Tim Rich: School of hard-knocks

Hundreds of young designers are trying to fight their way into work and the Design Week letters page has featured some of those disillusioned with design companies’ responses (or lack of) to their applications. Having spoken to some recent graduates, I sympathise with their frustrations, but some have an unrealistic view of what getting work involves.

First, because a career as a designer can be exceptionally rewarding and exciting there will always be stiff competition for jobs. Sending off 50 or more applications is not grounds for becoming morose. Yes, submitting a good application takes time and a stamp, but this is the investment you may need to gain access to a popular industry. Remember, British design is relatively buoyant at the moment; getting a job is much harder in recession (at the risk of sounding like a Monty Python sketch, I should add that I left university in the depths of the last economic trough).

It is certainly true that many graduates are treated as CV fodder by prospective employers. Very few design consultancies acknowledge applications and many don’t follow up unsuccessful interviews. The former is shoddy, the latter obnoxious, but applicants shouldn’t get too wound up. Request feedback from those who interviewed you, and if you receive no response, well, who would want to work for a company that regards new talent with such little respect anyway? Realising that many of the design consultancies out there are rude, inefficient and creatively mediocre can come as a shock to many graduates – vow to be different when you are running your own consultancy in a few years’ time.

Don’t moan about starting salaries under £12 000. Many other “creative” professions require you to live on oxygen and tap water for the first few months. In journalism, for example, young recruits “on placement” are often given nothing, but they are advised to eat as much free food as they can at press events. Young designers don’t have it that bad by comparison, and in how many other jobs can you use your skills (and in some cases your employer’s equipment) to do freelance stuff in your spare time?

Salaries reflect value and potential, but many entry-level designers know so little about the working realities of design that they cost their employer more in management resources and on-the-job training than they earn for the company. I am no advocate of design college courses being too employment-centric as it can limit imaginative thinking (and not all design students want to work in the industry). But many colleges are churning out graduates who know little about supposedly unglamorous stuff like briefing, budget controls, commissioning and answering a phone properly. These raw recruits are expensive to train, but if you prove your worth in the first six months or so your income should rise significantly.

The design graduate market is little different from the whole design industry, with far more supply than demand. Use this as inspiration to make your applications and your entire approach to getting a job as innovative, memorable and unavoidable as possible. Getting a job is effectively your first real brief, so use it to show your talent. If that means you need to get up to some chancey shenanigans to get a busy employer’s attention, then do it (as long as it’s legal).

Finally, one thing people might not tell you is that getting your first job is often one of the toughest challenges you’ll face in your entire career. Working within an industry brings confidence, contacts, knowledge and the opportunity to hear about your next opportunity before it is advertised. In contrast, coming raw from school, college or the dole to a seemingly unfriendly world isn’t very pleasant. It can feel like trying to get into a building with no windows or doors. You may have to dig deep and fight to keep your self-confidence, but keep giving it the very best you can – you can do no more.

n British Design & Art Direction and Gettyone have just launched a free on-line resource called Bloodbank that should help both new design talent and design studios find each other. The venture is described as an on-line showcase, recruitment and matchmaking service that aims to “smooth the recruitment process”. I have yet to explore the site fully (www.dandad.org/gettyonebloodbank) but, in principle, this sounds like an excellent and well-resourced initiative. Yet again, through developing partnerships with commercial companies, D&AD has proved it is the most visionary and valuable of our design organisations.

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