I’ve had the opportunity to go to a fantastic, however, corporate minded undergrad (the University of Cincinnati), try 6 different companies/consultancies for internships, 2 years at a full time position before heading to a fine arts based design program at Cranbrook Academy of Art for two years where individual research, studio practice and personal point of view was held above all corporate agendas… and since graduating nearly to years ago, I’ve been at a large corporation near Portland.
From my years of experience in school and out, I’ve found that the majority of traditional design firms and corporations hire the same exact industrial designer over and over. They are hiring the same portfolio over and over. Same skill set, background, etc.
My experience abroad (I worked for a famous dutch designer for a summer) was quite different than my US experience. The studio was majority women and I’d venture to say that as incredibly talented as these women are, they would not be hired by traditional US based firms or corporations because they don’t have “that” portfolio.
(Also, if you’re working in Europe, why would you ever give up months of PTO and maternity leave for a couple weeks?)
At grad school, I was surrounded by extremely intelligent and inspiring individuals doing amazing work but like the women mentioned above, these colleagues will probably never get corporate type jobs because they are better building models by hand and not in 3D or sketching. They might be hired as shop hands but never the designers they have trained and worked to become. Their portfolios don’t include the quintessential post it note page, bold sketches or renderings where even the most mundane chair looks shiny enough to eat. And their work is beautiful in a different way, it’s mentioned in books, magazines, blogs… I would love to see what these designers, given an opportunity, would contribute to the corporate design world (firms/consultancies included).
It is after all Cincinnati’s enrollment model that "if you are smart enough to get into the program, you are capable of learning anything (no portfolio required) and I think that firms and corporations could be a little more open minded when looking at candidates.