Dolly Jones on internships

by Charlotte Lafferty

Charlotte Lafferty talks to Dolly Jones, editor of Vogue.com, about how to get a fashion internship

How useful do you think internships can be, for both the intern and the employer?

They are very useful, interns can make fantastic contacts and gain great insight into their chosen industry. Employers have the chance to meet young talents early in their career, many interns are later hired into permanent positions.

Why have they become such a routine step for those entering creative industries?

It is a very competitive industry and so work experience and internships are the only way to make the right contacts and push your way in, starting right from the bottom.

People are so keen to make a start, they are willing to work for free for a while – I supplemented myself by working in All Bar One at the beginning – not glamorous but very necessary – and it was worth it.

What is the application process at Vogue.com?

Write to personnel to apply or to our executive assistant in the digital department.

Do you get a lot of applications?

Yes, hundreds.

What makes the best stand out from the rest?

Polite, to-the-point emails with a CV attached. Spelling mistakes give us an excuse to reduce the huge pile of applications we’re sent by chucking the bad ones away immediately, as do letters addressed to the incorrect person or to a website we don’t publish – you’d be surprised how many of those we get.

I also get emails saying  simply “Hi – can I have work experience?” – which I have to admit I don’t have time to answer.

Do you have any tips for a successful application, wish to divulge such top secret information?

Imagine you’re incredibly busy – how would someone grab your attention amid lots and lots of other work? You don’t need to do anything eccentric – being polite and to-the-point works – but something different might get you noticed.

Perhaps send in a piece of work you’re very proud of? Or say something specific about the site that you like and you’d love to work on – all journalists have egos, so if you can prove you’ve been reading their work that might get you noticed.

What sort of jobs do you give your interns?

I try to give them lots of interesting and different things to do so that they have a reason to come in everyday. They have daily responsibilities and I try to give them as much of an insight into my job as possible so they get an over view of the most exciting bits as well as the more mundane. I want them to get as much out of it as possible and to learn as much as they can. There are boring things to do such as opening post or booking restaurants – but they also get to fashion shows as well as a fashion party or two and hopefully write about it – and if I’ve got someone particularly interesting to meet, they sometimes come with me. Hopefully they experience the full spectrum in their time here.

Did you do you fair share of internships, what were your experiences?

I did work experience at the Daily Telegraph and a couple of magazines, then I did a full six month internship at Vogue. I found them pretty intimidating initially but they are the reason I have my job here.

I did incredibly mundane things like clean out cupboards and make tea but I also got to do some researching and writing too. I don’t remember anything particularly horrible happening – I expected all the conventional work – but I was working during the time when the editors were requesting their fashion week tickets – I remember that being very exciting.

I was helping out and I really felt part of the Vogue process – it’s a small thing but it meant I had to talk to all the editors and that meant I discovered how nice (and unscary) they were.

You studied Periodical Journalism at LCC, what did it teach you?

It was a tough course and it was brilliantly taught. I learnt to put as much of the story as you can into the first sentence of a news piece. And I learnt that anything is possible – when my first assignment was to “interview someone at the top of their game” I was completely flummoxed.

But I plucked up the courage to ask Alexandra Shulman thinking that there was no chance at all she’d agree to it. She did, and 10 years later I’m here doing my perfect job.