in my interview that I'm willing to start as a regular associate and work into that if possible. So, hopefully that will at least give me a chance at getting into the company and working my way up.... I agree Leah, I have done merchandising jobs before which was basically just putting the product out on the floor (just merchandising without the "visual" title on it) . Like stock, but on the sales floor and even when I was interviewing for those jobs different places would call me for interviews because they saw that I'd worked retail before but when they realized I hadn't specifically worked as a merchandiser they'd tell me I didn't have enough experience. Finally I got a merchandising job doing temp work and it was extremely easy. The only thing I had to learn was how to read a plan-o-gram, which only took me about 5 minutes to figure out. Once I'd done the job I didn't understand why the companies asked for so much experience because the job was very simple.

Best Answer:
Yes, you will have to be willing to work as a sales associate. Since you agreed to do that, you should get the job. "Visual" merchandising is a pretty vague profession- it covers everything and nothing. I think we are going to see this job disappear if the economic downturn continues. It was a product of the boom times..

I got my degree in the same thing as you and was hired in with no experience with Macy's for a part time visual merchandising position. So it is possible, you just have to be in the right time at the right place. And I don't know why they want you to have experience because it is very simplistic work and easy to train and learn. Good luck! I have an interview with Forever 21 coming up for a visual position.
Answered by Leah