Career progression and advice after leaving Master's early

Portfolio / Work: Your stuff is really well thought out for someone with so little experience. It’s impressive. You should include more presentation sketches and ideation though. We want to see that you can sell an idea with your sketches and that you have a process for developing your ideas. Also, I would do some more models. The only one in your portfolio is the Horizon speaker which looks like a student level model. If you don’t have facilities handy, I’m sure there are some maker spaces in Glasgow that you could use.

What to do: Only you can find your own path. It’s difficult to start a career no matter what your background, so don’t be too hard on yourself.

From my experience: get a any job you can just to maintain your self esteem and sanity. If not relatable to design, make it part time so that you have plenty of time to job hunt and work on your portfolio.

Also, keep working. Imagine you had $100k to invest in bringing a product to market. Design it, build it, test it. It will be great experience and a great portfolio piece.

Lastly, diversify your interests. I’m a normal over-achiever type in that my work takes an unhealthy central role in my life. I really wish that I had taken some time before my career started to invest in hobby outside design. Take advantage of the time you have now!

Good luck!