Being a graduate designer is a difficult task, no matter what field you specialise in. Whilst it is vital to have built up a strong portfolio of work during your design studies, the simple fact is that this alone will not get you a job.
The design world is incredibly sought after world to be part of and as such, there is an enormous amount of competition for every vacancy (we should know – we get A LOT of job applications regardless of whether we are advertising or not!). Because we get to see so many different candidates, we’ve built up a pretty good idea of what we think works and what you should avoid. So, we thought we should share some of these in case it helps anybody from squandering their hard earned degree material on an ill-thought out job application.
Covering Letter
The covering letter is your first contact with your potential new employer which and it is often where many new designers fall down. For us, a polite, informative, short and well written covering letter will get far more attention than someone saying ‘HIRE ME I’M BRILLIANT!’, or ‘ROLL UP! ROLL UP!.. CREATIVE GENIUS UP FOR GRABS!’. The truth is, the working world has a lot to do with how you present yourself and how you get on with other people. So, we need to know if you are articulate, intelligent and have more than just an amazing portfolio. All of this allows us to make that crucial and all important judgement – whether our team and our client’s will be able to work with you on a daily basis.
CV
As a designer your CV should be a work of art, but it is often far from the case. Despite the fact that people are trying to approach us as professional designers, you would be staggered to see how many hideous CV’s we are sent. Granted, not everybody is going to specialise in stunning graphic design. But even for you web and product designers out there, you will still be expected to have a fundamental understanding of what looks good and reads well. Therefore, you will be expected to demonstrate this understanding and skill in every part of your job application. Take the time to make it exceptional – it is worth it.
Content for your CV should be concise, well written and only include relevant information. For us, the most important information is work experience is technical skills (with some indication of proficiency), relevant qualifications and industry work experience. Other details like a brief profile, references and education history are important to include but they play second fiddle to the other key points we are looking for so don’t focus on them.
Portfolio
Offline Portfolio
You must take time to put together a professional looking design portfolio in both digital and hard formats. We prefer to receive all job applications via email because it saves on energy, resources and it’s easier to file. As a result, it essential that you have a PDF (not Word or any other ridiculous format) version of your portfolio in a manageable file size (you should be able to keep this under 1MB) and only include examples of your best possible work. We only ask for 3 pieces of work from any job applicants because this is usually all it takes for us to spot someones ability ;-)
Online Portfolio
If you are a web designer or have some web design ability, then an online portfolio is a brilliant idea as it allows a design agency to get a far clearer idea about your skills and abilities. You can use portfolio websites like behance.net or carbonmade if you have very limited technical ability, as they are very easy to set up and offer professional looking results. Whatever route you choose, make sure you only put on work that is RELEVANT and HIGH QUALITY – Don’t throw your kitchen sink at it, because one bad project will only sow a seed of doubt about your creative ability – something you need to avoid like the plague!
Relevant Work
We would always prefer to see live projects because they are completely different to ones produced in an educational environment. Nothing quite prepares you for the leap from doing a project for a university or college project, to one where a client is paying you to produce something they want. That said, most graduate designers won’t have any real jobs behind them, so either include coursework that has a place in the real world, or even consider setting yourself a fresh brief for a conceptual live project (a new branding project, a new brochure design, a new flash website design…). Always be honest about the origins of a project though! If you say that you’ve designed a new website for a local company and it isn’t true – you WILL get found out and it’s bye bye credibility (and job!).
And Finally – Persistence
As we said at the beginning, the design world is incredibly competitive and it will often come down to those individuals who have the drive and tenacity to keep applying and contacting companies when others have given up. You must keep focused on where you want to be and how you want to get there and in the end, with a lot of hard work and a little bit of good fortune, it is possible to achieve our ambitions in the design field of your choice.
POST YOUR QUESTIONS
We hope you find this little guide useful. Remember – these are only our thoughts based on our own experiences and preferences and they may not suit every individual or organisation.
Please post a comment below if you have anything to add or want to let us know your experiences – we’ll try and answer any questions as soon as we can. And lastly, please subscribe to our RSS feed where you will be immediately notified of any future vacancies with the team here at BML Creative. Alternatively, keep checking our design vacancies board and you never know, some of you might even be helping us to write our next career guide ;-)
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Hi!
Thanks for these brilliant tips!
Will keep them on board as I will be applying for jobs come the new year.
I don’t have many real projects so use family & friends businesses and create my own briefs.
My main worry though is how do I know/decide which bits of my work are the best to showcase? What I think is good and what an agency thinks is good are two completely things I’m sure!
Hi Keeley,
I think the best advice I can offer with regards to content is to try and focus on projects that could quite feasibly exist and make sure that you work on those until you are really happy with them. This can be brand new project briefs or ones from your course.
The problem with University/College is that you only have a set amount of time to complete each project, so they are often left in a state of partial completion. Or, you might have the seed of a good design, but it needs a lot more thought or experience to get it looking it’s best.
Whatever project you end up with, keep working at those projects and remember to constantly put yourself in the mind of a client who is paying you for that piece of work. And keep asking yourself questions about what your hypothetical client wants. Things like: How old are they? What industry is it for? What sort of budget do they have available? What is the target market? How open minded is the business? If you keep thinking about these real world issues when working on our projects, you will produce more credible pieces of design work and have a lot more to talk about when an interview situation arises.
Good luck!
Really great to hear from you. A useful and succinct guide for recent graduates when writing to agencies – I’ll certainly point my students towards this link.
Thanks, Jeff – much appreciated. Best of luck for the new academic year!
Many thanks for this, by sheer co-incidence I was just today discussing how we can get students to approach potential employers in a more imaginative and professional way. Some students are highly driven and resourceful and really ‘get it’ from the outset but I continue to be baffled by how little effort other students make, despite a wealth of guidance. I guess that’s survival of the fittest?
Hi Caroline – thanks for posting. I think the inability to understand what it really takes to get on in the real world is a problem that a lot of students face – not just designers. A lot of students may never have had any full time work experience and simply don’t understand what pressure there is in the 9-5 working world.
Having a good degree does not give anybody a golden ticket to the perfect job. What makes a difference in the real world is not just the quality of the work, but also how articulate somebody is, how business minded they are, how motivated they are, what skills sets do they have that other applicant don’t… If more students had it drilled into them that these things genuinely influence their employability, then perhaps it might encourage a few to buck their ideas up.
thanks for the post
I have a question…Do you find it useful when people bring in their resume’s in person with a disk of accomplishments? By the way, great article and thanks for sharing.
-Scott
Hi Scott. That’s a good question.
Obviously if it’s for a job application/interview, then you definitely need to take along a hard copy of your portfolio and discs of digital work if applicable. Otherwise, you’ll have nothing to talk about.
I haven’t come across many people who have actually dropped in with a portfolio unannounced. This is probably because you have no guarantee of seeing the person who makes the decisions on staffing and people are really busy so it’s rarely convenient to just pop in.
If you can arrange a portfolio review, then that is the place to take along your work – but there’s no guarantee this will be anything other than an honest portfolio critique so although useful, it might not land you a job. For speculative job enquiries though, I would focus on creating a really engaging digital portfolio that you can easily email and will hopefully stick in the minds of potential employers. Even if it doesn’t pay off immediately, at least they have something on file for future reference.
Hope that helps.
Great advise for any young designer coming through the ranks. You mention that cometition is fierce, but it is actually very difficult to find designers who are very good at what they are doing. Or rather, should I say it is hard to find a design which is unique and will not cost you an absolute fortune. (I am in London, so maybe that is the problem.)
Martin, Preisler Construction Ltd.
I remember how tough it was for me looking for my first job. Having no professional experience and going to about 8 interviews can really effect your mood.
But yes, persistence and belief finally got me through it!
And now I’m on that journey again but this time for a higher role. Only I have both a handheld portfolio and an online one and it’s a question of which one to show??
Good luck to all new graduates and never give up. Great post guys!
Hello David, I know I’m very late to respond to this but if you should happen to see this, I would really appreciate your reply.
Do you ever hire designers who don’t have a university degree in graphic design, but rather perhaps a vocational certificate and a university degree other than graphic design? That is, if the candidate has real world graphic design experience to offer? Or are those without a degree in specifically graphic design disqualified?
Hi
This has been really useful as I am just starting out after being made redundant last year , I have nearly finished my Art in graphic design course and wanted to write a new CV, and build a versatile portfolio, I have done some research online looking for Blogs etc where graphic designers have been happy to post some of their previous briefs for students to use to build their portfolios, I have also used competions as briefs, to do this.
I would like to know what you think about approaching an agency such as yourselves to do work experience?
Thanks
Tracy
That’s some great advice and a lot better than most generic job application advice I’ve seen as it relates specifically to the industry. My question is, how do I handle getting a job within a web design agency when a) I didn’t study the art of web/graphic design, I self taught myself from an early age, b) many of the designs I’ve built are personal concepts, c) the corporate sites I did design, the client took on developing it after the project/contract ended and now looks nothing like my original design, and finally, d) i primarily design mock-ups, wireframes and interfaces using Photoshop – what is the scope for that kind of design work?
Hi,
Thanks for all the information! I recently graduated and am finding it hard to get into the design industry when almost all the jobs are looking for candidates with at least a few years experience. I have done, and am willing to do more unpaid work placements to get some experience but there’s only so much I can do when I have bills to pay! Is there anything you could suggest to help get that first job in design?
Thanks!
Hi
This was really helpful to read as i am currently applying for design jobs. I graduated two years ago and in this time i have been freelancing for a variety of clients, mainly in the entertainment industry creating club flyers and posters and I have undertaken a handful of commercial projects. I am a bit concerned that my current portfolio will not be what a prospective employer would be looking for. Is there any advice you can offer in regards as to what sort of work to include,
Many thanks
Hi, I am a Sixth Form student, I am in my final year and am not applying to university. It suits me much better to get out there and gain experience aswell as the right qualifications in the right industry. Do you think I can still make it as a Graphic Designer without going to university?