Image VIA Unsplash By Christin Hume
Really think about what lights your fire and why you think luxury is for you.
Ask yourself questions, such as: Where do I see myself in the next 3-5 years? It’s crucial to most things in life if we know where we are going (the vision) the route to our personal holy grail is a lot easier, the signposts are a lot clearer when you know the ideal outcome, the connection and relevance of these signposts just make a lot more sense.
What am I good at?
Best to identify your strengths (we all have strengths) and not be deluded that you can do everything (self-awareness is super important here). Reflect on feedback from your managers, superiors, colleagues and clients, note the consistent comments and write these down, you will see a pattern form. You can also ask a friend that is close to you, however, you need ‘their’ objective and not a subjective view on this.
What am I passionate about?
It’s the ‘fire in the belly’, it’s what you get excited about. Reflect on what you find yourself drawn to, what motivates you and is it possible to make a career out of that. It’s a combination of passion and practicality, for example, you might be really passionate about fashion and want to be the next Haute Couture designer in Paris, great for you. However, if you have never designed anything to date, or undertaken courses or worked within the fashion industry, it may be a little harder to achieve this, without ‘skilling’ (practical) and then finding out if you are really good at this.
What am I prepared to compromise in order to achieve my goal?
Life is about compromises and these should never be thought of as negatives, they are real. If you do want to achieve a specific goal and know that additional work, study or researching is required, perhaps the social agenda or sporting agenda may need to be reduced to make space for what you are really passionate about, good at, and ultimately where you want your career to be.
Finally, yes it is so very possible and we have provided a couple of great anecdotes below of where career changes have been highly sort after from outside the luxury world and finally rewarded:
1. The fabulously motivated, vibrant and customer-focused flight attendant who so passionately wanted to work for a luxury brand. We could see she would be a great fit, however, a lot of her experience was not relevant and we knew this would be a challenge for our international luxury clients. So we provided some ideas to help her get there, which was ‘not to be in a hurry’ and accept a position that was less rewarding financially for her, yet would provide the next step and would make her a more attractive candidate for luxury brands in the future. She heeded this advice, worked extremely hard at a position with a particular premium brand and impressed the company, she was promoted http://www.gulfportpharmacy.com quickly (within six months) to a more senior position and provided more responsibility. Ultimately this experience saw her being offered a senior Retail Manager position for a highly coveted luxury fine jewellery company. It was her customer relationship management, recent premium (branded) retail experience, her patience and passion that allowed her to be considered for this position.
2. We also had the builder who had been working in the construction industry for years and prior to that worked in retail (yet not fashion or high end), he was so passionate about working in this industry as personally he had a real affection for beautiful products and was well educated on the luxury industry through his own pro-activity and came to see us to see if we could help with his dream. Due to his passion, knowledge and the way he presented himself after several discussions with him to truly understand his motivation, we decided to present him to a luxury fashion client as a ‘wild card’ candidate amongst a couple of others who fitted their brief. Thankfully the clients were open to this, they met him, there was an immediate connection and he scored the gig!
Identifying what you want, seeking the right path to change, listening to advice and being patient are all key ingredients to assisting with a career shift.
