New To London Seeking Grad/Junior Position.

[rmackey]

Dear Forum,

Having recently permanently re-located to London from Australia, I am looking to secure a Graduate Placement or Junior Position in a small, busy and dynamic team driven studio environment. I am excited by the prospect of securing a position that will allow me to further extend upon and enhance my existing skills and commercial experience, by supporting senior designers and assisting in all aspects of the studio’s operation.

I have completed an Undergraduate degree in Visual Communications and been employed in Australia as Freelance Graphic Designer and part-time in the Publishing Industry.

I don't mind the prospect of fulfilling unpaid positions (as a wise man once told me the best things in life are free) as part of the process of re-establishing myself in the UK, but ideally there would be the possibility that such a placement could develop into a paid position (as unfortunately rental property's are not free).

I would welcome any feedback from members on attaining such a position or any firms/studios which may have vacancy's in the future or run Graduate Programs. I realise that there are lots of advertised positions but I'm more interested in the ones that are not.

I have a personal website www.rmackey.com.au and a folio of my work is available from www.rmackey.com.au/folio.pdf and can be contacted via e-mail rob@rmackey.com.au

Thank you in advance for any assistance you may be able to offer.

Rob


I
UK

[sthomas]

First off welcome to the UK and good luck with your job / placement search.

I've had a look at your website and while i think the work is good, I feel the website lets you down and is quite frustrating - it takes too long to load, there are too many stages until I get to your folio and the sound effects are unnecessary.

I would have preferred a home page with a brief intro about your skills and experience, some images of your work and downloadable pdf of your work and CV. Any potential employer (me included) would always prefer to get to the info quickly instead of waiting for a portfolio to load on-screen.

As for your job search, I don't think there's too much available in the Uk at the minute (whether paid or unpaid). Send your CV and work samples to as many people as possible but try and find out the correct person to address the work samples to beforehand (99% of dear sir / madam would get binned).

Contact charities and local events to see if they need any design work creating for free and make sure you sign-up to lots of UK design job boards. Also sign-up to Twitter to look for vacancies and keep developing and refining your folio.

It also goes without saying that you need to have skills and experience in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator (plus web would be an advantage).