Tips for the Recent College Design Graduate

Creative Resume
the thing that will make most of an impact when looking for a job. I cannot believe how many designers out there don't have a creative resume. Make your resume fun. Most other professions won't have a chance to do something spiffy with their resume, because the employer will think it's a gimmick. But with design (and some art fields) you are being hired to be creative, so show 'em that you are creative. The places you send it to will totally go ga-ga over it and circulate it around the office.

How to make it more creative: Give it a theme. Check out the resumes in the Career Center for examples. My resume has a map theme. It looks like a map. I've got headings like "Work Experience Avenue" and "Ocean of Skills." In one of my interviews, the interviewer said he received over 150 resumes from one want ad in the Chicago Tribune. He told me that mine stood out from all of them and that he just had to give me a call. So, spend the time on making it stand out, it will be worth it.

Send to places you think are freakin' cool*
Go ahead and go for it! Even if you don't know if a really cool place is hiring, send 'em your resume anyway. You never know if they might need some help. Plus, they will probably put your record on file. Places to look for cool places: Look in design magazines for places whose work looks like it's really your style. Communication Arts in particular will have articles on individual design agencies.

Don't worry if you think you are a bad designer.
You will always improve. Continue looking in design magazines. Pick up trends. Read design books and learn good basic design. In college, design wasn't really my thing. Even though my concentration was in design, more of my time was spent making art. But once I got into the work field and doing full-time design, I think my designedness has gone much much better.

Check out the headhunters.
More about headhunters/placement agencies

Pigeon-holeing
Be careful not to pigeon-hole yourself. Although I'd like to say that your first job isn't all that important, you have to be careful not to get stuck in a job where you are doing the same type of boring thing that you don't like. Let's say you are designing classified ads that you don't like. If you stay there for a long time, and when you go to look for a new job, future prospective employers will say "Oh this person is a classified ads designer."

Want Ads
Check out this article on advice about using the want ads