There's a job in the paper!!!

[MikeHun]

Sounds like a great prospect. Go for it but don't invest all your hopes on it...

Sometimes companies just "fish" for candidates

[Kool]

Good Luck AL

[VDM]

No offense but if you don't know what prepress is, you haven't done it. It can be demanding, difficult and tedious uncreative work, so be prepared if that's what you want to get into.

[BJMRamage]

so a wee late to this thread.

Best of Luck and if you need some more eye on resume/portfolio give me a shout (PM)

[Virgo Nightingale]

Good luck!

[MichaelWied]

You've more than likely done prepress before, just never knew it. It's making sure you have all your images, typefaces, pantone swatches, etc in the document before you send it to the printer (Of course the printer will tell you what files they want. We send PDF's, some want a packaged InDesign folder.)
Don't ever think you're not qualified because there's always someone less prepared for the position that you. Funny enough Craigslist is how I found my current position.
I haven't officially graduated a design program, and I beat out 3 other people that graduated from a prestigious advertising arts school. I didn't have a nice Pina Zangaro case. My portfolio is only 13 pages and bound with staples and cover stock. So how in hell did I land a job?

BE CONFIDENT! Give them what they didn't know they needed. And make them want it!
RESEARCH THE COMPANY and POSITION BEFORE THE INTERVIEW if possible.
Don't get discouraged if you don't get it. Keep your head up and keep trying. Good luck!

[Sketcher]

Originally Posted by MichaelWied

You've more than likely done prepress before, just never knew it. It's making sure you have all your images, typefaces, pantone swatches, etc in the document before you send it to the printer (Of course the printer will tell you what files they want. We send PDF's, some want a packaged InDesign folder.

There's a lot more to prepress than that. Most prepress is stuff that only the printers can do because every printer is different. Die-lines, white ink swatches/layers, crop marks, trap lines, router files, imposition, color separation, paneling etc. There are also swatches, presets, plugins, etc that printers would have that designers wouldn't.

I'm an in-house designer at a printing company and even the best prepared files has to go through our own prepress. It's rare for me to get a file that I can send straight to the printer.

It helps to have experience in prepress, but since each print shop does things differently, they'll likely train you anyway. I got my first prepress job with no experience.

[Buda]

Originally Posted by Sketcher

It's rare for me to get a file that I can send straight to the printer.

Actually, I've never sent a file straight to the printer. It prefers postscript files while we always ask for 1up pdf files from our clients. We also have to at least lay them N-up to fit the sheet.

Hopefully there is a senior there to guide you through the workflow. There are so many different things to check for that you inevitably have to learn through a few mistakes.

[Bob]

As Buda said, pre-press is mostly about trouble. As for shooting--in most states it's also illegal to shoot the designer who gave you that crappy file.

Remember that old tv series MASH? Every once in awhile Hawkeye Pierce (Alda) would make a comment about how he wasn't formerly trained for the surgical procedures that he was asked to perform, everyday, in a hurry, on the spot? He called the stuff that they did, 'Meatball Surgery'. That goes a long way to describe a lot of prepress work. There's a 'formal' way to set up a job, and there's the way that works under prepress conditions.

It can even be fun, if you get into the 'puzzle-solving' side of it. As for your portfolio, I think you should try to concentrate on showing how you solved pre-press problems over design ones. If you have any pieces that, I dunno... demonstrate the ability to take a 'sow's ear' and make it into a... well, even a polyester purse. That I would highlight.

Good luck!

[Sketcher]

Originally Posted by Bob

As Buda said, pre-press is mostly about trouble. As for shooting--in most states it's also illegal to shoot the designer who gave you that crappy file.

I should ask my boss if we can print that on a banner and hang it up in our department.