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What’s going on, everybody? Benji Keyser here today talking about how to get a job as a graphic designer and better yet. Is it hard to get into the graphic design industry? Is it hard to get your first job well? I’m gonna talk a little bit about that and then talk about how to prepare to get a job as a graphic designer. Alright, your first job is gonna be the hardest. Why, well, if you go to a job posting it each time you go. There you’ll see one to five years experience or two to three years or 10 years experience and some of those positions are truly out of your league and were senior designers, creative directors, etc. You want to be looking more for the junior designer or the entry level or even internships? I did some internships before I got hired. As a full-time graphic designer, it was a great way to gain experience and put things on my resume that were no longer student work, so that’s. The biggest thing is knowing that your first job is gonna be your hardest if you’re going to school and become a graphic designer, then you’ll at least have a bachelor’s degree on your resume. At that time, you’ll at least have a portfolio full of student work, and if you’re a self-taught designer, hopefully you’ll be working on improving your portfolio, getting clients on the side to build that portfolio, so in a sense, there’s benefits to being self-taught and there’s benefits to having a degree with having a degree. Some people will see your commitment your dedication. They’ll see that you can finish something that you can be committed something for four years, whereas on the side, they’ll see your hustle to do it on your own to push yourself to grow. It really just depends on the company, but let me say something about student work versus work that you’ve done for clients or work. Leave them on the side. Work that you’ve done for clients is always more impressive. The reason being is it shows you know how to work with realistic time frames when it comes to school, you could have anywhere from one week to two weeks to a whole month to complete a project, whereas projects as a freelancer. You’re gonna have a little bit more realistic time frame. They’re gonna have bigger expectations. It’s also going to show that you know how to work with people. You know how to talk through design concepts, things along those lines, which are very important when getting hired as a full-time graphic designer. They want to know you know how to talk. Baga design. The thing is ultimately your portfolio is the most important thing when getting hired as a graphic designer for the first time. If you don’t have good work, it doesn’t matter. How many degrees you have or how much experience you have your work will show what you would be able to do. It’s probably one of the biggest differences between, like getting a job of business or becoming a teacher. Your work speaks right there. Usually they have to hire somebody in the business world or in a teaching position and watch them for about six months before they know. If they’re even any good, whereas if your portfolio, it’s pretty evident right off the bat, one of the things that’s very important is to make sure that you’re qualified for the position that you’re applying for. You don’t want to go into a job role. It says that you’re really good at video editing, but you’re only a graphic designer, and you’ve never worked in video, so make sure if you are applying for jobs, you’re applying for jobs that are specifically for graphic designers. If you’re a graphic designer, not something like digital media specialist or video production. I mean, that’s pretty obvious, but just read through the Job Description to make sure you’re qualified for those skills. Now sometimes you can learn them on the job, and that’s totally fine, but as a whole, the employer wants to know you’ll be able to follow through and complete. The tasks is provided to you. Another tip concerning your work is that you want to make sure that your portfolio is filled with the best work the work that you’re most proud of you. Don’t want to stuff a bunch of things in your portfolio. If you think they’re kind of subpar, even yourself because that will show through, it will show weakness. You want to put your best foot forward so even if you can’t fit ten pieces in your portfolio, that’s fine, you can put your best three or your best for your best. Five, that’s completely fine. Don’t think you need to stuff your portfolio with more work in a sense, You’ll actually pull down the value of all your work, so put your best foot forward when it comes to showing your work in your portfolio. Make sure you don’t just place pictures in your portfolio. Make sure you talk about your design process if you’ve taken pictures of your sketching as you’ve been going through concept. Dean, put those pictures in there as well. So you can show your brainstorm through your concept through your rough ideas through your Vectorized ideas to your complete design that is really impressive because it shows that you’re any thoughtful designer. It’s something that I didn’t do, and at first I struggled getting my first job because they couldn’t see my design thinking they couldn’t see my process, even though I had a process, I didn’t take the time to document it, and I actually think that it hindered my abilities to get that first job. The really cool thing about doing this is it allows you to talk to the employer. Who’s interviewing you about the design process about what it’s like to take the idea from brainstorm to sketches to more roughed out ideas to the complete product. It’s really cool to be able to talk to them about that and know show them that you care about design throughout the entire process. Not just the finished product the last thing. I want to leave you with. Is you need to be someone who is ever learning somebody who has a desire to continue to learn throughout their entire career? This is not a career where you learn a simple set of skills and that’s where it ends. This is something we are always learning. New tools, new styles, new applications of the tools, new thought processes, even new mediums, for instance. I didn’t think I’d be getting into video and motion graphics when I first became a graphic designer and started studying print production. But here I am and I’m required to do this if I want to stay relevant and active in the industry. So that’s one thing you have to realize. Is you want to be somebody who’s willing to learn? And that’s something you want to show when you’re talking to a perspective employer about working with them is that you have a desire to learn you love the industry and you’re excited to grow if you show up as a know-it-all who knows everything but secretly knows nothing. Then you’re far off the end goal of a graphic designer, and that’s to be somebody who is a problem solver. I was always looking at new ways to solve the problems at hand. Hope this has helped you as far as how to get a job in the graphic design industry. And is it hard to get a job in the graphic design industry? I’m Benji Kaiser of Benji Kaiser Comm. If you have any questions, please comment below. I’d love to know what you’re thinking, and I love to make videos that specifically help you out in the graphic design industry. Hit the like button. If you liked it, subscribe if you loved it and I will see you here on the next episode, you.