Free labour in the First World

Forget about cheap foreign labour when you can get free labour in your own home! That’s right, First World dwellers, you hear me. From the streets of London to the whole EU continent, even up to the Hollywood hills in the USA, why pay cheap when you can get it for FREE? These free labourers are called interns, and if you have not made use of them, you should! You only need to pay for their lunches and transport, and in some cases, non at all! They are young, smart and degree-certified from a credited university in the First World.

What’s more, they are willing to clock in the full hours just like a fully-paid professional (without the min. wage, of course), and if that is not enough, you can also get them to serve you coffee in between.

Why?

Because they are dying to for a job. They thirst for it. Give them countless of empty promises of a full-time position, and they are sure to stick around longer. Perhaps you can even coax them to work overtime, all without pay! Isn’t that fantastic news for all you exploitative bosses out there who are unashamed to fatten your profits while these little minions can simply starve for all you care!

And if this is not enough to make you sick, I don’t know what else can. Even cheap, unqualified foreign labour gets paid, but not fresh graduates in the First World nations. Graduate Fog, a UK-based website dedicated to the cause of the youths while shaming companies that benefit from unpaid internships, has religiously updated any happenings regarding youth employment and internships.

I personally wished I knew all the good advice much earlier in my fledgling years rather than now. Honestly, some of the repercussions from my previous experiences of exploitation can still take an emotional toil on me from time to time even after all these years, and I am too ashamed and angry to name them as references. Waste of my potential, time, money and energy. Not to mention that their names are not worth mentioning in the first place, so no free publicity for them by me.

And why these sick politicians legalise exploitation in the guise of “free internship” for a reason so obvious that is non other to please those fat elites so that they can retain their attractive tax contributions.

Just recently, I was updated by friends that some of them were still doing internships on end after graduating 4 years ago! Studying masters was a way of escape from the dreadful unemployment rather than for knowledge sake. How much time can young people afford to waste?? And as they get older and still out of a job, they will more likely be pushed away as potentials when the next batch of fresh youths graduate each year. Job centres are getting over-crowded and depressing for many who do not get a single call from them.

Gone are the notions that exploitation only happens in the Third World. We are seeing countless of talented, smart young people working for nothing in bright day light, and still pretend that its alright. How much can we afford to stamp out their morals and brainwash their conscience?

It’s about time we say NO!

10 Popular Myths that Degree = Success

 

With the full-scale of youth employment at an all-time high that the world has ever seen, finally the truth is out that having a degree does not necessarily guarantee success. While this does not mean that having degrees are completely useless and are required in certain industries, moms’ and dads’ beliefs that having a degree will guarantee that open door certainly do no justice to the millions of unemployed graduates whose life’s ambitions and motivations get eroded by the day while painfully confused by the contrary. It’s time to break the myths that we have for the longest time embraced:

Myth 1. A degree can easily land you a job.
My…my…how (un)true that is. If it were so, we should be finding many graduates working in their fields of study, NOT serving in the coffee shops or claiming unemployment benefits!

Myth 2. A degree from a more expensive and prestigious university will land you a more prestigious job.
That’s where lots of students get conned for their money. Sure, a prestigious degree gives you that wow factor, but you are no different with the other interviewees from the what’s-that-name universities. Start from the bottom!

Myth 3. Study hard for a degree, and you will not lose out in the working world.
Street-smartness, soft skills, working experience and network can still help any Tom, Dick or Harry get their foot on the door. It’s all about self-marketing, dear.

Myth 4. It is a status symbol to have a degree.
That would be applicable in the Industrial Age where degree holders were still rare. Now is the Information Age, and degree holders world-wide are clogging the entry pipe. Status? I’m afraid the only status a graduate can be proud of is a paid, full-time job.

Myth 5. With a degree, you will never go hungry.
Ha…ha…ha. Tell that to the millions of unemployed graduates in Europe and Middle East, not forgetting those who were propelled to do unpaid internships. Is it the elitist fat cats or the graduates who are in debt to their student loans getting filled? You decide.

Myth 6. Degree-holders have greater advantages than those with a lower education.
Even diploma holders who command lower salaries are just as attractive. As most of today’s bosses echo in one voice: “Cheaper, better, faster!”. Did I forget to mention that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg were all college drop-outs?

Myth 7. Having a degree means you are smart.
I don’t think the politicians who got us into this financial mess in the first place were any smarter than the conmen on the street.

Myth 8. You’ll need a full 3-year degree in order to succeed in the working world.
Most employers ask for relevant qualifications, not how long you earned them. Working experience and smart ideas beats qualifications most of the time!

Myth 9. Once you have a degree, you have finished your education.
You will never stop learning for the rest of your life. Real life experiences will be your best teachers.

Myth 10. A degree will serve you a lifetime.
Yes, unless you decide to change your profession completely.

Be Street-Smart, not just Degree-Smart

As global youth unemployment continues to escalate at a speed faster than you can say “BOOM”, I can’t help but seethe in anger at inefficient political decisions that continue to cripple one of the most vulnerable and highly invest-able group in the working world – the youths. Scores of young people who are stuck in the crevices created by the credit crunch quake continue to question and blame what is wrong with themselves despite their supposedly top-notch wilting papers called “degrees”.

Why hasn’t anyone given me a chance? Am I not qualified enough? Maybe I’m still too expensive even after I have slashed my wages? Is there any more meaning to this life? And so on.

Degrees are not completely useless, and in certain industries, they are very important. But our society has led us to believe for years that this expensive paper will open multiple doors of opportunities fluttered with high-paying cheques. We studied and fought hard to get those papers, and when we fail to see those promises crystalise, we are accused of being lazy and demanding! Have we not heard these many times now?

I cannot stop being angry that this cycle of blame keeps coming back to the youth, who have been shielded most of their lives from hardships by the baby boomers who swore in their time that the next generation would be better off than them. Well, guess what mums and dads, the Industrial Age is over. We are now in the Information Age that has churned out too many degree-holders that have crowded the labour supply, and let’s not forget the advancements in technology and globalisation that has produced readily available cheaper foreign outsource just an email away. How are we going to compete??

I can imagine what a typical employer must be thinking under his or her smirk these days: Too many qualified graduates to choose from? I can hire a MA grad for a penny. Want to be paid the minimum wage? Well, there are others who can do it for free. Graduated from the Royal College of Art? Sorry mate, start from the bottom and go serve us coffee. Only graphic design? The other interviewee can do graphic design AND web coding AND video, plus I still pay the same wage.

No wonder youths these days are having their ambitions deflated each day. Com’on people (yes, I am referring to you, baby boomers), these are the young who will one day be paying your pensions, who will one day be paying the taxes to maintain the mechanics of society, who will one day be firing you once you get too old, and yes, who will one day lead you in the next generation government. If you don’t invest in them and motivate them now, how will society ever forward to a brighter future as we hope? We are facing a generation of lost talents, and the grave is no different.

Best selling author Robert T. Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Business of the 21st Century, quotes:

“We go to school to learn to work hard for money. I write books and create products that teach people how to have money work hard for them.”

“Financial intelligence has little or nothing to do with academic intelligence. You can be a genius when it comes to academic intelligence, but a moron when it comes to financial intelligence.”

I can’t agree any better. Kiyosaki is well known for taking his mind outside the traditional mould of working hard to embracing working smart. That’s why he is a rich man today. Street-smartness is something that cannot be found even in the best schools. It only can be found through taking risks in the real world. It is no surprise that many of the richest people of the world are school-dropouts – Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg (why, he’s my age!), Jim Carrey etc. You name it. School has been lying to us (Yes, I have taken this too far)!

Let’s check out some of the most common myths:

Myth 1: Degree will open doors of opportunity and great salaries
Really? The last time someone asked for my educational background was yonks ago. Now most people ask if I can work fast, deliver on time, and on budget. If I am a nice person who offers value-added services, fantastic!

Myth 2: Work hard, and you will get a good job.
I scored top grades, couldn’t get a job straight after graduation, and was retrenched. I was expensive too. The cheaper, less-experienced designer replaced me instead, not to mention those mean office politics. Many people prefer to work with people whom they know and like. It’s called NETWORK.

Myth 3: Branded schools can help land you a good job.
I wished that was true, so I would not have to suffer in my first few years of working life.

Myth 4: If you want to be paid higher and get promoted, you will have to work even harder.
Yes, to a certain extent. But if you are more expensive than the junior and getting older too, expect to be replaced one day. It’s easier to hire and fire a freelancer or temporary worker than to get a full-timer on board these days.

Myth 5: You must be lazy if you are not getting any chance.
Tell that to Vicky Harrison and to those who cannot afford the disgustingly high tuition fees. Not to mention, the new hell called crowd-sourcing where price-undercutting is the norm, plus the relaxing of immigration rules that allowed cheap foreign influx into many First World nations. I wonder how “lazy” spells it in situations like these.

Sigh…so how does one be street smart? The answer: Take risks!

Yes, I mean it, that was how it started for me and ever since, I have never looked back. I stopped working for free. I started telling the mean boss, enough is enough. I never said never, because I would never have made it this far. Taking risks means getting out of your comfort zone, and stop being scared of failures. It means painfully taking in the most nasty of experiences without losing your cool, or even surviving an unsuccessful marketing pitch. It requires taking the initiative to learn, research and discover, even when those around you think you are wasting time. Taking risks challenges you to take the extra mile when no one wants to, and not follow the crowd all the time. It demands a lot of sacrifices, sleepless hours to search for more opportunities, even having to do away with relaxing Saturdays altogether. Taking risks will mean dreaming big, planning out how you are going to achieve those dreams and setting it out with a right attitude that never dies. It also involves hanging out with the right people who can and will build you up, while cutting out those who plan to tear you down. As the saying goes, if you want to soar like an eagle, you can’t hang around with turkeys!

Those are the basics many successful entrepreneurs have adopted. Yes, basics, because success is a long, long journey. You can read up more tips on how you can build yourself up during this time of financial meltdown in previous posts of this blog. Opportunities do not knock on your doors; hunt them down and grab them.

One of the most influential entrepreneurs who is successful is Hermione Way, sister of millionaire Ben Way. I had the opportunity to meet her in person once and had a great chat with her. She is the founder of Newspepper, a social media enterprise devoted to created vlogs and online videos, and reporting on the tech world while devoted to training fresh graduates. Being the same age as me (and I am proud of her), she took the risk to start her own company in the second year of her degree in journalism. Today, the company boasts helping hundreds of interns getting their feet in the door, as well as expanding to new markets and working with huge clients. She is one example of a graduate who took the risks to make it because she refused to bow to the norm of working for free. She embraced street-smartness.

Be street-smart, and exchange your worries for a better tomorrow. Have a Merry Christmas & a great 2012.

Tips for graduates’ survival in the recession

Following up from my latest post, Youth Unemployment: Lost generation, Lost Talents, I described my thoughts on the dismal situation affecting youths in this economic recession. Belonging to the pioneer batch of youth affected by the first wave of the financial tsunami, I have gone through a lot (my previous post tells it all) of struggles to make sure that my degree worth thousands of ££ was well executed to the profession I studied 4 years for. Through trials and great tribulations, plus a good dose of ego-bruising, I have arrived to some helpful key points that can help you survive through the waves and hopefully, ensure how to minimise that huge blank in your CV experience description so your degree does not all go to waste:

1. Stop pitying yourself

I mean it, stop it. Stop giving up and stop complaining. We all know much of fault lies in inefficient political decisions, universities that have underprepared us for events such as this, our parents who have shielded us too much in our early years, cheap foreign labour, another new set of graduates…bla bla bla….

Yes…shhhh….stop. Our complaints and mournings will not get us anywhere now. There is no way you can change the system overnight, and recovery can take as long as another decade or so. Give yourself at least a good pat on the back if you’ve been religiously sending your CVs everyday. You can improve and rewrite your CVs again and again, following the rules of every good book and website on tips to improving your CV and cover letters. But if you still have not landed at least one interview, you know by now sticking to the same technique is not enough, and not effective alone.

If you had been rejected to countless interviews, it’s ok. Move on and do not let such rejections pull your mind and your self-esteem down. It’s hard, but do not give up. Remember, there are as many as more than a million youths battling the same fate as you, so do not think that there must be something terribly wrong with you even after you’ve gone through everything you can to land your foot at the door. Stop wallowing your thoughts about how that potential employer is this or that. Move on. Remain confident at all times, because people trust in those who are confident than those who are desperate.

2. Create your own website

If you have not done so, you are living in the stone age. What better idea is there than to make yourself visible to the world online! Don’t just create a site and advertise that you are desperate for a job. Promote your portfolio, your skills, what you can offer to people. After all, your website can be a good demonstration of your understanding of the industry and your maturity to your potential employer. Prospective clients may also be interested in your services.

3. Promote yourself via social media and blogging

Don’t just stop at a website, make full use of social media as well. The 4 biggest mediums are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Linkedin. Create a profile and there…it’ll all come automatically. It does not work that way! Network with friends and professionals, join forums, write helpful articles on your expertise, create useful tutorial videos etc…whatever that can be helpful to the public and increase your visibility. Don’t be a floating, dead avatar on the World Wide Web. Be interactive and keep engaging the community. Be the expert, not the desperado.

4. Update and practise your skills

Don’t just let your skills sit stagnant in the same year of your graduation. Continue to update them. Practice, read up, join forums and participate in communicating to like-minded professionals. Offer your services and expertise to friends and family, for pay or for free. Keep yourself going and do not make your demands too high in a financially dire time. Research online on how to market yourself. Remember, if you do not practice your skills even for up to a year, you can soon lose them and may cease to pick them up again.

5. Practice soft skills

It’s not just enough to know what you studied. Soft skills such as presentation, your personality, attitude, team work, multi-tasking, communication and negotiation skills are extremely necessary to selling yourself, and its such shame that many schools fail to teach them! Soft skills are in the front line of your overall character and personality. Be likeable to people and be professional in your attitude. There many good blogs out there that educate you on how to cultivate good soft skills. Just google them. After all, nobody wants to work with a grouchy loser even if he or she has fantastic products or services on offer.

6. Do internships

If you can’t get a full-time job now, at least utilise your time in useful internships, even if it’s free work or of low pay. Take a part-time job if you must in order to survive. Internships are the doors that may lead you to permanent work. More importantly, internships keep your skills going. Of course, don’t do internships for too long! You may want to read up on my article Internship: Opportunity or Abuse? before accepting any offer.

7. Print business cards and network

It is not enough to network online. Print business cards (check out here on business card tips) and pass them to your friends, family, friends’ friends, potential employers…give as many as you can to spread the word around. Join groups via meetup.com and network with professionals face-to-face. It is easier for people to remember you when they meet you than when they hear about you. You may not know when your next job comes.

8. Join competitions, do your own press release

Competitions are a great way to keep your skills going and to keep yourself going. They contain excellent mock briefs that can be used to demonstrate to potential employers examples of work. If you’ve won, good for you! It will give your CV a boost! You can join online forums and galleries related to your field and post your work up and your own press release in blogs and forums. Again, the internet is a golden pot wealthy with information on how to do your own press release. Research and find out.

9. Be self-employed

Why not? I know what you are thinking, “But Maria, how am I going to do that?? I need the experience!”. Well, yes and no. I’m not fully supporting the latter because I understand the importance of experience, but you can research a lot on going about doing it yourself.  If you have done 1 or 2 small projects for someone, that is going on your own. While finding a job, make a job! The only person who will hire you at all times, good or bad, is yourself. Be creative. Research on pricing, marketing etc. to find out how you can go about doing it yourself. Start small scale with small projects and with smaller clients before treading towards deeper waters. Offer companies freelance services. That way, it is also a good idea for companies to try you out at paid, freelance rates before hiring you.

10. Remain positive

Don’t give up! Who ever says the journey will be easy? If you have to clock in 16 hours a day, do it. There’s no shortcut to success (unless you are really that lucky). Many successful entrepreneurs and workers can tell you their humble beginnings of endless struggles and long hours. You are just in that stage of building up your foundation and will soon see your efforts pay off.

(PS: Check out Graduate Fog for its graduate career advice that do help.)

Youth Unemployment: Lost generation, Lost Talents

Ever since I graduated from the UK during the early years of one of the world’s worst economic crisis, I realised that I have arrived this far through persistent hardship and commitment as a freelance graphic designer, having right now under my belt, more than 10 big clients on my clientele list.

Now that I am based in Singapore, I still cannot ignore the news about what is happening to my 2nd home. UK and the whole European continent are still in financial shatters, and with the recent riots in London, the situation is not any better. With many European nations suffering a 2-digit percentile of youths aged 16-25 years in unemployment (Spain being the worst at a staggering 45%), my heart goes out to them as each individual is a constant reminder of my humble, struggling beginnings in a foreign country – no networks, no contacts, no job. Even more heart-breaking was the suicide of talented British job-seeker, Vicky Harrison. And yes, the unemployed are 2-3 times more likely to commit suicide, as many statistics show.

I chanced upon this very interesting video about the struggling British youth:

Though I should count myself lucky for now, my early journey was quite similar to Vicky’s: send out 100s of CVs till the cows go home and not a single call for interview, doing multiple unpaid internships with little hope of gaining full-time employment at the work place, you-tubing hours on end to distract myself from my unemployment miseries and clinging on to a brighter hope of getting it there when potential employers show interest, only to be crushed flat to the ground by their excuses of not wanting to hire me.

Yes, I’ve been there, knocked hard, dragged through the dust, succumbed to endless imaginations and wishful thinking of making it there like the happy workers who walk past me, driving own their own cars, dining out and feeding their families. Such simple fares became luxurious as the bank account grew smaller by the enormous daily living expenses.

I sympathise with Vicky in every way who lost her self-esteem, hope and meaning to life when the 200th rejection came. Such was I adamant to get the job I studied a degree for that I went freelance after a year of free internships. The humiliation of not getting paid for the work I do while the fat cats became fatter was way too much for me. I did some research of course, before plunging into the ocean of the unknown like that. Within less than 3 months, I was able to fish in some clients to be able to pay my London room rent every month.

Trials and errors soon pursued, as my inexperience led to some mini disasters along the way (thank God they were not costly!). However, I was quite determined to cut through the tough fabric of the dog-eat-dog world and within less than 2 years since I started my first freelance job, I won 2nd place in London’s 2009 Cut-and-Paste 2D Design competition, along with getting some of my work featured in a few press and my articles published. Mind you that I did not start off with a business-savvy mindset, only just the strong will and determination to be where I want to be that led me to this day.

That is not to say I did not have my bad moments. Coming home to Asia proved as much difficult despite the much brighter economic stability, as long-term freelancers were interrogated during interviews as to why they did not commit themselves to any company, and the constant competition with cheap foreign labour and fresh graduates are just as exhausting.

Alright, enough of my personal story here but my point is, not every one is born or bred with entrepreneurial smarts. I am sick and tired of those rich, arrogant entrepreneur morons who love to flaunt fashionably their earlier struggles while shaking their heads away at the youth’s inability to achieve that level of success. This cruel world will do anything to feed its greed in a midst of difficult times, even if it means getting you in a hire-and-fire temporary job situation than a permanent one. They don’t care about if we have families to feed or if you are going to die tomorrow while we continue to seethe in jealousy and resentment as the young new duchess of Britain enjoys her luxurious life with her rich Prince William, immune to unemployment and financial woes.

I hate to acknowledge it, but yes, we are experiencing a lost generation of talents. Bet you graduates did not expect you’d be in the bandwagon, did you? After all, life under mum and dad was so comfortable that the hint of economic trouble wouldn’t be able to shake us from our naive ignorance. That, I will have to blame our generation of elders who have shielded us too much from the hardship necessary to mould us. One more year on the dole without a job and your skills will go down, down, down the hill. Some of my European ex-schoolmates who graduated at the same time with me, have since resigned to a life of being a cashier, waiter, salesgirl etc. while struggling to pay off student loans on a degree that never blossom into a profession.

Seriously, I see many of the youths sending CVs and doing all they can to get their foot in the door. Visit a restaurant and you’ll can find as many as half of the staff are fresh graduates. The last thing these Gen Ys need are to be accused for their ‘laziness’, as some ignorant members of the older generation do. Blame it on the system, the disastrous political decisions and the economic situation that are making life very difficult for many of them. Temporary jobs are not going to kiss all the pain away in the long run, so while employers may enjoy the low-cost benefits of hiring temporary workers, they can lose out on workers’ loyalty and commitment to the company which are essential to the company’s overall health.

Authorities should not ignore the importance of investing back into the young rather than focus heavily on the already rich and capable. Education must think outside the academic box to prepare students in the event of a recession, as the conventional saying that “you can get a better paying job with a degree” no longer holds true. The London riots speak for themselves after the withdrawal of government funds on youth activities and investments, not to mention the social ills of binge drinking, drugs and the widening rich-poor income gap that come along with it.

Until things do change for the better, it will be a jaw-breaking situation to see the scores of millions of youths out of jobs and out of their minds. By the time the economy does recover for the better, it may be too late for many of them to gain back their confidence. The future repercussion from what is happening today may be yet another tsunami waiting to be unleashed.

Why print designers should NOT be scared of the <web>

And in that I mean, the coding side of web.

While most graphic designers have no problem designing a web page on Photoshop, the idea of developing the page on HTML, CSS, JavaScript etc. causes shudders in a community victimised by schools that till now, have been slow in updating their teaching to cater towards digital media.

“Multiple lines of code, brackets and numbers are reserved for the geeks, not visualisers!!”….or so I thought. However, reality hits many talented designers right in the face in the midst of intense job competition, where positions are asking for designers to know designing for both print and web mediums, alongside with knowledge of HTML/CSS.

Despite this growing demand for front-end coding skills, a number of designers have yet to sink their first step into the coding world. Instead, the “fear of the code” prevents them from leaving their comfort zone that could have otherwise open countless opportunities to succeed in the ever-changing design industry. I admit that I was one of those people, until the growing competition and unemployment back then forced me to search on tutorials on HTML and CSS. Gradually, I learned other basic web coding languages like Actionscript, JavaScript, AJAX and PHP. The difference was phenomenal. Flooded my email account, came job offers and requests for projects. In fact, the coding part is not that scary after all, but fun. It brought new meaning to my designs, on how and why I designed it the way I do, enhanced my understanding of the web industry and saved my clients money since they do not have to seek both a designer and developer to create basic sites.

New (and old) designers should not be afraid to try something new. Its not being ‘scared’ but ‘stubborn’ if one were not to try something new. You will not only be losing out, but this kind of stubbornness will show to potential employers. After all, as designers, it is necessary that we update our skills as technology changes rapidly.

Here are some tips on how to kickstart the web:

1. Know HTML/CSS
HTML, followed by CSS, are the most essential of any site that relies on these as its skeletons. www.w3schools.com is great, free way to start learning these front-end codes in order before progressing onto JavaScript and other back-end codes.

2. Learn Dreamweaver and Flash
Dreamweaver is the industry-standard tool for building website, so no more of those programs like Frontpage and iWeb which do not offer professional customised solutions. You can search online tutorials, borrow books or simply read the Dreamweaver’s manual to learn how to use it. The same goes with Flash, where there are great online resources like kirupa.com to learn ActionScript 2 and 3.

3. See Video Tutorials
Sites like youtube offer great web building resources. Video tutorials are an excellent way of seeing and learning how to create websites and such. Recommended sites that feature free video tutorials include:
- 1stoptutorials.com (great for beginners)
- Tutvid.com
- tv.adobe.com
- gotoandlearn.com (Flash tutorials)

4. Practice
Build websites as part of your own projects, do websites for others and study the code(right-click on any webpage and click ‘view page source’) and see how websites are built. You will be amazed by how fast and how much you will learn.

5. Keep Updating
Nothing is more important then reading a lot and being part of the web community to update on the latest trends and technology. New coding languages are popping out, and the boundaries of a website is no longer confined to the World Wide Web as the growing invasion of the mobile continues. Hence the designer can no longer afford to be ignorant in this ever-changing information landscape.

Internship: Opportunity or Abuse?

Coming across these videos and this article brought recollections of my early years in the industry right after graduation.

Mind you that I started my internships right after graduation rather than during my school year, which is a mistake one can say, as I was pretty much losing out to those who had spent their precious summer holidays on valuable work rather than play.

Now that I get paid for my profession, I tend to see internships through a different set of lens. I am not against internship as I believe it is essential to kick-start one’s career, but I am against the abuse of it. Sadly, there many gullible, aspiring designers who bow down to greedy, unscrupulous employers (including the big players!) who want nothing more than free labour in the guise of “internship”.

This is especially rampant during the economic downturn, and in the Western world where internships are usually unpaid.

When doing internships, try not to exceed 6 months of unpaid work (even if you can afford it) because this can erode your self-worth over time and reduce your confidence and self-esteem. I have encountered some who have done internships for more than a year and they still struggle to get a paid job! Graduates should not feel pressured or ‘intimidated’ by promises of full-time job offers after their internships. Though this is true in some cases, more often than not, there are employers who tend to use such statements to keep the interns longer than the agreed period of unpaid labour, and/or to ‘motivate’ the interns to put in more effort than usual to increase productivity for their companies, resulting in the interns not getting employed.

Some companies are known to have left a desk or two empty so that they can make use of the pool of interns rather than pay for a professional!!

This is ethically wrong if the intern is used to replace a paid full-timer, or made to work like a full-timer. There are laws in many countries outlining the definition and rules for internships, ensuring that employers do not cross the line. Internships are for the benefit of the interns, not the other way round. It is highly essential that would-be interns do their research and recognise their rights before accepting any offers.

Here are some tips that can help:

1. Know your rights and be firm
Researching on the company and your legal rights at work can reduce enormous amount of emotional stress and headache at work. Discuss what you need to know and what you will be doing during your internship with the prospective employer. Nothing is worse than being scammed of your own time and money.

2. Can you afford it?
Since most internships are unpaid and require 5-day-a-week basis, make sure you have saved up enough to afford the time you spent. Companies usually reimburse for the interns’ public transport and/or lunch. Be sure to know in advance what you will be paid for because some companies do not do reimbursements at all!

3. Know when to leave
The saying goes: “If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is.”
Many job-hungry interns would do anything to secure a full-time position if the opportunity arises. While it is true that internships can lead to permanent positions in the present company, in many cases, this is not so. Interns should keep their options open and not hang on to endless promises of a job when asked to work longer periods than initially agreed, or do tasks that are outside the job scope. Neither should they feel that they have to stay in the company to look ‘impressive’ and ‘indispensable’.

If you find that the experience is not benefitting you in any way in terms of helping you understand the job, what qualities you learn, or finding yourself serving coffee rather than doing the job as promised, it is best not to waste any more precious time.

Remember, as long as you are not the employee, you are not entitled to any employment benefits or insurance.

4. Know when to start getting paid!
Internships can become addictive if one does not know when to stop. Once you have garnered enough experience, you should start looking for a paid job or insist that you should be paid after the agreed period. Some do numerous internships as a way of hoping to secure a job through one of them, however if going from one to another without hitting a jackpot seems to be the result, it is vital to be firm with regards to your rights and self-worth as a designer. It will also not look very good on the CV to have too many internships that potential employers may question your ability to commit to one place. It is no fun after a while when you realise that you are not getting a penny’s worth for helping those fat cats to become fatter.

Ultimately, it is up to you, the intern, to decide the best decisions to make use of that internship that will eventually help you in your career. Here is a video voicing opinions from those who did internships:

Designers, do your business cards speak clarity to your receivers?

While we designers try to make our business cards as fanciful, creative and professional as possible, the thing that struck me most when I pass my beautiful cards is being bombarded with this common question: “Graphic designer…so what exactly do you do?”

It seems that there are people who have no clue to what we even do! The next best thing was encountering those who knew what we do, but always asking what kind of mediums we design for (eg. web, print, mobile, music, advertising, publishing etc.). I got fed up having to repeat myself in every meeting I go to. When my cards had run out, the following design was to incorporate a summary of what my graphic design business involve at the back of the card: “Communication design for: brochures | flyers | music albums | websites | …” etc. Plus, I added some white space above the summary so that my contacts can jot down notes on where and when they met me.

The next time time I distributed the new cards, it saved me a LOT of headache. Potential clients not only had my contact, they were offered convenience by the simple flip of the card to understand what my job involves and how it can help their businesses.

Currently, there are many designers whose cards do not go beyond their job title. In the name of aesthetics, some designers have made their cards (however beautiful) clueless and distant for the receiver to understand. A tagline and/or point-summary will be extremely useful for potential clients and contacts at meetings. Including your URLs from the popular social media networks like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook is great in providing options for the receiver to stay in touch with you as well as adding one more contact to your list.

Of course, you can go beyond the standard business card format and create those moo cards that are so common these days, or get inspiration from 51 Creative Business Cards That Will Make You Look Twice. Innovative cards can really make heads turn, but are not without the pros and cons as the writer points out on each piece.

Otherwise, the normal standard format is more than enough. Hardly any complaints and people find it much easier to store in their wallets and business card folders.

Young, Talented, Female and Patronised

Now that years have added more credibility to my profession as a designer, I recall the early days in London when I first started out freelance a year straight after graduation.

One of the tiring activities involved were attendances to many networking events in order to fish for potential clients. Networking can be fun at times but it is work at the end of the day. Many of the people were around their 30s and 40s. Only a handful were in their 20s. That is not the issue. The real problem arises when the older ones tend to treat the younger ones condescendingly. There were times I was the only 20-something in the meetings.

I am not talking about seasoned professionals trying to give advice to the juniors. I am referring to the ones, whether in the same profession or not, assuming that because you are younger, you are not to be taken seriously or even worth doing business with. It was even harder considering that my Asian face looked relatively younger than my age compared to my Caucasian counterparts, and being female did not make the situation any better.

You’re a graphic designer? What’s that?
Oh Singapore. Which part of China is that?
You look so young. How many years of experience do you have?

Just some of those typical questions that I get. I have encountered a fair share of the rude, arrogant…and rude. The plus side of it was I managed to encounter people who shared the similar fate with me.

One young British female entrepreneur had lost count the number of times people have sought free work from her rather than pay her (so did I), and another baby-faced entrepreneur recalled how people, even till this day, did not take her seriously despite the fact that she had over 10 years of experience! The most disturbing were the sexual advances that a few female entrepreneurs encountered during meetings, disappointed that they were not being listened to the whole time. Others (male and female) chose to succumb by accepting projects which pay less than half of what they deserved. Anything and anywhere to get them a head start. Honestly, I have encountered and done some of the things mentioned above before, only to come out much stronger and stiffer, and being able to say no to dodgy offers.

Age, rather than business skills, can sometimes cloud people’s judgment in determining your credibility. This does not just happen in networking, but also in the office and in the internet. In Asia where hierarchy is taken seriously, the situation is more magnified. Friends shared with me their experiences where their bosses would give no hoots about their ideas or even listen to them, only to find out later that they made grave mistakes. As an active participator in discussions in various forums, I do get a few commentators asking if I was a young designer in the public post rather than actively critiquing the discussions.

Sure, there are times my age does highlight that I need more experience rather than trying to act as if I know-it-all. Yet, people still forget that in business, it is the skills and expertise that count. Look at Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, who at my age is now a billionaire. I can imagine what it must be like for him when he and his mates first started out.

The saying is true that your physical presentation is very important for the first impression. No, I am not saying that you should draw wrinkles around your face. Rather, professionalism and a great attitude can help overcome those barriers, which can make it twice as hard. Depending on where you go and who you meet, you can come across some of the greatest and nicest people around who will later consult your business.

Overall, I have to say the experience was worth it. I really enjoyed myself in learning new things. It was not easy as I had no prior experience then. Good to start off early and get yourself established on time.

Graduate designers’ misconceptions of the working world

Many employers can find fresh graduates frustrating at times. Nothing annoys me more than to have a graduate with zero experience who thinks he or she knows better than I do. I have encountered one who insisted that if he did not work for free, all his clients would not work with him!

Gaining a 1st Class Honours or a D&AD Award does not necessarily guarantee a job, neither does graduating from a top arts college ensure that you will work for Saatchi & Saatchi. If you think that finishing one school project in a month is a killer, try handling five projects in a week at work. Relevant experience is essential, so is updating your skills after graduation. Not many employers are willing to hire an inexperienced designer or invest the time to train them when they can hire an experienced someone at the same cost. Recently, I posted a discussion on LinkedIn regarding this issue, and had a few interesting feedbacks from US-based designers:

” I’ve hired and fired many; and many were very good. But here’s my take on hiring and firing in the field of design; and here’s a short excerpt followed by a link to the whole thing.

“Those of us who might hire you will be working harder than you and won’t have time to babysit if you get the job. If you repeatedly cannot come in because you must care for your alcoholic husband, sick child, or pet raccoon, eventually we will be hard pressed to finish our work and yours; so we expect you to be reliable or expect you to be fired. The work world is not the kind embrace of your family or school. We expect you to carry your share of the workload and do it without whining or coddling. We also expect you to follow through on assignments with a minimum of interruptions. Before you run to us with a ton of questions, try to figure things out for yourself. We appreciate people who work independently, use their brains, pay attention when assignments are made, and take notes. Ask your co-workers for help if you must , but don’t bother the boss. Principals carry more of the workload than you because they are more experienced. Don’t make them waste precious time holding your hand. When you become a distraction from our work, either because you need constant help or are disruptive to the work environment, expect to be fired. When it costs us more in time and effort to keep you on board than the money we pay you, expect to be fired. Remember there are thousands of well qualified graduates out there jockeying for your apprenticeship, hundreds of thousands if it is a paid apprenticeship.” “- Susan Kirkland, Owner at SDKirkland Master Designer

“Without exception, every new straight-from-college hire I have seen in the last fifteen-plus years was sorely lacking in basic production knowledge. As in: How to set up spot colours vs CMYK; how to use basic tab and paragraph controls; even how to pre-flight and collect a file for output. I can’t tell you how much time I’ve spent just teaching people that you don’t use at the end of each line to create an indent on a numbered list! “ – Susan Riegel, Graphic Designer at Camco Manufacturing, Inc.

“Young out-of-school designers I have observed tend to have lovely books, are good on theory, are often able and creative designers. However, as a group, and depending on the school, tend to not have much detail knowledge, or have been exposed to production issues. What I’ve seen is that employers are either looking to hire people from their “Second Real Design job” to fill ENTRY-level positions. I don’t want to even get into the current growing practice of hiring herds of unpaid interns to fill entry-level posts. I do recall some years ago one Assistant Art Director candidate with a stunning portfolio, but in a DTP skills test was unaware of something as basic as “Select All.” Kind of important if a lot of your text overflows the text box, eh? (part of the test) “- Kurt Griffith, Creative Director at Fantastic Realities Studio

“I frequently go back to school just to keep up on technology. In one of my recent classes, a fellow student was complaining because, as an intern, she had to do all the production work. The agency owner was taking all the exciting jobs for herself. Uh, duh” – Diahann Lohr, Creative Director at Adunate Word & Design

If you have squandered your holidays on having fun rather than doing valuable internships or learning new skills, good luck in landing your first job! Do not expect someone to talent-spot you. There are thousands of talented designers out there, and sending many CVs everyday is a bleak reality. Landing your first interview is like hitting a jackpot, so review and update your CV and portfolio occasionally. Think outside the box on how to promote yourself. There are many great articles online that will teach you that.

Prior to graduation, you should search online job portals and get a general idea of what potential employers are looking for in prospective employees. Join online forums and talk to designers, and discover what new skills you need to know apart from what you have been taught at university. You will be amazed by how much you have under-prepared. An ex-classmate I knew who refused to learn basic web coding because she deemed it unnecessary, had an awfully long and difficult time in landing a job despite a great portfolio and impressive awards to her name!

Another absolute must-have is the acquiring of ‘soft’ skills – communication, presentation, initiative, personality, negotiation skills, business etiquette, team work and time management. Prospective employers are looking for people who:
- have great interpersonal skills
- can work in teams
- can come up with great solutions
- knows how to deal and negotiate with clients
- can multi-task between taking calls, doing paperwork, interviews etc.
- knows how to handle situations tactfully
- can accept criticism without losing their cool
- etc.

A great article by Rukmini Lyer depicts in detail the 6 soft skills needed for success, so do not think that you will just be doing design work. Participate in activities and clubs, do presentations in class, observe business networking meetings if you can attend one. Watch popular TV Series “The Apprentice” and “Dragons’ Den” to observe and learn soft skills of the contestants in the real market place. These can help develop your soft skills.

In life, you will face difficult situations and people. How you manage to deal with them will be a key demonstration to how others will judge your overall performance. As long as you are not yet Lisa Tse or Neville Brody, I suggest you keep your head level and not demand royal treatment.

Marketing is psychological. No one wants to buy from an arrogant and rude vendor even if he or she has fantastic products to offer.

The edited version of this article is being featured on UCA Alumni Magazine.