Long-Term Prospects

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Job Satisfaction

Interior Design: 50%

Fashion Design: 32%

General quality of life statement

Let's face it: the fashion world is not going to welcome you with open arms. It's going to judge you, harshly…with folded arms.

It's grueling, fiercely competitive, and extremely critical. As Heidi Klum says, "You're either in, or you're out." Long hours, low pay, and low morale contribute to a rather low job satisfaction rate: just 32% of fashion designers report being satisfied in their jobs. 

If you do end up making a splash in the world of fashion, boy, can the tides turn. Fame and fortune are just a successful shoe line away.

As for interior design, the waters are a bit warmer upon entry. About 50% of interior designers are satisfied with their jobs, just 4% below the median job satisfaction rate. While still a competitive field, interior design is typically less stressful than the fashion industry, even though it has its fair share of headaches…like finicky clients who demand a million-dollar design on a $10,000 budget. Yeah. Right.

The average salaries for these fields are a bit lower than salaries for college graduates. However, opportunities for making much larger salaries do exist. Commercial interior design is pretty lucrative, and well-known fashion designers and fashion magazine editors are quite well-off, too. Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue, reportedly rakes in two million each year. And she only had to sell her soul to the devil in order to earn it.

Bottom line: you're not going to get into this line of work unless you are incredibly passionate, driven, and talented. Many people will try and flounder. Many more will try and fail, but with a little luck, you, too, could be forced by Tim Gunn to take care of fake babies on national television. That's pretty much the dream, right?

25th Percentile Salary

Median Salary

75th Percentile Salary

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