Help finding new Graphic Design Job

[Ladders]

Hi everyone!

I could do with some help and advice with finding a new job!

I've been sending off for jobs for a month or so and not had any luck yet (although I've not really spent that much time with Christmas etc). I did have an interview with a well renown local design recruitment agency but no luck yet.

Here's a bit about myself. Did all the usual stuff, art at school, Graphic Design at Uni. Got my first job at a local paper and learnt about outputting work to print and using all the usual programmes. Now have 10 years experience and have worked in agencies working for companies such as BP, NHS etc as well as smaller clients and have also worked Freelance in my spare time. I have experience creating concepts and working on pitches. Also have a wide range of experience working on print, brochures, adverts, large format, exhibitions, even down to building the stands and making a interactive light up petrol tanker!! In my latest job I also produce HTML emails and microsites and have built website as a freelancer.

So what I'm wondering is, am I putting myself over the best way I can? Is there anything else I can do to sell myself more?
Is Mad, Brand Republic etc the best place to look?

I know I'm never going to get a job at Saatchi's etc, but then I don't think my work is that bad either!


At the moment I have a link to my work which I include when I apply for jobs on-line, with a link to my CV

portfolio

Ok, or is there a better way to present it? Do you think it shows what I can do or do I need to put other stuff on there?

This is the page I use for freelance:

portfolio

Cheers for any advice!

Dave

[Moominbaby]

Hi I have a LOT less exp than you but just thought I would say I spend months and months looking for a job and wrote all the same old stuff in my cover letter and then I got really bored and wrote this...

Hello,

You read hundreds of these every week, huh?

All of them thinking they are the next best thing since sliced bread… Well. We all know sliced bread is terrible, it’s mass produced garbage (like so many of the cv’s under this one) You may have already noticed that this is not the best CV since sliced bread but possibly the best CV since the dawn of dough. The sort of dough used to make that special bread they have at your favourite restaurant, the fluffy one with the amazing ‘crunch’. That’s me, bespoke bread. Made to your exacting standards and keen, not to fill a hole ;) but to quench an inner thirst, to strive for the best, to create something amazing. This is why I am the best junior graphic designer and illustrator there is!

I am also highly qualified, enthusiastic, free thinking and modest. I have recently relocated to the London area and am keen to take on a new challenge. I have studied your website and feel that the core ideals and ethos of your company are well suited to my talents and mind set and feel together we could do great things.

Call me, will do lunch!

Yours, sincerely, (and slightly cockily)

Louie Bowers

http://louie_crooks.prosite.com/
Louie Bowers

I have never had so many responses, I think employers are just of sick of reading boring cover letters as you are of writing them. (Just my take on it and it matched my general brand as a whole, please don't steal it!)

[Ladders]

Lol Thanks Louie!

Yes that's the thing, you never get any feedback from applications so you never know if it's something as simple as your cover letter, or they don't like your portfolio, or they just don't like how you've presented it all!

[Corrosive]

Hi I have a LOT less exp than you but just thought I would say I spend months and months looking for a job and wrote all the same old stuff in my cover letter and then I got really bored and wrote this...

Hello,

You read hundreds of these every week, huh?

All of them thinking they are the next best thing since sliced bread… Well. We all know sliced bread is terrible, it’s mass produced garbage (like so many of the cv’s under this one) You may have already noticed that this is not the best CV since sliced bread but possibly the best CV since the dawn of dough. The sort of dough used to make that special bread they have at your favourite restaurant, the fluffy one with the amazing ‘crunch’. That’s me, bespoke bread. Made to your exacting standards and keen, not to fill a hole ;) but to quench an inner thirst, to strive for the best, to create something amazing. This is why I am the best junior graphic designer and illustrator there is!

I am also highly qualified, enthusiastic, free thinking and modest. I have recently relocated to the London area and am keen to take on a new challenge. I have studied your website and feel that the core ideals and ethos of your company are well suited to my talents and mind set and feel together we could do great things.

Call me, will do lunch!

Yours, sincerely, (and slightly cockily)

Louie Bowers

http://louie_crooks.prosite.com/
Louie Bowers

I have never had so many responses, I think employers are just of sick of reading boring cover letters as you are of writing them. (Just my take on it and it matched my general brand as a whole, please don't steal it!)

That is bloody brilliant!