1.What is professional / industrial experience?
- Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event.
- It is something you gain over time, usually years, through working in a real world environment.
- It is something that you need to have to be able to get a job, or so it seems.
- Gives you the opportunity to work temporarily for agency of your choosing
- Its a short period of time in which you gain experience of a sector of your choosing.
2.Why is professional / industrial experience important as part of PPD?
- Because it gives me a hands on experience of what working in the graphic design industry is like.
- It can make you rethink about the area of work you would like to go into.
- It can prepare you for life working in the industry
- Having industry experience now puts me in a stronger position than graduates without it.
- Helps me refocus and reassess what I want to do.
- You get direct contact with professionals who deal with the problems you may face everyday
3.How do you gain professional / industrial experience and what form does it take?
- By working alongside someone who works in your chosen area and already has an in depth understanding of it.
- By meeting people in your area of the industry
- By being hired by a company as an employee or freelancer.
3.How do you gain professional / industrial experience and what form does it take?
- By working alongside someone who works in your chosen area and already has an in depth understanding of it.
- By meeting people in your area of the industry
- By being hired by a company as an employee or freelancer.
- Telephoning, emailing, send mailshots/letters - acts as first point of call and then can be followed up.
4.What should you aim to gain from professional / industrial experience?
- More knowledge directly from inside the workplace.
- Contacts / Build relationships
- Further opportunities Work/internships
- Confidence in your ability to deal with pressure outside your comfort zone.
4.What should you aim to gain from professional / industrial experience?
- More knowledge directly from inside the workplace.
- Contacts / Build relationships
- Further opportunities Work/internships
- Confidence in your ability to deal with pressure outside your comfort zone.
- Build a stronger portfolio and tweak your approach to work and the working environment.
Further research
After thinking aloud I decided it would be beneficial to have a more informed opinion on the subject rather than making bullet points based on the experiences I have had.
With that in mind I got a book from the reading list entitled 'How to become a graphic designer without losing your soul' by Adrian Shaughnessy. I must confess I have not read the whole book but I have read the section on how to find work and I have found out some invaluable things regarding choosing the right environment, researching into a chosen agency and finding out who they work with and what they do, getting noticed by a chosen agency, and impressing them with your presentation skills and mannerisms as well as your work.
One thing highlighted by Shaughnessy deals with broadening your contacts and networking associates by simply contacting agencies and asking for an interview to discuss your portfolio. I had no-idea that people did this and that agencies would conform even if it did happen. Even the interviews that don't lead to work are as important as those that do. Shaughnessy writes "Even if the verdict is unfavorable, you are being given valuable information, so use it to realign your approach in readiness for the next interview".
The book works ahead of what I want from the quotes I am gathering and is more concerned with securing work than discussing experience, so I decided to look online to define the term experience and get some real quotes to back up my argument.
After a few minutes of searching I had to broaden my search from 'industry experience' to simply 'experience' to find meaningful results which I could then work with and modify to fit the design industry.
The first quote I found was from Liz Rhodes of NCWE (National Council for Work Experience) and highlights the importance of industry experience.
From the same website I also found that "Research shows that an average of 70% of summer work experience placements or year long placements lead to a graduate job offer." This research, carried out by Manchester University in 2004, shows the importance of temporary work placements and how the majority will open up opportunities. Of course this information is not a formality, as factors such as economic stability can have an adverse effect.
This quote from the times website from an article entitled 'Graduates unfit for work, say top firms' reads "The chief executive of the AGR (Association of Graduate Recruiters) said: ‘graduates must have the right aptitude, which partly comes down to the skills they can offer. If they concentrate purely on academic studies and have no work experience, they are not going to impress the employer’." This also highlights the importance of work experience.
For my primary experience I talked to my sister who did some work experience over a week in the summer for Chadwick Lawrence (law firm).
Further research
After thinking aloud I decided it would be beneficial to have a more informed opinion on the subject rather than making bullet points based on the experiences I have had.
With that in mind I got a book from the reading list entitled 'How to become a graphic designer without losing your soul' by Adrian Shaughnessy. I must confess I have not read the whole book but I have read the section on how to find work and I have found out some invaluable things regarding choosing the right environment, researching into a chosen agency and finding out who they work with and what they do, getting noticed by a chosen agency, and impressing them with your presentation skills and mannerisms as well as your work.
One thing highlighted by Shaughnessy deals with broadening your contacts and networking associates by simply contacting agencies and asking for an interview to discuss your portfolio. I had no-idea that people did this and that agencies would conform even if it did happen. Even the interviews that don't lead to work are as important as those that do. Shaughnessy writes "Even if the verdict is unfavorable, you are being given valuable information, so use it to realign your approach in readiness for the next interview".
The book works ahead of what I want from the quotes I am gathering and is more concerned with securing work than discussing experience, so I decided to look online to define the term experience and get some real quotes to back up my argument.
After a few minutes of searching I had to broaden my search from 'industry experience' to simply 'experience' to find meaningful results which I could then work with and modify to fit the design industry.
The first quote I found was from Liz Rhodes of NCWE (National Council for Work Experience) and highlights the importance of industry experience.
“Work experience is a good way of gaining experience and building up confidence. It’s also a way of finding out whether or not you really want to do something without making a long-term commitment”.This quote backs up my statements covered before.
From the same website I also found that "Research shows that an average of 70% of summer work experience placements or year long placements lead to a graduate job offer." This research, carried out by Manchester University in 2004, shows the importance of temporary work placements and how the majority will open up opportunities. Of course this information is not a formality, as factors such as economic stability can have an adverse effect.
This quote from the times website from an article entitled 'Graduates unfit for work, say top firms' reads "The chief executive of the AGR (Association of Graduate Recruiters) said: ‘graduates must have the right aptitude, which partly comes down to the skills they can offer. If they concentrate purely on academic studies and have no work experience, they are not going to impress the employer’." This also highlights the importance of work experience.
For my primary experience I talked to my sister who did some work experience over a week in the summer for Chadwick Lawrence (law firm).
I asked her how she felt about work experience and how important it was to her development.
She said
"Before I went I wasn't sure what I would be doing, because you have presumptions that you'll be a tea and coffee slave for a week, but once I got there I loved every minute of it.I was assigned to work with different people everyday who specialised in different areas such as Criminal Law and Family Law. I started out doing some filling and looking through case studies but by the afternoon I was writing up notes on an active cases. I felt important to the team and trusted because it was an important case.The second day, I spent the day at a court hearing with another person, who again had a different specialism. After the week the I sat back and thought about what I had learnt and the experiences that I had. I went back to University with renewed confidence about working life.Some days I did do a lot of photocopying and filling but just being the presence of people who work in the offices everyday makes you think that the experience was worthwhile. It's completely different from life at University.As for afterwards, I made some new friends and gained contacts from it. I sent them a thank you card and they replied to invite me to contact them if I need anything else. Opening up that type of relationship where I can get help and advice as well extra work can only be a good thing. I got to know lots of people over the week from the receptionist to the managing director."
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