It’s time to grow out of the ‘junior syndrome’

It appears the only person to have missed the “revolution” of the last decade is Mr Suttle himself (Letters, DW 28 January). In an industry where the computer is supposedly king, knowledge of new technology is paramount.

Those of us who started with the old school, using layout pads and magic markers, have had to re-educate ourselves, through self training, and not Government funded courses, in order to keep up with this so-called revolution. Mr Suttle’s complaint that his HND course did not provide intensive training in new technology indicates he has not made the effort to update his own skills. He can hardly expect to walk into a job requiring a trained designer. The person who really needs to “get real” is Mr Suttle himself.

Perhaps he would also like to comfort himself by reading the following e-mail received in response to my original letter:

I just had to write to let you know that I agree with you 100 per cent.

I studied at Latymer Upper School, where I left at 16 to study a BTEC ND at Kingston College of Arts. I then luckily found a small company, which wanted a junior designer to do small presentations for client proposals. Although this wasn’t a real design environment, I learnt skills such as following a brief, timescales and, most importantly, I got the opportunity to put large blue chip names into my portfolio.

I then progressed to yet another junior position in a multimedia studio. While there I was under the wing of a senior. I learnt a wide skill base in multimedia, I stayed there for two years and was promoted to multimedia designer.

I am now a senior designer responsible for all creative output in a company which deals with Web and E-commerce. When I look back at some of the others who had the “junior syndrome” problem, they are still pretty much in the same place that I left them, with minimum knowledge of the industry.

I was very excited that someone recognised that graduate problem… egotism!

George Ioannou

I look forward to more readers’ responses, positive or negative.

Martyn Feather

Senior designer

Bunzl Fine Paper

martyn@papermark.co.uk