In February, the internship hunt is on. As you gear up to send resumes and aggressively land a position, I wanted to clarify the different roles that make the industry go round. The obvious fashion editor and stylist are known to most but it’s the other roles that aren’t always on your radar – find out what they entail.

Fashion Designer – These are creators, sketchers, painters who take an idea and put it into motion through a design. These people are creatives and are influenced by cultural and social latitudes. Designers can be found in various areas that include womenswear, menswear, footwear, accessories, textiles and more.

Fashion Merchandising – It’s the promotion of apparel sales and involves all tasks necessary to deliver clothing requests and meet the needs of potential customers and designers. Within fashion merchandising you can be in charge of developing campaigns, displays and advertisements, directing marketing and manufacturing and creating sales strategies for the fashion industry and retail market. Some jobs in this field are buyers, trend forecasters and product line developers.

Fashion Marketing – Is the main connection between the product and the public. You are in charge of understanding the customer of the product you are looking to sell and creating a strategy to appeal to their lifestyle. You are a storyteller that works with all outlets such as social media to have a cohesive message carried across. Some jobs within this field are copy writers, media planners, publicists, event planners, journalists, market researchers and social media coordinators.

Fashion Management – This role is found within corporate and retail environments. Managers are responsible for supervising employees whether it’s sales associates of a store or a production department of a fashion house. Jobs within this field are sales managers, showroom reps, production coordinators and human resource managers.

Visual Merchandising – This role is focused on attracting, engaging and motivating customers towards making a purchase. You are typically placed in a retail space such as a retail store or trade show room. You will develop the floor plan and displays to maximize sales. Jobs within this field are display designers, store planners, window and prop mannequin stylists.

And for those of you with some free time get writing. No matter what career path you choose to take you must be a good writer. Write constantly. Write for any opportunity you get. Create a blog. The more work and proof you get out there that you understand the industry and have what it takes the better chance you are to find your way into a role. Now go get going!