Hi Hannah, I'm from Leeds College of Art, I'm doing illustration and I'm about to graduate this year. I think you're a year ahead of me? So I'd be really grateful if you could share your experience of graduating and maybe give me some tips how to get onto the next step? Thanks a lot! Abby
The response I got from Hannah was amazing!!
Ok...... massive essay coming your way!! I went to all of the career track tuesdays because I wanted to be as prepared for life after college as much as possible, they helped but a lot of it was common sense I found!? Anyway, from May onwards I was applying to jobs. I used indeed.co.uk to find jobs mostly but also any other websites that came up when I searched for creative jobs. I got a list of places to search for jobs at a career track tuesday session too, but there's so many different websites so I mostly used the most common. I had an interview for a creative role at Asda before I left uni, but nothing came of it and they didn't end up hiring for the position but as soon as I got home I wrote down all of the questions that they asked me (they asked about 20, it was crazy!) so that I could use them to prepare myself for future interviews.
When I left college I was taking part in New Designers which half of the Printed Textiles class get to go to, it's in London and on for about 4 days at the end of June. None of us had jobs secured and were hoping for things to come from this show. I ended up having a couple of small commissions from individuals and a couple of features on blogs come from New Designers but no job interviews or anything major. I went back home to Sussex after that, and kept applying for jobs. Every job I applied for I would send my CV and a PDF of my work, if they wanted it. I wrote down details of every job that I applied for in a document on my laptop to keep track of what I had applied for and when. I didn't want to get a reply from a job and not remember what the job was, because having to ask what the job role was would be very awkward!! I ended up applying to about 80 jobs between May and September.
I applied for loads because I applied to jobs all around the UK (and even some abroad, though I knew I didn't have much of a chance of getting one abroad!) and I applied to loads of job I knew were way too advanced for me, and required years of experience but I tried my luck anyway because applying for jobs on indeed takes about 10 seconds, so why not! I also applied to loads of graphic design jobs which weren't so relevant for me. I ended up having 4 interviews out of the 80 jobs I applied for- Asda in Leeds, Argos & Homebase in Milton Keynes and two at home in Sussex. 3 interviews had one person interview me and one had two people interview me, they were all different, one lasted half an hour and one lasted 2 and a half hours!!! But that was really casual and was mostly us chatting away!
The ASDA one was probably least casual as she fired all of those questions at me! Anyway, I didn't get offered any of those 4 jobs! Howevvvvvvverrrrr... I got an email mid summer from Card Factory who are in Wakefield and they had been to New Designers looking to employ 2 graduates and they had also looked at local degree shows, including LCA, where they found me & contacted me. I ended up going for a casual interview and then a trial day throughout the summer and they offered me one of the positions. It was funny that after all that job hunting and applying, someone ended up actually scouting me. I am however confident that I'd have gotten a creative job if I'd just persevered with applying for jobs! Don't give up!!!! Oh yeah, I was on jobseekers allowance for a couple of months after leaving college and starting my job, which just about got me by without having to get a 'normal' job.
They also paid for my travels to the interviews around the country and even for a night in a hotel when I came for my trial day at Card Factory. I know that graduates have sent companies their CV and postcards of their work with a letter asking them to consider them for any future roles which I know impresses companies and does make them stand out more than just an email would, so that's what I'd have considered doing if I hadn't got a job. I also still try to do private commissions, post on my instagram page and do exhibitions and stuff like that, just so that I'm still 'in the scene' if you like. internships- I did my first after I worked at camp america between 2nd and 3rd year summer, it wasn't paid and wasn't as cool as it sounds, I had to pay to stay in someone's house for two weeks, but it was in New York so looks super cool on my CV! I got that by emailing a tonne of companies in NY, I emailed about 25 and this one said they'd have me!
I did the Zandra Rhodes one in London half way through 3rd year, they take on loads of interns all the time and I got that by emailing them too, again that wasn't paid and I stayed at a family friend's house in London. The last one for Wilko's was actually something that came from New Designers as the Wilkos design team were offering to pay expenses up to £500 for some grads to come in for 2 weeks and work on some projects, so yeah they found me there, and they made the most of me because they paid for my hotel and train so I got to work on kids stationery which was great. I did the placements really for experience and for my CV, which funnily enough was never seen by Card Factory as they contacted me and never asked for it (I don't think!) so hey, you can 100% get a creative job without having done any placements, but I'd do a week here and there if you possibly can, to bulk out the CV, and have something to talk about in interviews.
Ultimately I'd say to take as many opportunities as you can, keep doing things, keep applying for things, contact people, don't be disheartened by rejection! Do not give up!!! I wish I'd not worried so much, because everything works it's way out in the end, worrying is just a waste of energy!
I'm so happy that she took the time to tell me all of this - she really didn't have to make so much effort!
