Are You Employable?
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- mistermik0
more self appointed shitcakes.
- hammerofdawn0
Hilman Curtis is at the top and he seems like a shy person
- who he?robotron3k
- he can be on top of me anytime!flashbender
- kidding. Totally hetero. I love women!flashbender
- mimeartist0
work hard, don't back stab people, try and learn as much as possible, learn from your mistakes, try and enjoy yourself.
- hammerofdawn0
A former creative director at JCREW was also a shy guy
- zarkonite0
He forgot to mention to always be on the lookout for hard evidence for blackmail later.
- mg330
Some of the comments in here are pretty funny. I'd be interested to know how many of you that are putting down what he wrote actually went to college. Not saying it's required, not saying there's nothing wrong with not going, but I think these days it's really easy for people to be on a high horse about not having a degree by using that good ol' blanket statement "it's all about talent, screw the rest of the variables."
Some places may work like that - I imagine that small shops are more of a free-for-all - but what about large, well established firms, ad agencies, etc.?
I read pretty much the whole thing, and I think it's more of a commentary on what schools don't teach people than what's ultimately required as a bare-minimum for you to be employable in this industry and be very good at it.
When I graduated in 2001 I was quite afraid of what I was not taught. I complained about it. Faculty actually loved hearing from students about how they could improve the program, how they could inject more real world scenarios and situations into courses. I don't think any university can perfectly prepare you for the real working world no matter what you do.
But I sure as hell think you have a leg up on some 18 year old that's great at Adobe software and building web sites for himself or on a small freelance level.
- depends how good at photoshop they are i guess... ilearnt more in the first month of work than 3 years at collegemimeartist
- sure, you learned "more," but would you have learned "everything" you learned in college and "more?"mg33
- It is true that much of what he talked about relates directly to what you don't learn in college. I think a degree is always helpful, no matter how good you are.SigDesign
- dskz0
It's all politics.
- Whatever happened to sleeping your way to the middle?rocknonstop
- hektor9110
I think everything comes down the level of passion you have for what you do. If you are extremely passionate for what you do, good things will come!
- wordsinyourmouth0
in reality a lot of this list is about being professional and applies to a lot of careers. i disagree with a few of the interaction specific knowledge... but I thrive as a flash & motion designer
- Iggyboo0
You know what I think..
IT is not whether or not us designers are employable albeit their are a ton of hacks in our field. It is that we as designers are taken advantage of so early in our careers and pretty much become pretty burnt out by the whole thing. I think Andy's article is pretty much talking about business skills and not so much how to tolerate the bull shit we have to put up with in order to do great work. here's a beer for you out there struggling... beginners. To do great work you gotta find meaning in it for you that's the only key. And protect that meaning don't be handing it over to some clown vp who will get their lousy 15% bonus. Be protective and selfish of that. To do great work is to actually enjoy life and not just design.
- cramdesign0
nice article. thanks for posting.
- Llyod0
no.
- dskz0
very.
- tank020
it was an interesting read
altough i don't agree on all parts.
- Llyod0
I've been fired multiple times, once for insubordination, couple times for fucking shit up
- Llyod0
I can't believe the trolls stayed away from this. this is perfect bait
- blaw0
In my opinion, you could change the title to be "How To Be A Successful Designer".
In fact, if you take out the design profession specific notes and replace them with that specific to a lot of other industries, it works out the same. Much of that falls under the broad category of "you spend a lot of your life at work; feel free to give a shit about it."
- roundabout0
If you expect all them skills from a junior web designer fresh out of collage, you are living in a bloody dream world.