The purpose of going to college I thought was to find a good paying job and to get ahead in life. What good is a degree if you need experience outside of your degree to find a job in your field. Every job I have interviewed for says you need experience, but I have to get a job to get experience. My area is Graphic Design…What do you reccommend??
4 Comments to “Graphic Design Degree, but no place to find work for experience??HELP?”
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Filed under Graphic Design Careers HELP
Freelance design work and market yourself…do up some business cards and get out and market yourself to gain more experience…
Lots of people are looking for designwork in local business you just have to work it and find them…
Internships ? and get a web page going …market yourself.
two things.
1. when looking at jobs, that is the companys “wish list.” Apply anyway
2. Do free work for sites and stuff to build a portfolio
Every college, even a two year college, I have heard of that offers a graphic design specialty has an INTERNSHIP as part of the program. What happened to that? Did it produce any portfolio pieces?
When you are new to the field, what they look at is your student portfolio. They realize it isn’t going to be as good as most working professional portfolios. But that’s as it should be. You do not have as much design experience. So what they SHOULD be looking at in your portfolio is your eye, your talent, your PROMISE, your general taste and vision and sensibility. If they see something coachable there, they might take you on.
Hard question: Is your portfolio any good? Is it going through the motions assignments, versus inspired personal projects? Are you really into design? Do you gobble up all the design magazines and annuals you can?
One thing I encountered in school, where I studied graphic design also, struck me as odd. There were people there who complained about classes the whole time, hated the assignments, yet supposedly looked forward to being able to get out of school and make the big bucks by flashing their degree. These people did not do as well, over time in their careers, as people who really cared about good design and ASPIRED to be designers — that, versus having a focus on making money automatically just because they had a vo-tech degree.
Do you understand that difference? So which are you, a fledgling inspired lover of design who is trying to be the best possible designer you can be, or a misguided soul who thinks having a degree is a passkey to riches, with talent and interest irrelevant?
Only you can answer that.
Wow. Mr. Jessup has a terrific answer there! The only thing I would add is this: What about a job placement service where you went to school? Every school/program I know of has some sort of job placement/career counseling service. Take advantage of all help you can get there!