Say This to Rachel Zoe and You Won't Get a Job With Her

Rachel Zoe didn't start out her career dressing starlets for the Oscars. She had to work her way up (the salary for her first styling assistant job started at just $18,000!) All that hard work resulted in a roster of A-list clients, the Bravo reality show The Rachel Zoe Project, a fashion line, a chain of dry-styling salons, and more.

Now she's sharing her career tips to other would-be stylists in a wide-ranging interview with Fashionista. If you ever find yourself interviewing with Rachel Zoe, this is a very important read because she spells out the one thing you can say that will torpedo your chances of getting a job.

Here's what Rachel told Fashionista that she looks for in an assistant during the interview: "You have to make sure there's no agenda with the person who wants to work with you, because very often in styling or in fashion you'll get people that are like, 'I love clothes; I love dressing; I love shopping,' and those aren't the people that you want. You want the people that are like, 'I want to do this because I love the process of this. I want to be a really good stylist. I want to learn.''

So less "I want to shop and dress up for a living," more "I'm an eager student at this, and I'm here to work." Got it!

Rachel also reflected on her and her husband Rodger Berman's fondest memories from her Bravo show, and her answer is really sweet. "The greatest moment for me in my career is that Rodger and I still constantly hear from people are going through...a very hard time in their lives, people that just had a baby and are trying to put their lives back together," she told Fashionista. "If [the show is] inspiring them or providing escapism in any way for them, then that's the greatest thing I can ever ask for."

It's not just fashion, Rachel's doing us all a public service with her fabulousness.