Thursday 26 January 2012

Dog Eat Dog

In the summer, graduates descended upon London in their hundreds like a flock of seagulls to an abandoned tray of sauce endrenched chips on the seaside promenade.

With so many graphic designers looking for junior positions and placements at London's design agencies, it is no surprise that it becomes increasingly hard to find a job as positions get filled and graduates get 'snapped up'. To stand out you must have a Unique Selling Point (USP).

When you go for an interview it is often clear that your USP is dependent on your university. You are all the same pedigree; taught the same things and trained the same way. With courses averaging on 100 students each, it is hard to stand out from one another. Your class mates are your competition. You are the same breed, heading for the same agencies.

With opportunities becoming scarcer I have noticed friends, fellow graphic design graduates, and other creative associates have become increasingly more shady about their current placement, how much they're earning and how long they will stay there for. It is impossible to get an email address off of them from a previous placements and similarly I won't give mine away, because they are my competition. If my only USP is my pedigree, then amongst my university's breed, it's dog eat dog. Right now, I feel like a cowering Jack Russell protecting its only half-chewed bone from a mass of blood-thirsty pit bulls.

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