Today's sponsor
Every week someone replies to the fashion jobs list i am sending you all with a version of the same question. "This role is in Geneva and I'm in Mumbai. Is it even worth applying?"
Sometimes the honest answer is no. Often it is yes, and people rule themselves out because nobody has explained how cross-border hiring actually works on the brand's side.
So here it is.
There are three ways a brand hires you from another country
1. They move you, on a visa they sponsor. This is the classic route. The brand's local company offers you the job and sponsors your work visa. It only works if that company is able and willing to sponsor, and in most countries that means extra cost, paperwork and a minimum salary the role has to meet. Big houses do it for senior roles. For junior roles, many simply won't.
2. You stay where you are, employed through an employer of record. This is the one most people have never heard of, and a lot of remote legal and compliance roles are filled this way now. The brand has no company in your country, so a third party, the employer of record, becomes your legal employer there. It runs your payroll, local contract, taxes and benefits. You do the work for the brand, and the brand pays the employer of record.
For you it looks and feels like a normal local job. For the brand it means they can hire the right person without opening an office.
3. You work as a contractor. You invoice monthly and have no employment contract. It's faster to set up and fine for project work. But you get less protection, and the brand takes on real risk if the role is really a job in everything but name. Fashion adds one more wrinkle: check who owns what you produce. A contractor agreement without a proper IP assignment is a problem for both sides.
The part that is specific to lawyers
Your qualification matters less than you think for most in-house roles, and more than you think for a few.
In-house, you are usually advising your own employer, not the public. Plenty of fashion legal roles care far more about which laws you know (EU trademark, advertising rules, data protection) than where you were admitted. But some roles do need local admission, especially anything involving court work, or a job title that is regulated where the job sits. Read the requirements line carefully, and if it is unclear, ask.
If you are applying from outside the country, say so in your first line, and say which of the three routes you are open to. It saves the recruiter a question they would otherwise answer by skipping you.
A note on today’s sponsor. Oyster is one of the employer of record platforms brands use for exactly route two. They are organising a series of free virtual events that will help you to understand what the HR are looking for global hiring.
Hiring Globally? These Events Are For You
If you’re building an international team, another company has likely already wrestled with the same questions you’re facing.
Oyster’s events bring together founders, HR leaders, and global employment experts to share what they’re seeing, testing, and learning in the real world.
How do you hire in a new country? When does EOR make sense? How should you approach global compensation? And how do you stay compliant when the rules change from one market to the next?
Come for the insights, stay for the ideas you can actually take back to your team.
Five questions to ask in the interview
Which company would actually employ me?
Would you sponsor a visa, use an employer of record, or hire me as a contractor?
Which country's law governs my contract?
Who owns the work product, and is that in the contract?
If I relocate later, does the role move with me?
A brand that has done this before will answer all five in a minute. A brand that hasn't will tell you a lot by how it answers.
What I'd do with this
If you are early career, the employer of record route is your best friend. It turns "the role is in Geneva" into "the team is in Geneva", which is a very different application.
If you are already qualified and mobile, lead with it. The job ads I went through last month said the same thing: flexibility is worth more than another line on your CV.
Next week's jobs list is coming together now. I'm flagging which roles say remote or open to international candidates.
Come say hello
Hit reply and tell me where you are and where you want to be. I read every reply myself, and it shapes what goes into the jobs list.
If you'd rather talk outside the inbox, I'm @anujonrecord on Instagram, where I post the behind-the-scenes of building this, and Anuj Kumar on LinkedIn for anything industry or career related.
And if this was useful
Two things that genuinely help, and both are free. Follow Fashion Law Journal on Instagram and LinkedIn, and forward this to one person who's trying to break into fashion law. Word of mouth is how this list has grown so far, and it's what lets me keep the jobs board free.
Anuj
Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Fashion Law Journal
anujkumar.co