Chanpory Rith
May 22, 2008
It’s May and that means graduation time. Congrats to all the students leaving college to become professional designers.
I’m working on a series of posts geared towards new design graduates. But first, I’d like to know what aching questions you have now that you’re fresh out of school. What useful advice do you need? What do you want to know about finding a job? What worries you the most?
No questions are stupid, so speak up. Email me, or post your questions in the comments. I’ll pick out the compelling ones and answer them in future posts.
5 Comments
Ellis Benus
4:34 pm
Currently I am personally trying to do seminars at the local colleges to teach students how to start a business while they are in school.
Instead of waiting for school to end to start working, they could, and should, start their own company while still in college.
This way when school end they could already have a job and be making money instead of starting to look when they graduate…
However, good luck on getting these done and I’m sure the advice you give will really help new graduates.
For anyone still in school please check out some blogs I frequent (not my own blog): YoungEntrepreneur.com dorm-room-biz.com YoungGoGetter.com College-Startup.com
Enjoy!
Tosin Matti
10:19 pm
You made a very good point Ellis. I wish I would have started a business while I was in school, instead I’m still looking for a job in my field two years after graduating for college.
Brett Darnell
8:33 pm
I am about 2 years out of college, and I started freelancing about my sophomore year. These days, I have actually had the opportunity about a year ago to leave the daily grind and now I am now a full time freelance designer.
Starting early has given me the chance to pull together a great list of clients over the past 4 years.
Start early and get yourself out there! That is the best advice I can possibly think of for young designers moving in to the “real world”.
It is a really enjoyable challenge and day after day is very rewarding. Meeting great people and creating cool design solutions! Enjoy the ride!
Sarah Goldbaum
11:14 am
I just graduated and I’m looking for a steady, full-time job. I think some tips for job listings/networking resources, how/where to research design firms, and how to promote yourself would be very useful.
christy
9:17 pm
I just graduated as well. I think it would be useful to give different perspectives of what different design jobs are actually like because most of us have a pretty vague idea until we are actually on site which can make it intimidating. I think we all have those questions like “should i apply for this? will i be able to do it? will i meet their expectations? what if i don’t? should i apply for just everything and see who calls back or a few at a time? Is my portfolio making me appear a better designer than i really am and does that matter? Can i apply my skills on site as well i can at home? should i just go for it and see what happens?” i know those are questions that run through my mind as i begin my job search.
ps love the site