I wish I had more advice to give you but diversifying your skillset is incredibly important today, whatever that would be. I ended up going down the “swiss knife” path so I pursued animation, video, photo-editing and retouching, and web design. I think graphic design should be the base for pivotting to other skillsets. It’s a lot easier for a company to fire specialists who are only good at one thing versus people who can handle 5-6 different workflows or at least have a decent understanding of multiple. I think it’d be a good idea to use AI even just for basic questions. If you have an inkling that something can be faster - just ask or search it up, treat it like an internet database. I’ve added so many tools to my belt by just looking for answers before I even had problems.
Highly recommend checking out The Futur, content is iffy sometimes but it cant be understated how valuable his advice is for trying to understand the business/entrepreneurial side of things which is incredibly important for creatives so they can interact professionally with everyone. Like construction contractors, if you’re neat, organized, respond quickly, and are fun to work with then more often than not, people will come back for more work if you’re freelance.
Luckily the laziness of some creatives has created a fairly low bar of expectations from a lot of clientele. Just being professional will make you stand out tremendously. Even I have story after story of working with unprofessional creatives.
Like what the other person said, experience is literally it for design. Getting reps in is extremely important. Also - do your best to try and REALLY understand the values of hierarchy and white space. Everything’s connected, it’s up to you to figure out how humans will interact best with whatever you create while finding a seamless balance between expression, hierarchy, and function.
Also - Can’t recommend this enough but either work off of a hard drive or back literally everything up to a personal google drive as you go. Companies have a habit of screwing over designers and locking up their portfolio’s when they let them go.
Here’s my 2 cents….
As a designer, your work is a unique set of skills. Whether you believe it’s great or trash, the odds of someone else executing the same way is astronomically high which makes it special. The panic is a common thing but understand from the panic comes the joy once a job is obtained. Most graphic design jobs for recent graduates are fairly simple and you won’t be given too difficult of work to begin with but they will challenge you. I’m sure other more skilled designers will tell you always try to learn a new technique or tool to ensure you’re getting better every day. Nobody started off as a super skilled designer. It takes experience and practice. Design is a forever evolving skill. New tools, new tricks, new platforms and new ideas.
Try not to think of it as you’re not skilled or you don’t think you’re ready, try to accept it as a new challenge and your work is a growing representation of where you are now compared to where you’ll be once you get that opportunity to shine. It’s a tough market right now, I won’t lie to you, but you’re just needing a shot to showcase your stuff.
What if you get an interview and they love your work so they hire you, then they love your work ethic and results even more?! It’ll all be worth it right? And the panic won’t be there anymore. It’s all about perspective and giving a true effort. I believe you’ll be fine. If you completed college and got a degree for it, then you’ll be able to excel in whatever field you embark on. It’s all about seeing it through. Most don’t so the same energy you took to finish college, take that same drive and motivation into the job search and force. You’ll do great.
The first question to ask based on hearing this is...where were your design professors all this time while you were in school struggling???
I feel bad for you as a good school, with a good program and professional teachers would have never failed you. Can you share where you went to school? Are there others in your program who feel the same way?
I went to SNHU fully remote. It’s not a school known for excellence by any means. Their main selling points are accessibility and affordability. I’ve learned a lot, but I’ve found that most of what you learn at a school like that is completely reliant on your own will to take things further and learn more than what’s required. I believe I’ve done that, but I’m mostly just in it for a degree. Everything valuable I’ve learned has been on YouTube or LinkedIn learning.
And I wouldn’t know the feelings of others because it’s difficult to connect with peers when you do school online. I think that’s a large reason why I’m panicking as well. I’ve got no network and no one to compare myself too
The degree although useful, is not usually not what is the most interesting to employers. Create an online portfolio and start prompting yourself. Like the others tell you expand your skills, animation and ai two of the top areas right now. Look at YouTube videos and see what others are doing. I used to teach all these skills to people like you. I have all kinds of jobs in graphics. Learn what you can from a job, then move on.
A lot is about expectations.
Usually grads think they've learned a lot more than they did in college, so don't realize how much left they still have to learn, or the basic situation that college only builds a foundation, it's actual work experience that shows you how to apply it in the real world (you'll see often people confusing the two and seeming to think school 'failed' them if it didn't teach them all they might need to know, or have them come out of school at a senior level).
Early jobs are all about experience, so being able to work with actual, experienced designers can be vital. If you end up as some lone in-house, without anyone to actually learn from properly, that's understandable as at that stage it can be hard to find work, but just be aware you don't need to stay in a given job for years.
Grads also became accustomed to how much freedom and authority they had over their work and direction on projects, but in actual jobs you're back at the bottom of the ladder, with little or no actual authority in most cases. You'll typically be following the direction of more senior people or just others in general, and that's a massive culture shock for many.
Even in terms of finding jobs, most grads expect to find something within 1-3 months, and seem to have an existential crisis if they don't. When really, a more realistic goal is within 6-12 months.
There's also a lot of variables involved with finding work, most notably your actual level of ability/understanding, and how you represent that within your work and portfolio, along with interview skills. Where you live, how you go about finding postings and applying, what you apply to, how you network, etc can also be very relevant in your odds for landing a job.
Basically it's not something where you can just come out of college, say you have a degree and a portfolio, and people will just hire you. Having a degree doesn't mean you have good work, and having good work doesn't mean you didn't make avoidable mistakes or there aren't a lot of people better.
Here are some prior threads and comments of my own getting into more detail:
[Here's good thread on portfolio advice.]
(https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/u14sxx/portfolio_advice_for_new_designers/)
[Here's a prior comment of mine on common grad/junior mistakes.](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/qm37nv/what_did_your_portfolio_look_like_when_you_first/hj75ruj/)
[Here's a thread on other portfolio mistakes/issues.](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/1cziwoj/hey_new_grads_your_portfolio_needs_work/)
[Here is a thread on some sample/reference portfolios.](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/zloe42/ten_portfolios_to_study/)
[Here is a thread on questions to ask during interviews.](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/18duv18/during_an_interview_what_are_some_questions_i/)
[A perspective from the hiring side](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/19e9yzp/is_the_job_market_actually_bad_right_now/kjd6i5x/).
I wish I had more advice to give you but diversifying your skillset is incredibly important today, whatever that would be. I ended up going down the “swiss knife” path so I pursued animation, video, photo-editing and retouching, and web design. I think graphic design should be the base for pivotting to other skillsets. It’s a lot easier for a company to fire specialists who are only good at one thing versus people who can handle 5-6 different workflows or at least have a decent understanding of multiple. I think it’d be a good idea to use AI even just for basic questions. If you have an inkling that something can be faster - just ask or search it up, treat it like an internet database. I’ve added so many tools to my belt by just looking for answers before I even had problems. Highly recommend checking out The Futur, content is iffy sometimes but it cant be understated how valuable his advice is for trying to understand the business/entrepreneurial side of things which is incredibly important for creatives so they can interact professionally with everyone. Like construction contractors, if you’re neat, organized, respond quickly, and are fun to work with then more often than not, people will come back for more work if you’re freelance. Luckily the laziness of some creatives has created a fairly low bar of expectations from a lot of clientele. Just being professional will make you stand out tremendously. Even I have story after story of working with unprofessional creatives. Like what the other person said, experience is literally it for design. Getting reps in is extremely important. Also - do your best to try and REALLY understand the values of hierarchy and white space. Everything’s connected, it’s up to you to figure out how humans will interact best with whatever you create while finding a seamless balance between expression, hierarchy, and function. Also - Can’t recommend this enough but either work off of a hard drive or back literally everything up to a personal google drive as you go. Companies have a habit of screwing over designers and locking up their portfolio’s when they let them go.
Here’s my 2 cents…. As a designer, your work is a unique set of skills. Whether you believe it’s great or trash, the odds of someone else executing the same way is astronomically high which makes it special. The panic is a common thing but understand from the panic comes the joy once a job is obtained. Most graphic design jobs for recent graduates are fairly simple and you won’t be given too difficult of work to begin with but they will challenge you. I’m sure other more skilled designers will tell you always try to learn a new technique or tool to ensure you’re getting better every day. Nobody started off as a super skilled designer. It takes experience and practice. Design is a forever evolving skill. New tools, new tricks, new platforms and new ideas. Try not to think of it as you’re not skilled or you don’t think you’re ready, try to accept it as a new challenge and your work is a growing representation of where you are now compared to where you’ll be once you get that opportunity to shine. It’s a tough market right now, I won’t lie to you, but you’re just needing a shot to showcase your stuff. What if you get an interview and they love your work so they hire you, then they love your work ethic and results even more?! It’ll all be worth it right? And the panic won’t be there anymore. It’s all about perspective and giving a true effort. I believe you’ll be fine. If you completed college and got a degree for it, then you’ll be able to excel in whatever field you embark on. It’s all about seeing it through. Most don’t so the same energy you took to finish college, take that same drive and motivation into the job search and force. You’ll do great.
Thanks for that, kind stranger :,)
The first question to ask based on hearing this is...where were your design professors all this time while you were in school struggling??? I feel bad for you as a good school, with a good program and professional teachers would have never failed you. Can you share where you went to school? Are there others in your program who feel the same way?
I went to SNHU fully remote. It’s not a school known for excellence by any means. Their main selling points are accessibility and affordability. I’ve learned a lot, but I’ve found that most of what you learn at a school like that is completely reliant on your own will to take things further and learn more than what’s required. I believe I’ve done that, but I’m mostly just in it for a degree. Everything valuable I’ve learned has been on YouTube or LinkedIn learning.
And I wouldn’t know the feelings of others because it’s difficult to connect with peers when you do school online. I think that’s a large reason why I’m panicking as well. I’ve got no network and no one to compare myself too
The degree although useful, is not usually not what is the most interesting to employers. Create an online portfolio and start prompting yourself. Like the others tell you expand your skills, animation and ai two of the top areas right now. Look at YouTube videos and see what others are doing. I used to teach all these skills to people like you. I have all kinds of jobs in graphics. Learn what you can from a job, then move on.
A lot is about expectations. Usually grads think they've learned a lot more than they did in college, so don't realize how much left they still have to learn, or the basic situation that college only builds a foundation, it's actual work experience that shows you how to apply it in the real world (you'll see often people confusing the two and seeming to think school 'failed' them if it didn't teach them all they might need to know, or have them come out of school at a senior level). Early jobs are all about experience, so being able to work with actual, experienced designers can be vital. If you end up as some lone in-house, without anyone to actually learn from properly, that's understandable as at that stage it can be hard to find work, but just be aware you don't need to stay in a given job for years. Grads also became accustomed to how much freedom and authority they had over their work and direction on projects, but in actual jobs you're back at the bottom of the ladder, with little or no actual authority in most cases. You'll typically be following the direction of more senior people or just others in general, and that's a massive culture shock for many. Even in terms of finding jobs, most grads expect to find something within 1-3 months, and seem to have an existential crisis if they don't. When really, a more realistic goal is within 6-12 months. There's also a lot of variables involved with finding work, most notably your actual level of ability/understanding, and how you represent that within your work and portfolio, along with interview skills. Where you live, how you go about finding postings and applying, what you apply to, how you network, etc can also be very relevant in your odds for landing a job. Basically it's not something where you can just come out of college, say you have a degree and a portfolio, and people will just hire you. Having a degree doesn't mean you have good work, and having good work doesn't mean you didn't make avoidable mistakes or there aren't a lot of people better. Here are some prior threads and comments of my own getting into more detail: [Here's good thread on portfolio advice.] (https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/u14sxx/portfolio_advice_for_new_designers/) [Here's a prior comment of mine on common grad/junior mistakes.](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/qm37nv/what_did_your_portfolio_look_like_when_you_first/hj75ruj/) [Here's a thread on other portfolio mistakes/issues.](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/1cziwoj/hey_new_grads_your_portfolio_needs_work/) [Here is a thread on some sample/reference portfolios.](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/zloe42/ten_portfolios_to_study/) [Here is a thread on questions to ask during interviews.](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/18duv18/during_an_interview_what_are_some_questions_i/) [A perspective from the hiring side](https://www.reddit.com/r/graphic_design/comments/19e9yzp/is_the_job_market_actually_bad_right_now/kjd6i5x/).