What is the career development of Pandora Sykes?

Having studied English literature at the University of Leeds, Pandora Sykes’s degree makes her possess a considerable amount of cultural capital. Now a freelance journalist, Sykes started her career at an early stage. While she has not attained a degree in journalism specifically her higher education in English Literature opened up opportunities to gain work experience in the field of fashion media. Hence her first positions were rarely focused on writing but rather more on styling and assisting on photoshoots Her roles at InStyle, GQ and the Evening Standard Magazine provided her with comprehensive first-hand experience as well as an opportunity to write. This aligns with Bourdieu’s argument that working one’s way up the career ladder might not be the usual way but is still considered as a form of cultural capital, one that is gained through work experience rather than education. Despite not having specialized as a journalist, her educational background counterbalanced this, leading to her first approved writing trials. Albeit not having the possibility to write on a daily basis, assisting feature writers built the foundation for her career in journalism.

Following the internships, Sykes started pursuing a career as a fashion journalist, leading to job roles that were solely assigned to the fashion or features desk. Her first role was editor of the Daily Mail fashion-sharing start-up Today I’m Wearing in 2012, where she functioned as a commentator on celebrity affairs and their daily looks in articles. She left in 2014, for her short-time role as fashion editor at The Debrief before taking on her long-term position as ‘Wardrobe Mistress’ at The Sunday Times Style in the same year.