The Vogue Fashion Certificate helped me get my job at Condé Nast
When Caroline Pascall decided to study at Condé Nast College in London back in 2013, she took a big risk using her savings that had been painstakingly accumulated for a deposit on her first house to cover the fees but her gamble paid off. Now a Media Solutions specialist at Condé Nast Britain, Caroline recounts her career journey and how the College prepared her for the industry.
Studying the Vogue Fashion Certificate
“I’d done a History degree a few years before,” she said, “and it hadn’t really given me what I needed. I was in my mid-twenties and I knew I wanted to work in fashion but it was all a bit vague. I’d done a bit of retail merchandising and some gentleman’s tailoring and tried sales but I still hadn’t found my niche. I got married in 2011, and then one day I was sitting on the District Line tube and picked up an Evening Standard, and there was an article about this new college opening. As I read it, it just seemed like the thing I’d been looking for. I applied and had an interview and was accepted, but the only way I could afford to go was to spend that house deposit. Thankfully, my husband was completely supportive, so I signed up for the Vogue Fashion Certificate. I thought, ‘This is my last chance to find out where I want to be,’ and it was the best summer I ever had. It was exactly the education I thought I was going to get from university but never did, because I wasn’t the right fit. I’ve been working at Condé Nast ever since.”
Caroline’s role at Condé Nast
Caroline is a Media Solutions Specialist at Condé Nast Britain, working across the digital space occupied by all the company’s UK brands. Among other things, she analyses previous ad campaign performance to help put together advertising packages that go to clients. “I try to predict what’s going to happen, so our advertisers can build our sites into their campaign spend,” she says.
When Caroline first arrived at the College, she was struck, in particular, by the quality of the guest speakers who came to talk to students, one of whom would provoke that lightbulb moment, pointing her towards her future career.
“I can still remember several of them as really fantastic in terms of what they knew and could tell us,” she said. “We had someone who was high up in Thomas Pink, the luxury shirt maker, David Gandy describing his career in modelling, and then we had the publisher of GQ who talked about the business side of the fashion industry, and I realised, then and there, that the business element was definitely going to be for me. Then when Simon Kippin, the then publish of Glamour came along, I asked him a question and one thing led to another, and I Ianded a week’s internship at Condé Nast. That led to another internship with the company, and then a month temping on the advertising team at Vogue, and then I was offered a permanent job with online Ad Ops [Advertising Operations], and I’ve been here ever since in different roles – but none of it would have happened if I hadn’t been at that talk.”
The Condé Nast College Network
Caroline is still in contact with a number of people from her course at Condé Nast College,, and has actually given jobs to two other graduates who studied there after her. What’s more, she says she still uses the skills learned on her course ten years ago.
“I really couldn’t talk to people before – not just go into a room and have the confidence to speak to them. The College helped me learn which questions to ask and really basic stuff like how to present myself to a potential employer. They showed me how to make your CV stand out, but still be acceptable – it was the fine, granular stuff that you don’t know and in fact, that university did not prepare me for. Without that help, I wouldn’t have stood a chance because I would not have been noticeable at all among all those other people wanting to work at Condé Nast.”
“It’s a proper preparation for work in the fashion industry.” Caroline Pascall, Media Solutions Specialist at Condé Nast Britain.
Caroline says she would actively encourage other people to look closely at the Condé Nast College as somewhere they would consider for themselves.
“The thing is,” she says, “if you’re going to do it you need to do it properly. They’ll work you really hard. I think at the start a lot of people thought it was just a posh fashion school for rich kids – and it’s not. It’s a proper preparation for work in the fashion industry. If you think it might be for you, ring them up, go and see them, ask questions. More than anything, the College helped me to find my place, to find my people. I hope to stay at Condé Nast forever because it’s the right fit for me. If I’d never been to the College, I would never have found that out.”
The Vogue Certificate in Fashion Marketing starts January 2024 Apply now