Updates and advice
So since the update I haven’t really posted. The reason being I have had a lot of deadlines to meet and keep up with, particularly the past 2 weeks I’ve had at least 4 university assignments to hand in, as well as a test and 2 presentations. I’m finally coming to an end with it though I have one more assignment to do and hopefully nothing else will pop up in the time. So once this final assignment is done, I’m going to try make an effort to do some more posts and see where it leads me.
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What’s been going on
So since the update I haven’t really posted. The reason being I have had a lot of deadlines to meet and keep up with, particularly the past 2 weeks I’ve had at least 4 university assignments to hand in, as well as a test and 2 presentations. I’m finally coming to an end with it though I have one more assignment to do and hopefully nothing else will pop up in the time. So once this final assignment is done, I’m going to try make an effort to do some more posts and see where it leads me. I have also recently got a job as a frontend web developer. I’m yet to start as I’ve had university to deal with, I feel quite lucky to have found the job and to have been given it. On the basis that over November and part of December last year I was looking for a placement, as to which I found no one who was willing to give me a try the least. I’m looking forward to starting and hoping I can get into a rhythm of being able to get up at 6:30am Monday to Friday, as what I’m used to now is hugely different. It worries me so I’ll have to start adapting now for when I do start.
My advice to fellow people like me
I was fairly worried about finding a job when graduating but a lot begin to go up for graduates around the start of March, while this is a good time to start looking. Make considerations for whether you want a break or not, this is a big deciding part of when you finish, do you want a break? More than likely the answer is yes, but you may think what if it takes 6 months to find a job? Well that’s a long break and some people will find it more difficult than others to find a job. The jobs are all available now, which is why I went ahead and found one, I thought it would be a definite missed opportunity. It depends on you as a person and I thought it was the best thing to do. If you don’t have industry experience like me and you want a break, I would start looking fairly soon for a job, as I’m not sure how often graduate jobs stay around for but they certainly are more vast between March and May (I’m guessing). Even if you end up having a year out, it won’t be the end of the world as you can try gain improvement in your skills and favourite areas. You won’t have the nag of university work, so while you don’t have a job you should focus on what’s probably been said a lot to you ‘get your name out there’. It’s difficult, but joining in communities such as Forrst, Dribbble and LoveDsgn to name a few. These places generally offer feedback too and can offer advice, which can be super helpful.
Building a portfolio!
On the side projects thing these will help strengthen your portfolio. You may not get clients, but that’s not the end of the world. Have you seen a product/service which you think is great but you think the design, usability and accessibility of the website could be better? Why not produce a redesign for that and justify your decisions heavily and based on your knowledge of what you think could be better. Make sure to add this description to the work within your portfolio, maybe write a blog post about it. Push the boundaries, use your skills currently and test them. Is there something you think is possible with just CSS? Do it. Experimenting can be fun and can help you to learn more and demonstrate your knowledge, upload it and create a file directory for it. Place a link to it in your portfolio and nudge people towards viewing your different experiments.
Helpful?
Hopefully this has been helpful for you and not too long, but it’s advice I felt I could do with sharing.