How does one get started in a career in graphic design?

[charlygal]

Have here sign up for upwork.com. Have her bid on jobs at rock bottom prices. It sucks but it will build her portfolio fairly quickly. On her resume, she would list herself as a freelancer and then list out her freelance work.

[dazeddude8]

Originally Posted by chet everett

I have a reputation for being somewhat harsh but that is only because I have seen lots of people get swindled by colleges. I have met people that earned undergrad or MFA degrees from Chicago's School of the Art Institute and other top tier colleges that had to decide if they were going to be satisfied working at a coffee shop OR whether they were going to figure out enough computer software development to make a decent living.

The fact is folks who study "graphic design" and do not learn enough HTML, CSS, and other User Interface / User Experience technologies are basically getting ripped off by their schools. There is MASSIVE demand for folks that can contribute to the "front end" of online advertising, web sites, mobile apps and similar software efforts. Folks can learn the terminology on their own but the reason that bootcamps exist is because it is more efficient to learn in a setting like that and have a portfolio that is geared toward the needs of companies actively hiring.

It is not a slam dunk that one will immediately earn back the investment in every bootcamp, as many folks are kind of clueless about how to approach getting hired in even a casual setting (like you can't treat your contract-to-hire gig like a job in a fastfood outlet...) but it is just about certain that for someone that has not done any internships there is no way they have any shot at getting an "old school" graphic design job working on package design and print media. The OP's friend is going to have to face up to the fact that their best shot at good job is going to come from finding the right bootcamp to quickly give them the "frontend" skills to get hired.

This is spot on. I am not a graphic designer nor do I aspire to be one, but I have run across a few graphic design openings. And yes what Chet says is true, there seems to be very few "just design" positions i.e.. knowing adobe creative suite is enough. They now want HTML knowledge, Dreamweaver, web design in addition to the Adobe In Design, Photoshop, Illustrator. So if all you know is the design side and none of the tech "stuff" you are going to be at a massive disadvantage against the graphic designer who knows both the tech and the design side. Maybe in the past you could get away with "A does design only", "B does tech only" but it seems companies want people with more expanded skill sets than before.

It also must be noted that Graphic design, like Copy Writing, like any creative field is in itself just tough to get into. There are far more Graphic design applicants than there are Graphic design positions.

[Basilide]

I know a few successful freelance graphic designers. The key was having a robust set of contacts and heavy networking. It is 90% who you know. One came from a wealthy family, and so she had a lot of clients that were well off business owners that were friends of the family. She also built up a brand for herself and advertised on websites like Etsy. She made templates that she could charge directly for and that was her bread and butter for her design business for a while.