One Stage Down, Another Starting
On December 15th, 2010 The Art Institute of Washington held it’s quarterly portfolio show. Myself along with many other students enjoyed the feeling of holding a college degree or certification. AIW is not like most schools where as long as you pass your classes you graduate! Instead the students prepare a portfolio of work and build a booth to display their work. During the graduation day potential employers, family, and friends are invited to see our hard work pay off. As a Graphic Design major I am partial to the torture professors put us through in that particular department. In the end all the tears, sweat, late nights, creative strain, preparation leaves us here.
Where is here exactly? Well, for most this is a place where you are excited to have a degree, but crossing your fingers too soon find a job. For Winter graduates the job search can be easily put on stall, because of the approaching season. Graduating ten days before Christmas is a great gift for parents, but a pressure cooker situation for young professionals. Where do you look? Who do you call? Where do you go?
Looking for a job in the design field can easily start on the internet. Most employers post on many websites to find potential employees. Remember, the early bird gets the worm. Waiting until the day after graduation is not where to start off their future career. Start looking for jobs as soon you are sure you are graduating! AIW has a great Career Services Department, which helps students and alumni find work.
As a former independent student I remind fellow peers to never be too good for any job. Starting off with a good paying job, which is not in your field is not worst thing. If you have money in your pocket and bills are being paid you should be happy. BUT, keep searching for jobs related to your field. You can always turn in your notice!
Below are a list of websites, which will greatly help in your job search:
Coroflot
Behance
Authenic Jobs
AIGA Design Jobs
Krop
design:related
Freelance Switch
Smashing Magazine
Simply Hired
Craigslist
Along with receiving a degree you start to realize that real life has began. Ideas such as savings, retirement, loans, professional organizations, monthly budgets, investing, and health insurance should all be swirling somewhere in your mind. Your are never too young to start thinking and building toward these things.
Let me know about your job search experiences!
Paul: The fundamental characteristic of the world students now enter is ever-accelerating change; a world in which information is multiplying even as it is swiftly becoming obsolete and out of date; a world in which ideas are continually restructured, retested, and rethought; where one cannot survive with simply one way of thinking; where one must continually adapt one’s thinking to the thinking of others; where one must respect the need for accuracy and precision and meticulousness; a world in which job skills must continually be upgraded and perfected — even transformed. We have never had to face such a world before. Education has never before had to prepare students for such dynamic flux, unpredictability, and complexity for such ferment, tumult, and disarray.
Paul: The fundamental characteristic of the world students now enter is ever-accelerating change; a world in which information is multiplying even as it is swiftly becoming obsolete and out of date; a world in which ideas are continually restructured, retested, and rethought; where one cannot survive with simply one way of thinking; where one must continually adapt one’s thinking to the thinking of others; where one must respect the need for accuracy and precision and meticulousness; a world in which job skills must continually be upgraded and perfected — even transformed. We have never had to face such a world before. Education has never before had to prepare students for such dynamic flux, unpredictability, and complexity for such ferment, tumult, and disarray.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, one out of every two Millennials—age 18 to 32–is either unemployed or under-employed. Numbering approximately 80 million people (there are actually more Millennials than Baby Boomers), this cohort is now the most educated, yet most-indebted generation in history. The Department of Labor estimates that some three million Americans with Bachelor degrees work in jobs that don’t require an education at all–janitors, barristas, bartenders and retail clerks.There are a lot of obvious reasons why junior is now living in your basement at age 25.
Women’s Studies is an interdisciplinary major that focuses on cultural learning. Because the field still is relatively new, many people in the corporate world do not understand it. That means Women’s Studies majors must work harder to make themselves viable job candidates. You can find a job with a Women’s Studies degree by following these steps to make yourself an appealing candidate.
Though I am still poor, and in debt, I am thankful for the opportunities that higher education have given me. Some things to consider: that poor students tend to come from poor families, and socio-economics is a significant performance indicator. That being said, many resourceful, hard-working and curious students living in poverty still manage to complete their degree. (I should know-I completed a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree and will pursue a second Master’s this Fall.) The resources allocated to degree-seekers (student loans, financial aid, grants, scholarships) are still a great incentive to go to school, to explore talents and fields of industry. Otherwise some of us/these poor students might never get the opportunity to leave our/their hometown and develop a more cosmopolitan perspective . Again, liberal educations diversify and stimulate, and this exposure to a wide range of thought informs vocational as well as white collar industries. It’s about perspective and enlightenment. And so what if someone arrives at the conclusion that they don’t have a knack for some things, and a natural passion for the other. That’s all part of the process, isn’t it? So what if I decide that academe is too dry after all, and I decide to sell original paintings for a living, or train for a semi-pro soccer league in the Fall? Who is to say that this is not the correct path?There is a certain genius required to think things are possible, and then all of a sudden they are. Also, there’s no reason to discourage people, and there is more to life than money.