Stuck in a rut

P

Pidge

New Member
Hi all,

I'm just looking for a bit of help & advise from other experienced designers out there on taking the next step after a first job in design.

To give you a bit of a background, I graduated back in 2007 and did the usual placement tour and managed to secure my first full time position as an in-house designer in 2010. I have been with the company for nearly 2 years and I'm really eager to move into a design agency, preferably in a vibrant city like London or abroad. I am very flexible in terms of relocating as I have worked abroad 2-3 times in the past.

I have been applying for jobs for most of this current year and have had a couple of interviews but no job offer as yet. I really enjoyed my current job when I started but have become very bored with it as it does not challenge or inspire me anymore and frankly I am capable of a lot more too.

I have thought about travelling to open my options to new possibilities but I'm worried about returning to being in a worse position of no job and little money. I'm very keen to get out of my job as soon as possible but it seems near impossible to secure a new job at the moment so I have hit a bit of a wall in what to do at the moment. I have also considered further education possibly in digital design to further my options but obviously this would involve a significant money factor with still no definite job at the end.

Any advise would be much appreciated, thanks!:)
 
Do you have an online blog/portfolio out there? Have you been developing your skillset, targetting what's new? You doing any front end development (HTML 5, CSS3) to supplement the graphic design - makes you much more employable..
 
Have you talked in detail with your current employer? Described your issues / frustrations / passions? Or do you really want that complete change of scene?
 
Thanks very much for your replies so far!

Yes I do have an online portfolio and a blog. In fact I'm currently working on a new portfolio website. I did start learning some HTML/CSS but have not really committed to it yet as to be quite frank it doesn't interest me that much, although I know and appreciate that it is becoming an increasingly important required skill for "graphic" designers. I primarily enjoy the concept and ideas side of design.

Basically as my current job is part of an in-house design team even if I was to talk about my current issues / frustrations / passions I don't really see that it would achieve anything because the job is the job and is not a position where they would be able to offer me anything extra or different. I want to work in a design agency where I can work on a variety of different projects but it seems like there is such a high amount of competition out there for the few jobs there are, that it could be years before I get a new job. So I guess I can keep at it, possibly go back into education, or travel? Or look for a new career!

Again thanks for your time and anything else you may be able to add would be great!
 
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