M
mrleesimpson
Guest
Over the past couple of months I've been thinking a lot about designers my age who are just now graduating from University and looking to make their way into design. I've long been of the opinion that the UK education is failing design students and not lending them any favours when it comes to helping them get jobs.
So I wrote a quick blog post covering this:
To read the full article checkout out my blog and let me know your thoughts.
So I wrote a quick blog post covering this:
...In the last 2 months alone I've spoken with 5 local designers who finished their studies more than 12 months ago but are still struggling to find a job and get their foot on the first rung of the career ladder. With qualifications ranging from A-Levels to Degrees and the talents to match I can't help but think that if this was any other sector they'd be offered reasonably paid jobs in a snap.
Now don't get my wrong, I'm not surprised they can't find jobs. The industry is jam packed with some amazingly talented people out of work and companies in the creative industry are going bust on weekly basis, what does surprise me however is their reaction to shortage of jobs, the high requirements agencies expect and the sheer number of people competing for each position, and I'm not the only person who thinks this. In the past I've spoken with a many experienced freelancers, senior designers and agency owners who mostly agree that young creative coming out the education system are pretty deluded when it comes to their views of the industry. Many comment that these young designers aren't aware that to make moves in the early stages of their careers they need to be either uber talented or bring something to the table that the next applicant can't.
Through universities and colleges students are lead to believe that they've got all the skills an employer could ever want, that gigs for juniors are in abundance and the pay is high and the perks are many, plus when all else fails you can always become a Rockstar Freelancer.
But in reality graduate designers (and developers) are leaving university with just a basic commercial skill set...
To read the full article checkout out my blog and let me know your thoughts.