3197 Ciao Tutti

Hi Everyone,

Just registered on the forum, am a fan of the mag and of course Italy and all things italian.

Im 29 and live in Liverpool, v happy about more flights being released with ryanair!!

I have learnt to speak GCSE italian and work in the fashion industry, but I have just accepted a job as a holiday rep for Citalia! My plan is to work a few seasons and improve my italian and then hope to apply for a job as a buyer in Italy (theres no way I could get through an interview in italian just yet!!).

But I have read on here it is quite hard to secure jobs in italy unless you know someone. I would welcome any advice or comments on my grand plan to move to italy that any of you may have!!

Scarlet

Category
Introduce Yourself - Piacere Conoscerti

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/07/2006 - 11:02

... and welcome to the forum, Scarlet! :)

Congrats on your job as a holiday rep!! This should hopefully give you plenty of opportunity to practice Italian... and also to establish those all-important connections for the future! Best to get yourself known to a wide Italian audience and, oops, someday someone somewhere might know of a job for you!! ;)

Enjoy your time browsing...

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/07/2006 - 12:41

Welcome, I hope you enjoys the postings & contribute your knowledge.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/07/2006 - 13:28

Welcome to the forum Scarlet, good luck with your new job and future plans. It all sounds exciting, hope the networking pays off.
Michelle:)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/07/2006 - 14:08

Good luck with your plans Scalet, being a scouser in the first place gives you an excellent start (having a natural gift of the gab), being of Knotty Ash origin myself, I am in no doubt once you are working in Italy you will make many friends and being a holiday rep will give you an excellent opportunity to chat to your guests and suss out their careers and hopefully get yourself a few leads, then who knows what will happen. Good luck ;)

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/12/2006 - 12:19

I work in Italy in the wool textile sector and can tell you that "buyers" are very thin on the ground in Italy. This because the retail trade is quite different to the UK - there are only a few chains stores and the likes of Benetton do their own manufacturing. COIN and other department stores will have buyers but you should not count on getting a job in buying.
However, it is possible for madre lingua English speakers to find work in the fashion industry in sales or looking after foreign buyers/designers.
When you visit Florence or Milan as a tour guide you could start making enquiries.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/13/2006 - 05:43

Hello,

That is what I am planning to do, I think as a rep I am going to be based in the south but I am just going to concentrate on improving my language.

I already have a contact for yoox.com who have told me they would be interested in interviewing me now without advanced language skills but I just dont think I know enough to get by in business life and would struggle. I also have contacts at Diesel, Sixty, Versace and Iceberg it just depends on whether they have openings when I am looking which probably wont be until I have done at least two seasons living there. I am not too bothered if I cant get a role as a buyer, like you say in sales dealing with english accounts would be perfect. Thanks for the suggestion!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/13/2006 - 08:30

Scarlet I have contacts in Iceberg, Alberta Ferretti and also Murphy and Nye.
When the time comes to start looking drop me a line.
Good luck with your Citalia job.
Have fun.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 04/13/2006 - 11:37

Hi, Thank you!!! That would be fabulous, I better get chatting to the locals as soon as I get there!!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 04/18/2006 - 07:01

Welcome!
I ended up working in the fashion industry here, and contacts are the main way of getting work, unfortunately. More true the smaller a firm is. I'm pretty sure though that big groups will consider your cv and not just who introduces you...
If you have contacts and or openings with yoox.com, my strong advise would be, use them NOW even if you feel you don't have the experience.
Good luck

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/19/2006 - 07:51

Grazie Emilia,

I have signed my contract and nearly packed my bags for my season as a holiday rep with Citalia so i think i will do this and then see how my language is in October. I really dont think I could cope in a work environment completely in italian just yet!

Hopefully when I am in resort I will still be able to check on here as its such a great source of information. Before I decided to become a rep I actually looked at buying a property in Puglia so its good to read about other people there. I still live at home so it would have been my first property, however, I think I prefer my new plan of move there and then look to buy the property. I viewed houses in Ostuni and really loved one but it was between staying here and buying it or moving there and not buying it so I chose the latter, but its nice to see so many people have bought in Puglia it really is a lovely place, as is the rest of Italy. In fact I dont think I could choose my favourite part! Isnt it funny how so many people love Italy?!