Having completed a 7-month internship at Karla Otto, a global corporation specializes in comprehensive brand communication for luxury brands in the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle domain, I not only gained practical insights into communication, but also underwent a significant shift in my perspective towards the luxury industry.
I’ve always loved and appreciated beauty and creativity in all its forms. To me the luxury industry in a way is the perfect fusion of the realm of business and creativity. The idea of aligning my work with my passion was exciting to me, therefore when I was looking for an internship over the summer, a position within the related field became my ideal pursuit.
When I received the interview invite and ultimately got the internship position at Karla Otto, I was really excited as if a long-cherished dream had materialized. This sentiment remained strong even after several months into my internship. As an intern in the Digital department, my focus on digital marketing exposed me to the glamour of high fashion runway images and collaborations with prestigious luxury brands. Every moment spent working at Karla Otto was thoroughly enjoyable and resonated with my professional vision.
Despite being captivated by the allure of opulence, as I delved deeper into both the industry and my personal feelings, I discovered that the luxury sector, once a personal aspiration, failed to deliver genuine fulfillment for me. While acknowledging its economic significance, I began to notice a misalignment in values between myself and this industry.
For me, true fulfillment arises from addressing concrete and crucial issues, which could offer me a sense of purpose through creating meaningful changes and impact to this world. In contrast, the luxury products I encountered seemed to serve the purpose of enhancing the convenience of the higher earning and somewhat privileged demographic without contributing to solving substantial problems.
This realization became a personal dilemma to me. While I appreciate the aesthetic allure of the luxury industry, I struggle to identify its core values, making it challenging for me to cultivate a genuine passion for it. This may partly be due to my limited understanding of the industry’s impact, but presently, I sense a growing disparity between my values and the luxury sector.
My internship experiences allowed me to get in touch with the reality of my once-idealized luxury industry. Moving forward, I aspire to work for an industry that is not only high earning but also aligns with my values to find a career path that genuinely fulfills me.