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career coaching

Commonly asked questions: career coaching

What is “career coaching”?
We define “career Coaching” as helping a client to achieve a greater sense of satisfaction in their career. Our work involves carefully assessing the individual’s unique set of skills, goals, and interests. We identify obstacles which might prevent the person from reaching their goals and then develop strategies to overcome those issues. Career limiting problems can include: limited design ability, lack of confidence, poor communication and/or presentation skills, poor technical skills, etc. We can the provide intensive, personalized tutoring necessary to help clients strengthen requisite skills and improve the quality of their portfolios.

How long does the process take?
The time commitment for successful career coaching will vary considerably from person to person. However, our goal is to make an observable difference in our clients’ work situation as rapidly as possible.

The more dedicated the client is to their own success and the more open they are to our instruction, the greater and faster their progress.

What careers do you provide career coaching for?
We currently specialize in assisting beginning and experienced graphic designers. However, individuals working in other areas of art and design are welcome to contact us. We are happy to talk to them, without cost or obligation, regarding our career coaching services. We may be able to assist them.

Why can‘t I get a job? I got high grades in my classes.
Sadly, this is a common circumstance. Many art and design programs do an inadequate job preparing students to face the professional realities of life after college. Students who earned grades of “A” and “B” in college are sometimes astonished to find potential employers consider their portfolios very weak. Consequently these students are unable find a job in their field after graduation.

In view of the high cost of a college education it is unconscionable that good students should find themselves unemployable, but it can and does happenfor a variety of reasons. Here are a few:

Art and design professions are highly competitive. Some colleges do to not fully appreciate this fact or do not see it as their responsibility to provide students with the type of education that gives them enough skills to make them employable. Students need to have outstanding portfolios and technical skills—but they need to have the communication, business, and personal skills that will enable them to function as professionals from day one. Economics are such that most businesses today are not interested in paying an employee while they learn on the job.

Some colleges employ design instructors who have little or no real experience in the professional arena and consequently do not know how to prepare their students in all the ways that are important for short and long-term professional success.

Some instructors have a personal philosophy which directs what and how they teach with little regard for its relevance to students’ actual educational needs. And some instructors are simply not very effective teachers. They may lack strong educational and professional credentials in art and design. Amazingly,by the time some students are juniors or seniors at some colleges, they may have taken more art and design coursework than some of their instructors.

Additionally, colleges are increasingly sensitive to issues of retention and students’ satisfaction. Economic pressures cause some colleges to focus on keeping students happy so as to retain tuition dollars. Rather than supporting the hard work of genuine teaching—the quality of teaching which requires that students be highly challenged, are held accountable for the quality of the work they create, and may not always be happy throughout this process—these colleges opt for lower standards, making it easier for more students to earn grades of “A” and “B” but less likely they will find a job after graduation.

I have been looking for a design job unsuccessfully for some time. What should I do now?
If you really want to work in an art and design related field, do not give up! You would, no doubt, benefit from the objective assessment of your portfolio, credentials, and skills that we can provide.

Other advice: Keep working on your craft. Accept freelance projects. Take on pro bono projects for non-profit organizations. Design something that you can sell. In short, find other ways to continue to do your own work while you work another job to pay bills. Stay connected to people working in the art and design community. Continue to network and to look for an art/design job.

In many cases, the longer it takes for a student to find a job in their field, the less likely it is they will. Younger, newer graduates with fresher technical skills are coming onto the job market at the end of every semester.