First of all, welcome to the forums Melanie.

Regarding your main reason for this post about landing a job...it's hard to say. I've been fortunate enough to be where I am for 14 + years now...and 8 years at a prior design studio. I think I'd have a tough time trying to find a job now as I'm not 'web-savvy' and have no degree. If you have no experience (or very little) I'd say a strong portfolio is going to be a huge help as well as a positive, hard-working attitude. Show potential employers you're confident and a quick learner and if your portfolio is strong and diverse that can be a big help.

If you're looking to establish your own biz...I can suggest doing a few freebie jobs for friends or local companies to start getting some experience and building your confidence up. To acquire more work, maybe try a postcard mailer. They're fairly inexpensive and seem to work well for me. I have a more 'niche' market as my side business is geared strictly towards the automotive industry. I create a new post card each year and have about 800 potential clients I pummel with them each year. I usually get a half dozen jobs or so and many inquiries into pricing and such. Word of mouth has been my biggest key to keeping work coming in...obviously that also takes time to build.

And another tip to help you possibly get some work...look to smaller businesses. I tend to focus my side biz on more "mom and pop" type shops/businesses as they're more open to using an outside service to help them. Larger companies will either already have an art department or an agency on hand to help them so getting a foot in the door is much harder.

Best of luck to you.

Tony

Not to be cruel, I think an internship is going to be your best bet to get your foot in the door. I took a quick look at your portfolio site, I'm guessing you created it in dreamweaver using "design view", if that is the case, you might struggle to find anything at all as knowledge of HTML and CSS are pretty standard requirements nowadays.

As a general consensus around here, it's ill-advised to start freelancing right out of school. Even though you may have the business sense, there is a lot of technical aspects to file building and varying medias that are not covered in schools that can make or break you. The short of it is, it's best to learn the industry from actually working within the industry before going out on your own.

Melanie, that unpaid internship might be your best bet. This is a competitive market, and hands-on experience would give you an edge.

I've interviewed and hired a few graphic design students for my business. With only one possible exception, none of them had a clue what a graphic designer does. None of them knew how to set up a document in Quark or inDesign, and I'm sure that they were somewhat disappointed to discover that my days are not spent working with fun digital effects in Photoshop.

If you really can't swing the internship, then you'll have to find a job the old-fashioned way: send out your resume and network. The last person I hired approached me. She impressed me with her enthusiasm, willingness to do anything to work for me - including sweeping the floors, and the ability to work flexible hours.

Honestly, I'm not sure I'd start a freelance business with only your education behind you. I started mine after working in the business for over 10 years, and even now I question my sanity.

Best of luck to you.

Janet

Take any internship you can get, paid or not. An unpaid could turn into a paid internship, that could turn into a full-time position. You absolutely have got to get real-world design experience. Entry level is a degree (preferably 4-year, 2-year can get you into a smaller shop if your portfolio is solid), and two years of work experience. There is absolutely nothing you can do to get around that... so you need to just get the experience. It's a shame you weren't doing internships while in school. I only have an associate's degree, but was required to do an internship for graduation. While in school I completed two internships, one of which turned into a full-time position my final semester.

I know internships don't pay much (if at all), and that it can be tough to get by. I worked an evening/night job, 25-30 hours a week while taking classes and doing internships. I'm not trying to brag, or talk myself up. I'm just saying that I know how difficult it is to get started in this industry, and that you absolutely have to do what it takes to get the experience when the opportunity is there. It's hell for awhile, but worth it in the end. Besides, what choice do you have?

As appealing as doing freelance might seem, you're not ready. Early on, you are going to make a lot of mistakes, and have a ton of questions. When you're working for a company, you have others to help guide you, catch your errors, and teach you. When you freelance, simple errors can wreck a print job, costing you a lot of money, and clients. I took a very brief look at your portfolio- some of it's alright, others could use a fair amount of improving. At an internship the bar will be set much higher, and you will likely receive better criticism (more harsh, but also more informative/educational/useful), which will help you become a better designer. In the meantime, you might want to think about posting some of your work in the Crit Pit. You will get a lot of very good advice, and be able to improve many of your designs. Most importantly, you will learn a ton in the process.

It's not going to be easy, but nothing really worth doing ever is.

Thank you all so much. I appreciate all of your advice and it all makes sense.

I definitely agree that an internship would be the best route because I need the hands on experience and I need to be in a place where I can learn from professionals as well as have someone catch any mistakes before projects go off to print. Hopefully I can find a way to juggle an internship with a full time job because I am a single mom with student loans and a mortgage to pay by myself.

Where there's a will, there's a way; right?

Thanks again everyone!!