The Real Graduate Catch Up

As design degree deadlines loom upon us, I expect soon-to-be graduates to look to their superiors in search of guidance. As a respected, regularly updated and simply, cool, design blog, It's Nice That is a popular source of graduate wisdom with its annual features showcasing the best of the year's graduates.  Whilst it is not the only example, I am focusing on it having known a handful of the selected graduates personally.

A selection of talented graduates are chosen from readers' submissions, showing a healthy cross-section of the creative industry with illustration, film, advertising, photography and visual communication. With the rising popularity of this blog the coverage a graduate can receive can be life changing with a feature on each graduate and a popular exhibition in which high-ranking design industry creatives attend.

For a soon-to-be graduate, I can imagine the Graduate Catch-Up featured each year can be either incredibly inspiring or intimidating reading. Each graduate recounts their year since graduating with endless freelance opportunities and widespread commissions, with not a mention of unpaid work, government help or persistent rejection. The Catch-Up gives a rose-tinted view into the lives of 12 talented individuals after graduation. Here is why you should not be intimidated:

Firstly, they are talented individuals, who are likely to have in addition to being selected and showcased, won competitions or gained alot of interest from their degree show. Not all graduates will be this talented and therefore won't have as much success. What the Catch-Up shows is what they consider to be the elite and so are already in effect successful.

With the coverage that The Graduates of It's Nice That recieve, it is unlikely that talented creatives could fail. After all the post-degree show hype has settled, they will still be reeping the benefits with offers of jobs or freelance opportunities, whilst the rest of the year's graduates have to source out their own.

Whilst many doors are opened with media coverage, it is up to the individual to act upon those opportunities before they go stale. Not all of the graduates had successes, whether or not this is highlighted in the Catch-Up. After all, each graduate will be shown in the best light and so rejections and lazy days at the dole office won't be brought up. It could be said that receiving such widespread attention from the design industry can be a blessing and a curse. Expectations are high as we read the Catch-Up and so the pressure is on to impress the readership further with positivity and hope, if not simply a success story. In a way the attention can make you lazy. Expecting the opportunities to come to you may mean less effort is made to create your own successes. The blog attention could also mean a premature ego boost, in which you feel you are too good for work experience or placements and perceive yourself as industry ready. The arrogance fueled by competition winning, high grades or positive attention can damage others' perceptions of you as you become too big for your designer high-tops. 

I urge soon-to-be graduates to read success stories but with the knowledge that embarking on a design career is not all roses and there will be times when you are pushed down repeatedly. I had a rose-tinted view of the future and I wish I had been prepared for the reality. As AnotherGraduate, I can prepare you for that.

Disrespect

Whilst interning you are essentially self-employed. You liaise with agencies to arrange time with them in which you will be either on placement or freelance, depending on your experience. You arrange how much you will be paid and what will be expected of you: your working hours, lunches, potential for future employment.

It is important that every one knows where they stand.

Everybody needs to know where their next meal is coming from and so it is essential that things are booked a little bit in advance. This varies between people. For me, I like to be a placement ahead. I go to a placement knowing where I will be in the next one. After a while this becomes a luxury, but it is the ideal, espescially when they are short.

For agencies, it is wise to book a few months ahead, students can be fickle and unreliable, dropping opportunities for better ones. I am certain they all have a pool of graduates where they go to in emergencies.

For one agency I was certain I become the "fall-back".

I was only ever given vague timings of placement opportunities, confirmation would never materialise and I would book something else. Opportunities were missed repeatedly. With their funny mid-month timings and insistance on a four-week stint I assumed they had found someone better each time. I felt like I was their back up- so they were mine.

Simply, I felt disrespected. I wasn't treated like a colleague. I was treated like a student desperate to work with them. Unfortunately for them, I am not foolish enough to think they'd offer me a job and i was not willing to let other people down last minute for them. The brutal truth is graduate placements are not important and often overlooked and so is their communication. Not being a priority doesn't mean you shouldn't demand respect.

I never got to go on this placement because of poor communication and bad management and through no fault of my own. In the final confirmation of cancellation from them, they blamed me for misreading emails when it was clearly too little communication, too late. I have learnt from this experience the importance of following up emails with phone calls. After all, talking to someone over the phone is more likely to get you a clear answer, without waiting days in between messages and forgetting to respond.

I wanted to tell them that they had disrespected me and that I would never consider working for them again. Despite their design work's reputation, their liaising with potential colleagues is abysmal. I felt like I was just another graduate, which is exactly how I shouldn't feel. Instead of telling them this ofcourse, I bit my lip and thanked them for the opportunity.

Nothing Special

I started a placement a few months ago at an agency I had never heard of and despite their 'legacy' they produce fairly standard work, which you probably would never have seen. After three solid days on image-search errands, I was convinced I would walk out. The pay was awful and I realised with the maount I spent on travel I would be financially better off on the dole, but I did stay.

Two months later and I was in love with the place. When I tell people about the internship I say it was nothing special, which is exactly why it struck a chord with me. The standard of work was something I could match and beat, my colleagues were fun and didn't take it all too seriously and work that I did will be printed, which other than a few price flashes and minor tweaks, is a first for me.

I was needed and appreciated. If you have done a few placements you will know that finding a studio with people you get on with and work within in your batting range is a rarity. It is somewhere I could see myself working; happily. It is a shame I had to leave because of other commitments, but hopefully I could go back.

I think what I really liked about it was that every one made their own tea, and didn't make a fuss about it or offer any one else tea. I drank tea all day and didn't feel guilty or pressured into making others; the perfect placement?

Catching Up

This week I have returned to a placement. It was a rare Monday where I didn't dread walking into the studio.

Returning to a placement is nice because you know what to expect of them, and they know what to expect of you. Simply feeling comfortable around your temporary colleagues and knowing your place within the environment is so important to feeling at home and usually it can take a few weeks to get settled, (if you are even still there by then). It is a situation, which many take for granted, and yet sometimes, aside from a good wage, this is all an intern really wants; to feel at home.

When offered to come back to a placement I was honoured. Convinced I had done a good job  knowing I had sufficiently impressed this particular agency, I practically jumped at the chance to return. It has take me eight placements to get to this stage and being an agency I admire I etched the dates in my diary.

Trouble is, by booking ahead to go back to a placement, I worry that I have prevented the organic developments of potential employment from blossoming. After all I am going back to an agency I know wouldn't offer me a job, atleast not a permanent well paid job. Maybe I could stay, but not on these wages.

I often get the impression that at some placements you could stay forever (if you could afford to).  Pure laziness on the agency's part means that it is easier to get you back in again, or keep you on. They can't be bothered to find another graduate and after all they know you can do the job and they get on with you so why not ask you to stay. Legal issues prevent people from paying below minimum wage for more than four consecutive weeks, but after bringing that up with another placement, who I worked with for two months, I am certain they couldn't care less.

I wish there was more legal help or guidance, with pay in particular. If my only threat to an agency that underpays me is that I will leave, how will they ever learn if another graduate replaces me easily enough.

Agencies take advantage of the fact that you are desperate for a job and like me now, simply too tired to keep bouncing from one office desk to the next. I know I am worth more than what I am paid and I will not settle at an agency until they agree with me.

It could take me a while.

So Much Left to Learn

Butcher's Hook is a design studio in London's Portobello formed by soon-to-be graduates of Kingston University and LCC in response to a D&AD brief in which students are encouraged to Make Their Mark. 

It was featured on Creative Review's blog this morning.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2012/april/butchers-hook-say-hello

By providing 'design for the local community' with a pledge to spend at least 10% of their time working on community projects, the students have started their own design agency and they haven't even left college yet.

Whilst Creative Review seem impressed by the students' ambitious move away from the computer screen to find their own work, it is clear these graduates haven't ventured into industry yet. Whilst I am happy to celebrate the initiative and drive that these students clearly have and I do not deny their talent and bravery, I am rather cynical of its potential. With 6 months experience, I am struggling to find a job in London and, like many graduates, have considered setting out on my own. What has prevented me from doing anything more than mildly pondering over the thought, is my lack of knowledge and experience. 

Working on your own, or in a small team requires flawless Mac skills, impeccable design skills and not to mention bravery and confidence. It is also worth considering that client liaison skills can not be forged over night and the time and attention this occupies should not be underestimated. I once worked with an agency that was not much more than a year old and I didn't see them design anything all week. The agency was made up of just the two of them, and whilst their work is impressive and their client list respectable, they spent almost the entire day liaising with clients, organising the next week's schedule and discussing production. Whilst I have nothing good in terms of design to show from that placement, I can't deny I came out much more knowledgeable and more certain that I wasn't ready for that yet. The two of them had at least 8 years experience from a top London design agency, which not only prepared them for production and project management alongside design, but no doubt aided their client list too.

For me, The Butcher's Hook epitomises what is wrong with graduates. University teaches ideas, a little in the way of typographic principle and basic Adobe operation skills. Most importantly, university teaches arrogance. It wasn't until I started my first placement, I realised how little I actually knew. Idealistic tutors cherish the students' naivete and love for design, and keep from them what the reality is like. My biggest fear about starting out on my own would be the lack of good projects, which is something well-established agencies can provide you with. On your own, a new and unreliable studio, you lack the knowledge and experience that can get you good clients with impressive budgets. Low budget work can be dull to design and the project management and client liaison can become stressful. Designing on a budget is harder. Students only design ideas and don't often have to worry about the production costs and client needs. I would be interested to see what local community work these graduates get at Butcher's Hook, and whether they have the stamina and love for design to keep it going. I wish them good luck, but wouldn't encourage other graduates to do the same. Never underestimate how much you have left to learn. 

Reality Check

It was my second visit to the Job Centre today.

Whilst I am a little worried that they might try and find me work as a sales assistant rather than a graphic designer, I have been pleased with how productive it has made me. I noticed that, when my advisor pulled two job options out of his database, that perhaps I have been too fussy. I've been wandering along going from placement to placement in the city's leading design agencies hoping they will offer me a job; but why would they if they have a queue of graduates better than me? Normally, I just slave away all day on placement and when they don't ask me to stay I am dissappointed, walking away with only an a3 sheet of work. From most placements I have nothing to show at all.

Today however, after my visit to the Job Centre, I spent my afternoon applying for jobs. It sounds ridiculous now, but I hadn't been applying for jobs and yet I was waiting for one to come and land in my lap. Admittedly, the whole Job Seeker's situation does worry me. I hate the constant threat of having to look for work that they suggest, espescially when I'm just sat there thinking, God no, not there. I have been doing placements mostly with agencies whose work I love and I really respect but when I get a job, it might not necessarily be the case that I enjoy every minute; but atleast I will be paid.

I would love to just wander around London's top agencies volunteering my services, just so I can look at inspiring design and be surrounded by talented designers. But the likelihood is this will not be my destiny; I can not be fussy about where I work. Espescially with the Job Centre on my case.

Asking for help.

As a new graduate, I am beginning life standing on my own two feet. Unusually, I have little help from my parents in the way of finances, but I don't mind this. In fact I take pride in the fact that I can do this by myself; I am independent.

Recently, however, after an expensive Christmas, several friends' birthdays, a belated lavish graduation and several poorly paid placements, I have been forced to ask for help; I have signed on.

I have known for a while that underpaid placements can be topped up a little with help from Jobseeker's Allowance. By doing work experience you are continually striving to get a full-time job. Yet, pride has stopped me from signing on. I had more readily taken on a weekend job, as well as casual catering work and poorly paid freelance, before admitting that financially, I am in dire straits and I need help. Having made that first step, I feel silly for feeling too proud to do it sooner, but I'm not exactly thrilled about it either.

The Job Centre is one of the most depressing places on earth. It is filled with people who have lost their jobs, or never had one; who consequently have low self esteem and little ambition. The staff are slow and assume you are undeserving; probably laughing inside at my insistence at getting a job related to my degree. Atleast I have a degree, I guess.

In order to receive Job Seeker's allowance, I have to attend an interview every two weeks, to ensure that I am looking for work. Going to interviews whilst on placement is something I have always avoided, and I think it is because I would have to tell someone (usually the creative director) where I was going for an "interview" in order to get the time off, I have been too ashamed to sign on. My family depend on government help and I resent that their lack of financial stability has had an effect on me. But at the end of the day, if the help is there, you should take it.

Going to interviews every two weeks is also a sure-fire way to give your current placement the impression that you are unreliable and not taking it seriously. I don't even go to the doctors during the week to avoid asking for time off, let alone attend an interview in order to get £60 a week. At a time when you are trying to impress, it seems that Job Seeker's only hinders any progress you might make in a placement; you're definately not going to shine when you're asking for time off every other week. My bank statement has convinced me though, that it no longer matters what people think about me. As long as I do work hard, I am entitled to wander off for a morning to make sure I can pay for the roof over my head. After all if they didn't want me to take the time off, all the have to do is pay me that little bit more (minimum wage), which is nothing to them.

However, having a fortnightly interview with an advisor whom will help me search for a job, could be a positive thing. Instead of wandering along from placement to placement I am now urged to apply for 'a real job'. Instead of waiting for the job to come to me, I am going out there to get it. Wish me luck.