Thinking of emailing your resume and cover letter for the next job opening that strikes your fancy? Think again … at least according to Jenna Lyons, J.Crew’s group president and executive creative director. In this interview with Glamour’s Cindi Leive, Lyons dishes on a wide range of topics, from the proper way to apply for a job to why you shouldn’t ask for a raise to how best handle a career setback and more. Here are some excerpts from that interview:

On how to get a job working for her at J.Crew: “Send me some of your work or a nice letter, and tell me why you’re interested in working here. Don’t send me an email … you have to be old-school. Be professional.”

On what she learned from her early days as an assistant at J.Crew: The thing I think is most important for young people to know is that today there’s this idea of having everything quickly, that you’re going to walk in the door, be a designer, and not have to do any of the grunt work. It’s just not realistic. The things you don’t learn in school are the skills you probably need more – what it’s like to work with other people, how you build a team and collaborate.”

What she loves about Mickey Drexler, J.Crew’s iconic chairman and CEO: One of the things I love about Mickey is we’ve gone through many business cycles that haven’t always been great, but he always remains positive. He’s like, “We know what we’re doing. We didn’t get stupid overnight. Let’s just keep moving forward.”

What accomplishments she’s most proud of: “Sometimes it’s the small stuff. I remember this woman wrote me a letter and said she had to give a speech and was incredibly nervous. She had gone into J.Crew and got something to wear, and people said, “You look great!” She said, “I’m a scientist, I’ve never had anybody compliment me on my clothing before.” … I do think sometimes people assume that what you wear isn’t important, but I know it can make someone who needs a little boost feel beautiful.”

On how she handles personal setbacks: “I liken a perfect business run to winning the lottery: People’s expectations are so high. But if you look at business … the mistakes often end up being the best things that could have happened. The only sad part about down business is if you don’t learn from it. Get in there and be humble. If you’ve had a great run, now’s the time to sit back and put down your feathers. [Laughs.] I grew up in California; there were a lot of peacocks.”

On how best to advance in your career: “The person who makes herself indispensable, that’s the person you want to promote. But when someone comes in and starts asking — it’s such a disease. Demanding, “I’ve done all this and I want X,” doesn’t work for me so much. [Instead] Ask questions: “I’m ready to take it to the next step. What is it that I can do better?” That, to me, is an engaged, collaborative way to get somebody to the next level. You’re not going to get there just because you think you’re ready or because someone else got promoted. We don’t sit here and create a scale where we carefully ratchet everyone up evenly. Because if that were the case, we’d all be drones. No one is a drone …. You are you.”

Do you agree with Lyons’ opinions? If so, why? And if not, why? Let us know your thoughts by posting a comment below.