The design industry is losing vital creative talent

I graduated last summer with a first class honours degree in product design. After achieving this result, I felt the world was my oyster, and I was generally very positive that I was going to gain employment in a large company very quickly.

After sending some 50 applications and spending a fortune on colour photocopying, my feet really hit the ground, and I realised that getting employment was not the easy task that I originally thought.

Fortunately, after three months of trying I finally received employment at a large manufacturing firm with the role of product designer/ design engineer. Many of my friends, however, are either unemployed or have been forced into fields such as insurance and banking, meaning that the industry is losing vital creative talent.

What I am asking is for design consultancies to give graduates a chance. How can we possibly have that one year’s experience if no one is willing to give it to us.

And to those consultancies which employ graduates on a low salary I would say we are capable of doing much more than just photocopying.

Alpesh Patel

ap@acre.co.uk