What Makes Hiring in Fashion, Home, and Beauty Different
Hiring is never one-size-fits-all, especially across the fashion, home, and beauty industries.
Brands are constantly responding to new trends, changing consumer expectations, periods of growth, and shifts in the market. Teams often evolve right alongside the business, creating hiring needs that can look very different from one brand to the next.
Finding the right talent requires more than matching a resume to a job description. Understanding the industry, the brand, and what the team actually needs can make all the difference.
Industry Experience Can Make a Difference
Certain parts of fashion, home, and beauty are difficult to fully understand without experience in or around these industries. Company size, team structure, product category, and stage of growth can all shape what someone’s day-to-day responsibilities actually look like.
Experience can also look different depending on the type of brand someone has worked for. At a larger company, roles may be more specialized, while smaller or growing brands may require employees to take on responsibilities across different areas of the business. Understanding the environment someone is coming from can help determine how their experience may translate to a new role.
Job Titles Don't Always Tell the Full Story
The same title can mean something completely different from one company to another. An Ecommerce Manager at a smaller brand might own nearly every part of the digital business, while someone with the same title at a larger company may specialize in one channel or area of the customer experience.
Similar differences exist across merchandising, marketing, creative, product, retail, and operations. Looking beyond the title to understand what someone has actually owned, the teams they have worked with, and the type of business they have supported can provide a much clearer picture of their experience.
Brand DNA Plays a Role in Every Hire
Experience matters, but a resume only tells part of the story.
Every brand has its own identity and way of working. Team structure, leadership style, customer, aesthetic, values, and growth plans can all influence what makes someone successful within an organization. A candidate can have the right technical background while coming from an environment that looks very different from the one they would be joining.
Getting to know a brand’s DNA early in the process helps bring those less tangible parts of a search into focus. The goal is to understand not only what the person needs to be able to do, but also the kind of team and business they will be joining.
The Right Candidate May Come From Somewhere Unexpected
Hiring within these industries does not always mean finding someone who has already held the exact same position at a nearly identical brand. Experience can translate across categories in ways that may not be obvious from a resume alone. Someone could come from a different product category, company size, or slightly different role while still bringing the skills and industry knowledge needed to succeed.
This can be especially important for specialized searches where the most obvious talent pool is limited. Understanding which parts of a candidate’s background are essential and which skills can transfer gives brands more room to consider strong talent without losing sight of what the role requires.
Timing Matters
Brands within the fashion, home, and beauty industries often hire around product launches, retail openings, seasonal demand, periods of growth, and other important moments for the business. Some of these needs can be planned for well in advance, while others develop much more quickly.
A new store, for example, may need leadership in place before the rest of the team can be built. Growth within ecommerce could create the need for additional expertise that was not necessary six months earlier. Seasonal periods can also create temporary hiring needs alongside a brand’s longer-term plans.
Starting the hiring conversation early, when possible, gives teams more time to focus on finding the right fit instead of reaching a point where the urgency of filling the role drives the process.
Understanding the Brand Behind the Role
A job description can outline what a company needs, and a resume can show where someone has been. Finding the connection between the two takes a deeper understanding of the role, the industry, and the brand itself.
At EB, our experience within the industries we recruit for helps us understand the nuances behind different roles and recognize experience that can translate across brands and categories. As we get to know a client, we also learn more about the team, culture, goals, and brand DNA behind the search.
Every brand is different, and every search comes with its own set of needs. Taking the time to understand those differences helps us approach each search with the bigger picture in mind and find talent that makes sense for where the brand is headed.
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