How many of you guys get an ID job after gradute?

Hi,

I have a new question again. This question still remain in my mind for quite a long time but i never found what is the real answer. Do you guy get a real ID job after graduate ID program?
My situation is i want to work in the ID feild and i think the best way to open the door of chances is going to study ID. But when i told my boss what i’m planning to do (to make everything fair for both me and my boss) he asked me back that am i sure i’ll get a job after gradute?. If not why don’t i just leave for a few months to study and get back to work as a copywriter. I’m really hesitate now. I know that i have a very strong intension to do the idustrial design but since i met this question, it made me have to re-think of my future. i’m already 26 now and i have to be resonable for everything i decided to do. So i needs your suggestion or Opinions or at least any comments on this.

If you are hesitant and don’t think you are going to get a job than you won’t. ID is a great feild, but it is not a cake walk, it takes work. For some of us it comes easy and we get jobs immediately after school or even while we are in school. But for others it takes work. Some of us have to take undesirable ID jobs to get to the one we really want, but if you push hard enought you will get there.

I think you need to think about what you want to do. If you want to be in ID than go for it. Work your ass off and you will get what you want. Also at age 26 you still have a lot of life a head of you. I am 26 and trust me I have a lot of thing I haven’t accomplished yet.

Don’t let it discourage you, but PackageID is right. The ID field is very competitive and getting worse. Typically from what I’ve heard, only about 10% of graduating seniors end up working in ID and i would guess that maybe 1% end up with the kick ass ID job that all students aim for. It’s all about persistence, you gotta keep trying, never stopping at your first, second, fifth, or fifteenth rejection. I’m only 22 and it took a few months to land my job after graduating and I can’t say it’s what I truly want to do in this field, it’s great experience and opening me up to areas of design I didn’t know existed. The fact is, we all have to pay our dues, except for those few lucky one’s who end up at the great firms off the bat. So we take a job that’s not completely desirable but it puts food on the table and gets you the 2-3 years experience before you can go on to bigger and better things. All in all, its about the same for all of us, regardless of age, your extra years of life may give you an edge over a recent grad.

It’s a fun job, most of the time, figure out what you want to do, it’s def not too late to start in my opinion.

Some schools have better track records than others, and it is not always who you think. I went to RISD, and I would say about 5% of my graduating class ended up designing products. However, of the students I met at Cleveland Institute of Art while on exchange there, more than 50% landed jobs in ID… from a school that was half the price and you never hear about.

There are a lot of factors to getting a good job. Some of it is timing, some of it is persistence, some of it is skill building. Focus on what you can control, skill building and persistence, and at some point the timing will work out.

Yo what di you do before you landed your job with Nike? How was it for you coming out of school? I look at your work and i know you’ve got skills but how long did it take for you to find your first gig.

I got a job straight out of uni…but through an recommendation from a tutor from a different uni who was mates with one of my tutors…so working well with people who can get you jobs is a big help. try to build bridges not burn them.

just for an example of the market out there (in London) I went to a job interview recently and they told me they had around 300+ CV’s to go through and I had a quick look at their short list and it had 5 names on!

Skill building and persistence! Thank you, Yo. This is what we need in the design life. However, about RISD, what are the graduates doing now? I may be a freshman there this fall.

My advice is to go for it. You’ll only come out of school more skilled than when you went in, which will make you more valuable to the right employer. Trust your intuition and follow your heart–the most important thing in this world is to love the life you live.

Also remember that the world is full of copywriters, but desperately needs more Industrial Designers. If the balance was right, we wouldn’t need copywriters to write user manuals at all!

I got a job offer before graduation, but I was interning for the firm already–start your networking early!! (I recall that those of us who got jobs in ID were also the ones that ALWAYS made sure we were at every IDSA event and regional conference.)

Yes sir! That is it right there!

Clean up in aisle 8 for some… back to school to completely other professions for others… straight to teaching at RISD for a few (never having designed anything professionally)… related fields for a lot o them, graphics, web design (it was 1998)…

It is a large ID program there, about 40 graduating seniors, a total ID population pushing 200 including grad students.

Honestly, if you want to design products professionally, I would not recommend it… it did work somehow for me though. Read through this one:

and:

For 6 months I freelanced intermittently wherever I could. Some really bad places, a couple of good ones. I didn’t have much freelance though, I was interviewing like crazy. Off days (which was most) I would work in my parents basement and would draw from 7am - 8pm, just re-building my entire portfolio again and again.

This landed me my first full-time gig almost exactly 6 months from graduation here:

At Evo I learned a ton from my Director, Aaron Szymanski. The team was very good there. I stayed for about 4.5 years. The client list there is pretty awesome.

Nike advanced design was a big client of ours. I had always loved shoes (did some sponsored projects for Nike in School), and totally caught the shoe bug. Knowing only Nike, I interviewed at New Balence, Adidas, Reebok, Diesel, and talked to Timberland, Converse (pre Nike ownership_)and Puma… I decided Nike was the best fit for me… still is. I love it here.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I am graduating in the end of April from a university that no longer even has and ID program! Its gone. However, I knew that product design is what I wanted to do ever since my sophomore year, so I worked on sketching and building the best portfolio I could from then on. I have thrown out so many resumes and cover letters that I had a phone interview with one company and thought it was another! (That was just a bad mistake on my part, but hopefully you see my point) But through this incessant effort, I was able to interview and get an entry level industrial design position. Its not exactly ASTRO, IDEO, or Continuum but its an ID job nonetheless, and I’m happy about it. I plan on staying there, get some good experience and move on to bigger and better things. Its really up to you, if you’re motiviated, persistant, and not afraid of people telling you “no” then eventually end up doing every creative person’s dream: getting paid to draw/think of crazy sh*t just because you can. At least thats one way that I see it.

thank you everyone for all your good suggestions and recommendations. So i think i’ll take a chance to study what my heart calls for it no matter how the future is. i know every job has a hard first step but i’m not afraid to try.
But i have one more question to ask for your favor. How difference from taking a diploma and a bachelor? Except the timing and costs. How difference of skills will i get? i see in some programs that they offer both degree. A diploma seems have a lot of time working in studio and developing the skills of 3D, Perspective drawing etc. but in bachelor degree they concentrate the design studies (they have design studies 1-4). What do you think or have experiences in these 2 degrees?

Also consider applying BEFORE you graduate. I finish my course in June and have had three interviews so far with one job offer (which I’m taking).

Wait until July and you’ll be in competition with hundreds (if not thousands) of other new grads.

If you can believe, you can achieve.

There will always be those who doubt. I had a high school guidance counselor tell me not to pursue entry into a private design school, and I should find a local college, perhaps a community college…
5yrs later I earned a degree in ID.

After working with a startup for 4 years, I moved to the opposite coast for grad school, went from a very comfortable management position, to working retail for $8 an hour to pursue this dream…
I’m currently a senior designer working everyday to better myself.

If a dream is all you have, you have to be determined to make it a reality. Jobs will always be there, but what are you passionate about. I believe to have the best chance in ID you need a 4yr degree. design school is ideal, but state schools can be much less expensive.