Newly graduated web designers are usually full of motivation. They are looking for the first full-time design job and ready to hit the bricks. So how can these beginners impress potential employers? It is often difficult for people who are fresh out of college to define the correct protocol in this situation and often, it is not easy to find helps. Web design schools are great; they provide web designers with the required education tick on the resume. However, their long years in the design school won’t impress typical employers No matter what position a web designer is looking for; employers tend to prioritize one thing: experience. Web design is just like other careers, where better position and higher pay are passed to those with more experience. You may see highly experienced web designers with only basic web design education pull in six figure income.
Before new web designers can get a steady job, they need to create an effective resume. Although education is important, they shouldn’t brag too much about which school they took and it is much more effective to describe more in detail about their previous projects. Many new beginners are not lucky enough to get a few part-time projects when they were in school, so it is a good idea for them to start as freelance to build themselves a nice portfolio. There are simply too many new designers who are confident enough to list school projects in their resume. School projects do count as experience, but they don’t compare with real projects that come from paying clients. Newly graduated designers shouldn’t be afraid to work super cheap first as it more important to collect experience points at this stage.
It is also important to prevent yourself from sounding too much like you are a new graduate. Don’t rant on how well you did on a school project. A professional web designer waves a list of past projects, not his school diploma.
To backtrack a little, you should consider yourself lucky if your program incorporated some actual client projects. Those who seek better opportunity after the graduation day, should choose a design degree that can give them actual projects under their belt. These programs ensure that graduates are more employable, not just an inexperienced bunch of people with a diploma and no knowledge of how to survive in the real world. Consequently, your portfolio won’t be thrown in the stack of dozens of similar ones. Those who stand out are more likely to be employed.
The web design industry is a competitive field and with the down economy, for every position you gun for there could be dozens of other applicants. An employer may seek for ten people only, but receive a hundred of resumes.
The design of your resume can help it to stand out; don’t use Microsoft Office to create something too ordinary. Treat it like a real project. Of course, you shouldn’t make anything crazy, don’t trade the organization and readability of the resume with the wow factor. Your resume should look like a professional-looking document made by a web designer not a secretary. You can tweak your resume to better suit a specific position. If performed properly, employers will know that you have potentials.
Just like other businesses, the web design industry has its own buzz words that its practitioners are particularly excited about. You should find these words and include them in your resume. As you are searching for job postings, take time to highlight key phrases. A job posting often emphasize specific skill set and you should make sure to hit these points before shooting off the resume. Simply by prioritizing on these factors, you will resonate as a strong candidate.
Pretty much of the advices above revolve around the idea that it would be tough to land a great job position with zero experience and only a college degree. It may be feel incredibly distressing for any of those web designers out there, who have similar characteristics. Even so, you still try it. Often, employers are simply looking for fresh blood and you can get lucky. However, if you’ve been on dozens of interviews and your cellphone has yet to start ringing, it might be better to start finding a job on your own.
Landing freelance gigs may be far easier than applying for a full time job. Employees don’t have the luxury that freelancers do. The can play by their own rules and make a decent amount of money sitting in their underwear while at home. You should also choose freelance works that can make you look better in a future interview.
However, in some cases, freelancing can be addictive. Many web designers choose to pick up freelancing to fill in the gap between employments and find themselves still a freelancer 10 years later. Eventually, you might realize that a full time job is not all you are looking for.
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Great post i got some useful idea from your post. I’ll visit your blog again. Thanks a lot for sharing !!
Hi There A,
I just stumbled across this and, One of the common reasons why a web developer does not meet the expectations of a business owner in creating a website design is the lack of communication. Discussing your thoughts on how you want your website to look like with your web designer along the web development process can be very difficult. Normally, a web designer would ask for a meeting and talk about the project. The problem that web designer and business owner often encounter in this phase which could cause failure of the whole project is the inability of both parties to meet in between and have one specific and the same goal for the project. You and the designer do not use the same language when talking about the details of a website instead they bore you in jargon and technical terms in web designing. Then you just keep on nodding and say, “yes”, “okay, I understand”, even if the truth is you did not understand a single thing in what they have told you.
Catch you again soon!