Meet Charnice Blaize, Graduate Fashion Week winner, BA (Hons) Fashion Business and Promotion Graduate and Cultural Marketing Coordinator at ASOS.
Call me the professional Instagram stalker
I work full time at ASOS as a Cultural Marketing Coordinator.
This involves scouting new and emerging talents as well as building new connections. Once on board, I will work with them on various ASOS projects/campaigns. I am an Instagram professional - yes what I do for fun, is also my career! I can find anyone.
Alongside ASOS, I run my own business- Blaized UK. I have my own team that work with me to deliver article content, styling articles, interviews, press releases and essentially use the platform to showcase and celebrate UK urban creatives.
In addition to the above, I also work as a freelance stylist and a vlogger - ‘Welcome to my channel’.
Studying, work placements, networking and Graduate Fashion Week....
How I got the job at ASOS
In my third year, my course leader Alison submitted my work to Graduate Fashion Week. This went on to win the ASOS Future Talent Award. This opportunity shortly led on to me being offered a permanent position at ASOS.
Prior to my role at ASOS I completed a couple of placements whilst studying at university, including a buyer role at River Island. We had a guest speaker come in to deliver a talk, so I brought my CV in and enquired about placements opportunities. She was really impressed with how prepared I was and I was lucky enough to secure the position.
Another placement opportunity
The year before winning my award a Graduate Fashion Week, I secured a role through BCU's Careers+ team to help out with showing VIP guests around at an event.
Story time....
The list of VIP guests were announced to the team and the team started volunteering for the names they recognised e.g. Alesha Dixon. I ended up showing a guy around who no one recognised, but hey… We discussed interests, street style and exchanged Instagram accounts at the end.
Hours later...
Guess who slid into my DM’s with an invitation to London… WHERE WAS THIS GOING?
Turns out, the guy I was showing around was Tinie Tempah’s cousin. He put in a good word for me and that is where I secured an internship at Disturbing London.
Network Network Network: You never know who people are, what connections they have and what opportunities they may bring.
Key tips for the first year…
- Independence and self-learning: University will give you the structure however, you get out what you put in. University recommend that students familiarise themselves with Indesign as it may be useful in the second year.
- ‘Get ahead of the game’: Year one, module one, I self-taught myself Photoshop and when I completed university I did an additional course. The adobe qualifications are really useful! I can record and edit my own blogs and make my own content look visually beautiful.
- Network: University is an environment of natural networking. You are constantly around different mixes of people. Don’t network when you finish university, network whilst in university.
- Don’t wait for your friends. You don’t need friends to hold your hand, they won’t be with you at your first day of work.
- If you’re struggling, voice it to an academic. It might just be that you have a different learning style.
Food for thought…
The industry is very small, people are well connected. Your first impression is one that will stick. Don’t be remembered as the person nobody wants to work with.
Don’t be scared. It is good to try new things and take advantage of new opportunities and if it doesn’t work out its fine, try something else!
