How does one get started in a career in graphic design? (self employed, applying)

[jedifrogman]

Hello all, I'm trying to help a friend get a job in graphic design. Problem is, she has had little experience in the field. She went to college for visual arts, but during the summer, she was working jobs to pay the bills rather than taking internships, so when she graduated, there wasn't a whole lot of real world experience there. She's in the southwest suburbs, in the Joliet area.

She recently was part of the setup process for a moderate-size shop for a year and a half, but kept having small mistakes happen and eventually her supervisors were setting her up for failure (giving impossible deadlines, special "mini" projects, being withheld from training, etc.). I recognized these as signs of an impending firing so I advised her to look in the background, but it couldn't come soon enough; she quit before they could fire her. I've been talking to her almost daily and she's starting to get a bit discouraged about finding a new job.

Her biggest observation is that everyone requires a certain level of experience, but she can't get hired because she doesn't have experience, just because they have that requirement, even though she went to college for it. It's a chicken and the egg condition, unless there's a giant stroke of luck and someone wants to take a chance on her and let her build experience while having the tolerance for the occasional slip-up while she gets her feet wet.

What are some ways she can raise her value in graphic design without necessarily having to get hired somewhere?

[ToriaT]

Maybe volunteer with a non profit organization to do some graphic arts work for them free.

[asliarun]

1. Build a portfolio
2. Keep applying for jobs - perseverance pays
3. Network

There are a few websites where you can freelance and do graphics design work, logo work, etc. At this point, the most important thing is to build a solid portfolio of previous work. I highly discourage doing free work, especially for design and creative work where everyone expects stuff to be done for free where "the reward is the experience and gasp, exposure".

However, one could do free work for legit reasons - like for community organizations, "not for profit" organizations, for open source software projects etc.

It also helps to build a website that contains your portfolio of work. And yes, networking. Attend meetups, conferences, gatherings etc.

[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.

[kjoseph717]

I have a friend working a corporate graphics design job for a marketing company downtown. I can probably get you and your friend in contact just send me a private message.

[damba]

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.

Chet, you are being honest and straight forward, not harsh. It's what's needed.

Bottom line is, without the accompanying strong skillset of technical abilities, very few paying gigs will ever appear, if at all.

[Vasily]

I agree with Chet. Skills your friend needs to be marketable as a web designer include (in my opinion):

* Expert knowledge of HTML/HTML5
* Expert knowledge of CSS
* Expert knowledge of Adobe suite
* Moderate knowledge of Javascript/JQuery
* Moderate knowledge of PHP
* Comfortable learning/using CMSes (WordPress powers over 25% of all websites)

A good place to start learning these skills (or enhancing them) is Lynda.com, a bargain at $20/month. Web developers focus on the backend (technical) stuff, but web designers also need to be comfortable with the backend stuff to be competitive.

The market for graphic designers appears to be flat, and projected to be without growth through 2024. There are huge numbers of web designers and web developers out there, including a lot of offshore folks who will work for pennies on the dollar. They tend to dominate in freelance online markets like Upwork and Freelancer -- many clients are looking for cheap and will choose offshore cheap rather than onshore quality. It's a saturated market. Sorry for the bad news.

Which means anyone who wants to break into web design needs to have something to offer a client/employer above and beyond being able to deliver attractive designs.

[Hemlock140]

I had a sign, graphics and engraving business for 16 years and hired almost exclusively graphic design students from the local art institute. While it helped me to have people that could design, and convert raster art to vector, it gave them some experience. Sometimes I would get someone needing logo design or even a full branding and would pay them more for their time spent on it (and charge a lot more). Of those I have kept in touch with, one is self employed with a design business doing mostly print and web advertising, and also does paintings and shows/sells them at local coffee shops. Another is working at a screen printing shop. The last is actually a singer for a New Orleans band now, and tending bar on the side, only doing art for fun. The last gave it up completely and is now working as a cashier at a fabric store.

Where I work now we recently hired a graphic designer for the first time, to do marketing work. The job requirement was degree and 5 years experience, and bring portfolio to the interview. With the art institute and two other art colleges, plus art in the regular colleges, there seems to be far more graduates than jobs here.

[Suburban_Guy]

How to find your first design job

How to get a career in graphic design: 12 pro tips | Creative Bloq

https://www.indeed.com/forum/gen/Car...NCE/t474826/p1

[Ed Ferris]

Don't. Give up. Try something else. Graphic arts experience gets you low-paying, insecure jobs with small, precarious businesses. There's just too much competition. I have seen job applicants bring portfolios to a job that offered half minimum wage (legal because there was no State minimum).
Webpage design is computer programming, not graphic art. There is very little art involved, as you can see by the results.
To get a good graphics job you have to know somebody. Your skills and experience and college degree are irrelevant.