To Do list
From Dallas Riffle, former Tri-C student and currently Multimedia Designer at Ashby Dillon, who spoke at yesterday's Web Work Web Wisdom event.
What you MUST do to get that first job:
- Attend portfolio reviews and take notes on the criticisms made.
- Establish your own corporate identity. Brand yourself and apply that branding to your stationery and website (be sure to have one of those, preferably your own URL).
- Establish a professional email address... try to avoid ones like glitterponyxxx@yahoo.com, etc. Include your name if at all possible.
- Record a professional outgoing voicemail message.
- Proofread/spellcheck your resume.
- Apply in person and follow up with a phone call... anyone can fire off an email.
- Google yourself and see what comes up. See if you can fix what you don't like... and clean up any social media profile pages.
- Bring an air of confidence into the interview. Have a firm handshake and be conversational/ personable... this is just as important as being "professional." If you're NOT confident, you shouldn't be interviewing yet.
- Try interview "dry-runs" with friends or classmates.
- Refine your projects... just because a project was complete in class doesn't mean it can't be improved. Try to take it to the next level and really make it a portfolio-worthy piece. If at all possible, don't use Greeking/Lorem Ipsum or watermarked comp stock images.
- If you don't have the kind of work you'd like to see in your portfolio, create it! Assign a project to yourself to fill any voids that may have been pointed out to you in reviews.
- Take time to research the firm before applying, and tailor your portfolio to fit as closely as possible to what they do.
- If presenting a physical portfolio, take the time to mount perfectly. If bringing a laptop, set up a clean desktop and have your projects loaded (locally) before the interview.
- Show your process, be it sketches and notes or screen caps. This can give your prospective employer some insight on the way you work.
- Be ready to talk about yourself, your philosophy and your work as a whole as well as the individual projects you'll be presenting. If you don't know something, be honest.
- Thicken your skin, and learn to look at criticism the right way. It's meant to help you get better, especially the criticism you're getting from your instructors. Believe it or not, you'll look back on it fondly once you begin receiving it from a prospective employer, or a paying client. You may look at your work as art, but realize that everyone else involved sees it as a product. Keep the passion, but you may need to adjust your perspective.
- Be willing to intern and/or work freelance... any experience is good experience, and can lead to bigger and better things.
