The ability to communicate clearly by providing sufficient context when asking questions.

Talent and work ethic.

Work placement
In no particular order:

• enthusiasm;
• initiative; and
• patience.

Junior designer*
All of the above traits, as well as being:

• fastidious;
• punctual;
• articulate;
• thick-skinned;
• intelligent; and, of course
• creative.

*A good knowledge of the usual industry programmes is a fundamental requirement.

Hmm...what happens with creatives who have strong ethics? Is it difficult for them to step into a good design agency without much hassle? Or will there always be a problem in design?

There will always be a problem everywhere, not just in design. I work in the music industry and if I only worked on artists I liked, for example, I would quickly run out of job opportunities.

pbc

Ethics may be a problem if the agency has a different set of ethics. If the agency is doing pro life work and a right to life person is looking to work there, I can see clashes.

The one thing you have to remember is that a junior is expected to do what she is told, not to make policy decisions. That said, you always have the option of leaving if the work assigned to you bothers you ethically.

I was just curious Don. I guess it makes sense.

when i was at mtv i interviewed students for internships and assistant positions every wednesday. our needs were for a fair amount of busy work. i’m sure priorities vary between hiring situations.

i saw geniuses and fools and everything in between. the successful hires were not necessarily the most talented. the most brilliant among them often had attitude problems. straight forward eagerness and abilty to learn was a hallmark of the kids with professionally clean portfolios displaying a range of very good to so-so work.

i felt that they were trainable and smart enough to be pro-active about their own evolution. clean portfolio style indicated an ability to follow instructions and protocol, and in the “almost” quality of the creative i saw potential and aspiration.

a bit counter-intuitive at first, but i learned from experience that the most “stunning” work often did not come from the most employable candidates.

Yes, I have heard that no matter how good a student’s work is, if they are hard to work with, they will not be as employable as the one with a good, positive nature who is adaptable and easy to work with.

This is true, but there are also plenty of recent graduates in the world who have both good work and a good, positive nature that make them easy to work with.

yes absolutely. dan

just to clarify : i learned to look more exclusively at presentation before i looked specifically at designs. yes, of course, stronger work informs the decision, but i’d take a strong clean presentation of good work over careless presentation of amazing work (which was statistically rare but i saw plenty).

It’s a competitive world out there. Millions of graduates looking for similar jobs. You just have to stand out I guess. I know I have one excellent piece of work, few other pieces that are good and others that are okay. I do not know how they are going to balance out but hopefully, someone will be happy to have me. (I hope) :) Any advice for ’do’s and don’ts’ for CV and portfolio?

PS what do you think universities have to improve on? I know my tutor keeps informing us that they can not teach us everything and that employers inform them of what they expect out of graduates in the design industry i.e. graphic design. What do you personally think in regards to this issue? What is there too much or too little of which needs to be sorted drastically to mould the designers of the future.

Put your work in front of people. What I found out quickly is that you won’t find agreement. One person will like one piece, another might not. After a while, it starts to feel like you are just trying to find people you can comminicate with. Every shop has a level of compromise. A good attitude has to do with not making an issue of this. Look for a mentor that you believe in.

Hello

I am a graduate designer so not really doing any hiring and firing myself but I do have some advice.

I think it is vital to get to know your local industry and what sort of work you want to do.

I was a bit shocked when recently chatting to a student who was about to graduate and I asked him what he wanted to do. He had no ideas or enthusiasm at all, he shrugged and said “hmmm something collaborative”. When I graduated I could have given you a huge list of design jobs I’d love to try.

I also agree with the idea of a simple, professional resume. One of my first jobs was doing clerical duties for an Architect. One of my tasks involved opening and filing the HUNDREDS of graduate student resumes that were sent to us. All got copied and filed, reviewed quickly by the business manager and very few got to the Director.

Hope these thoughts help somehow.

Zennie :)

On a related note, what are people’s feelings on the following portfolio styles:

1. Full-size pages stuck into an Itoya (black plastic) book of sleeves
2. An insanely overpriced fake-leather book of sleeves
3. Metal books of sleeves
4. Printed pages worked into some kind of high-end binder
5. Really over-the-top handmade books
6. Loose items and boards to be passed around

I seem to have the most luck with 6, because my biggest skill is the ability to explain every detail of my work. But it has killed me in interviews at firms that expect people to try and wow them with #5. #1 is another option I like because it is flexible, simple, and unpretentious. Is it ok to work sample pages into a simple portfolio book and have a few loose items to pass around at most places? I know that not having something really wild will always kill me at firms that expect a wild, hand-made portfolio with a nice leave-behind, but I don’t usually want to work for those people, so if it’s an uncommon problem I’m not too worried.

Insomnia?

I think that this question has been fairly answered here:

http://www.lifeclever.com/talent-isnt-everything-7-habits-of-highly-effe...

Héctor

It’s been said that the most important graphic design piece in your portfolio... is your portfolio.

It makes perfect sense:

• You show your ability to create an effective hierarchy of hopefully diverse elements.
• You show your ability to distill year’s worth of information and individual communication problems and solutions into an easily digestible format.
• You show how well you can advertise a hard-to-quantify subject, namely, a human being with talents, goals, and aspirations that are totally different than every other being on earth.

Anyone care to add to the list?

6. Loose items and boards to be passed around

^ that’s my pick.

Granted, I don’t have a LOT of experience handing out physical portfolios, but the easiest portfolio for me was to print out color 8.5 x 11 ’boards’ (just laser prints) and bind with nice card stock cover using removable binders. Once in the interview, I can easily dismantle it to pass around.

The catch with ’wowing’ people with your actual portfolio case is that you REALLY have to wow them. Most tend to just burden their work with an overly ornate/pretentious package so, if anything, better to err on the side of simplicity (which is something we should remember in all facets of design, actually ;o)

1. Good attitude/teachable
2. Good design sense
3. Knows what a concept is
4. Enthusiasm

Wow! Thank you for all the advice. I shall do my best to secure a job once my degree is over once and for all :D I have been making my own portfolio box. I recently went to a portfolio critique in Manchester, where designers from local companies spared time for students. It gave me a whole new insight into the do’s and don’ts but I guess that was just the opinion of two that I managed to see. By the way, they loved the portfolio box which was great :D.

PS I am looking for editorial work. I feel that I am strong in that area but also identity projects. I am not so sure of advertising as of yet but I love photography.

6. Loose items and boards to be passed around

I’ve always gone with loose items. I’ve put work in PDF’s to send when applying for the job, but I’ve never felt putting together a book would be worth it in the end. Maybe it’s cost me some jobs, who knows, but my work is my work and I’d rather show it than select pages I think are the most attractive. Someday I might go for a book style, but online and PDF portfolios are widely accepted these days, and following it up with a few hard copies at the interview is acceptable in my books.

That said, depending on the field you are going in to, a well put together portfolio can show your own design sense and attention to detail when trying to land that first good job.

I would love to see some examples of large pieces that are well photographed and presented in a smaller book.

I don’t pay a lot of attention to the packaging but that is due to the nature of what we do - single page ads almost exclusively. I like Itoya or loose - at some point I am going to want to handle the work and have you explain the brief and your thought process.

Honestly I am not usually sold by the portfolios, I see too many and they tend to blur together. They also seem very abstract. What usually influences my decision is you, your personality, my assessment of whether we can work closely together through endless fire drills and achieve something.

pbc