Oh yes, I saw Paul’s post. Hilarious!

Then there’s the corporate world. I work for a government body with a pretty reasonable comms budget. We’re not afraid of being swindled by designers – if they tried it they’d lose a slice of our big fat pie. We have corporate identity guidelines that designers must adhere to, we set the budgets, we set the deadlines. We make annoying requests to designers like adjusting the ethnic balance of people on the front cover, getting all the genders and ages represented, etc. We have corporate risks that designers need to be aware of. This is more what I mean when I say I know what the client expects, and it’s this operational reality that I think a lot of young students can take a while to wrap their heads around.

Instead the workshop was intended for people who knew nothing about websites (indeed, we went over what a URL, host and domain name were!) and how to interact with a designer, what to look for when choosing a designer, etc. While it wasn’t what I thought I would hear, I was very pleased being able to sit in on that workshop and hear about how life was from the client’s POV. It really helped me see how little they know and how scared they are about being swindled.

Tara – You’re right, you never know who you’re chatting to and who they might know. Enjoy your holiday by the way

Lauren – Hehe, I’ve been working for eleven years so I know a bit about the real world already. But I take your point. In fact that’s my secret weapon. For the past three years I’ve worked with designers in the industry day in day out so I’ve got a good grasp on the industry, the processes involved and indeed what the client expects (I am the client). A lot of the other lads are a bit naive in this respect.

We called our final show Portfolio 12 Review because it was our 12th Quarter of school. We had 3 reviews, 7th Quarter for print work, 10th Quarter for video and 12th Quarter for whatever you wanted to show as your best stuff. I was so nervous going into it. The profs always like to scare you with stories of how you won’t graduate if they don’t like your work. I don’t think that’s happened once in the (short) history of the school. We had a very small class, only about 10-15 people showed work that day. We usually have about 4 professors (out of about 10) come to critique, and some younger students trickle in and out at the urging of their profs. The academic dean showed up (late) at mine.

We took turns showing off our pieces and I was #4 to go. We had been told that they structure the review where the first few to go are almost the best and the last ones are the best with all the crummy ones in between; the professors like to leave feeling like they weren’t complete failures! I was one of 3 people asked to reshow my work for the academic dean. He happened to be sitting next to me and when I sat back down after my presentation, he asked for my contact information because he liked an ad I’d done for the school (purely as a project, not real). Never got a call from him. Meh. If I had a dollar for every time that happened…

I’m sure it’s the same everywhere, people will be really interested in you and say how much they love your work and that they “have this project…” and you never hear from them again. Look at me! Only 6 months in the real world and I’m already so jaded. Ok, end rant. This is not my blog!

But take heart, young Padawan, your career is just beginning.

One person got a scholarship in the States out of it, and as far as I’m aware no-one else had any of the luck you speak of.

Try not to let it get you down though. All the work you’ve put in will continue to pay off now that you have a few web projects and a strong portfolio under your belt.

Wise words though Paul.

I’ll keep pushing for sure, although now I’ve finished this course I’m not sure where I’m heading. I could study a bit more (although I’m a bit fed up with the lack of free time); I would love to get some studio esperience, although couldnt really afford to go in as a junior (the downside of being an oldie student with a mortgage); or I could try and go freelance – lacking the studio experience scares me a bit, but this is probably the most realistic option.

Hmmm, decisions.

I’m glad that you communicated, as it’s all too common to see students at these shows cowering in the corner of the room – lacking the confidence that you obviously have.

To be honest, it’s unlikely (though not impossible) that you’ll get a job purely off the back of the show. What you’ve done is started putting your name out there – but you need to keep pushing…

Hand your business card to anyone who speaks to you for longer than 5 minutes. Send your demo CD round to all the agencies who’d you would like to work for. Phone people, and nag people, and push your online portfolio too!

Life’s all about luck at the end of the day. Sometimes you get it, and sometimes you don’t. Simple!