Your first design job

How did you get your first job?

"Through the AIGA, my employer checked out my portfolio online, sent me an email and a week later I was earning 40k a year. Not bad for my first job in design."

"I was doing a PR internship a offered to do a design job for their client..."

"I got my first design job through the University of Cincinnati's professional practice program, during college. I interviewed for the job alongside a handful of students, and was chosen for the job based on my portfolio, unconventional resume and GPA."

"I got my first design job after college by sending a mini portfolio along with a cover letter to the owner of a studio that I wanted to work for. After much persistence, my college work experience and my computer knowledge (early 90's mac experience) landed me the job."

"I got my first job because I was working on media buying and ended up managing the design of our ads."

"Through college internship."

"I had my portfolio up on aiga.org and my current employer contacted me through there. One quick interview later and I was hired!"

"Through Career Services department at the Art Institute of Portland."

"...I do design work for the family business"

"Through my instructor at school."

"I moved to San Francisco to live with family in the East Bay and landed an interactive design job with in three weeks (this was back in 2000.)"

"Through a contact at my design internship. He called me to come interview a month after graduation."

"Bartered with a handyman."

"Dated the daughter of a design studio. (Okay, AIGA can't recommend that approach for everyone.)"

"I got lucky and went through Clark College's job center and got a lead through them to a small internet company."

"A design company was looking to hire a recent grad for help in their small design shop. They contacted our professor at the university and he gave his recommendations to them based on what he knew of our work and fit for their needs. He showed our work to them and I was chosen to interview, as well as another person from another school. I showed  my work and enthusiasm for design. They chose me and relayed their choice thru my professor. Which he then made as a public announcement in front of the whole class. It was pretty cool."

"Through a friend."

"Working print production for five years put me in contact with many designers and potential clients. My first non-work-for-hire position came from those connections."

"I didn't know how to get a job. I sent letters off to several agencies, then sat back and waited for someone to call. When no one did, I answered a newspaper ad. I didn't get the job I applied for, but accepted another position within the company and worked my way up."

"My advisor in my design program referred me to a small agency that he had previously been partner at."

"My boss had to hire a secretary according to HIS boss--but he wanted a designer, so whenever HIS boss visited our floor I dropped all my work and pretended to be typing."

"I left for Chicago in the Fall of 1981 to seek my first design job...I started with a list of offices I derived from books about the Chicago design scene, and started making phone calls. One very cool thing about the way design offices were back then: most of them interviewed prospective designers all the time whether they were hiring or not, and even if you weren't in the running for a job, you'd leave having once again practiced the talk that goes along with the showing of your portfolio, having met another contact in the community, and having received a few suggestions from that person of who you should get in touch with next. So once the process was started my list of contacts started growing. No one worth working for advertised in the newspaper in those days. Word of mouth was everything..."