I wonder if i set this post in the right section, but whatever. Short question: Does university degree matters or just portfolio says it all, talent outvalues formal degree? What is the view of entrepreneurs?
You need both and, in addition, a few years of experience too. Catch 22.
A university degree typically accompanies a good, well-rounded portfolio.
Talent is what one starts with and is something I’m assuming you already have — otherwise, you likely wouldn’t be pursuing design as a career choice. However, talent isn’t enough. You need to learn how best to use and direct that talent.
When working with a client, the subject of degrees doesn’t typically come up. Instead, it’s a combination of your portfolio, your ability to sell your ideas, and your experience.
However, this doesn’t mean that a university degree isn’t important. Without the study that goes into that degree, your portfolio is less likely to be as impressive or well-rounded as it otherwise would be.
Entry qualifications differ from one part of the world to another, however. I’m in the U.S., and I’m assuming you’re from Western Europe someplace. Despite the differences, one place is similar enough to the other to draw parallels. With that in mind…
When applying for a salaried job, the degree itself is often just as important as the portfolio and previous experience. It depends on where you’re applying, of course, but if your goal is to work at a good agency — either in-house or an ad agency — the chances of getting an interview without a degree are slim (unless your work is absolutely outstanding). If your work goal is somewhere else, the degree itself might not be as necessary, but what you learned during school to get that degree is most definitely significant — as is the experience you earn along the way.
Finally, just a caveat to all this. It is possible to break into the field and land a good job without a degree, but it’s much more difficult. It’s also possible to become a great designer without a degree, but again, it’s considerably more difficult and with many more obstacles to overcome. No degree and no experience working alongside professionals, however, amounts to nothing at all — just unrealized raw talent.
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When I was first looking for a job, I was armed with a good degree from a good uni and I remember being slightly annoyed that nobody at any interview ever asked about it, until I realised, that without it, the door to the interview room would never have been opened for me in the first place.
When we sent out announcements regarding open design positions at my past jobs, we typically received around 140–170 applications.
I couldn’t evaluate that many portfolios, so we always instructed our HR people to discard applications without relevant bachelor’s degrees. This might have eliminated a few good applicants, but very few would have made the cut anyway.
University design programs provide well-rounded educations to students, but that’s just part of their value. A degree also sends a signal to employers that the applicant has the talent, ambition, perseverance, and ability to have earned that degree through hard, well-rounded studies, and structured work. A degree provides solid evidence that the applicant has learned, at least, the basics.
I think it depends on what you’d like to do.
If you’re planning to get employed by an agency, I would get the cheapest bare minimum degree possible or even consider going to a community college to get the base level design knowledge. Would be super reluctant to onboard the debt associated with modern design degree’s because it will haunt you financially for the rest of your life and unless you’re a rockstar, you’ll probably still struggle to find a job in the field. However if money is no issue, would go to a highly regarded design school.
You might find this video interesting and a radically different way to think about a design education in the 21st century:
Its worthy mention that i am polish and i moved abroad to netherlands to make money ( simply because the holland is MUCH more richer country than the poland is) and i earned here quite a lot in netherlands at least to compare to my polish standards. So that i can pay 3 years in advance for my bachelor degree.
So money is not issue
Sorry, but, In my experience that is simply not the case. It depends what you want and where you want to be, of course, but every single designer (bar one, who was just naturally brilliant, with an amazing, in-built sixth sense of what worked and what didn’t) I’ve come across swimming in the bigger ponds has had a degree.
I would imagine that is even more pertinent these days, when the proportion of wheat to chaff is even higher. I can’t say this with absolute certainty, as I haven’t been in the London agency world for quite some years now. However, from where I’m sitting, the evidence bears this out.
Some of my college mates back then are now in fairly high positions (I bailed on the rat race in my 30s) and their experiences bear this out. They only want to hire the best. These usually come with the tenacity and dedication that comes with fighting to achieve a degree.
I had 2 years experience as a Screen Printer and a 6 month DTP course under my belt when I went for a Prepress job, not even knowing what it was. It was a junior position. I had just turned 19. I had no idea what I was getting in for. If I could turn back time I would and never go that direction.
I was much happier with Screen Printing, and it was really good money.
In my experience, a degree is necessary as requisite in certain jobs, as they need graduated professional because bias on contracts etc… And these type of work pay more, but if you don’t want a formal job it is not necessary at all.
Bias on contracts? I’m not sure what you mean by that. Can you explain?
“Does it matters”?
An interesting opinion:
It depends on where in the world you are.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say probably 99% of the designers I have done work with do have a college degree, usually a Bachelors. But I am in the US, in a very niche industry, where the design skills involve working in a 3D Real World (not digital) environment. You aren’t going to get a high end, well-paying job like that without a degree to start, and wouldn’t even be considered without several years of real world work (which is a catch-22 these days, cuz there are not a lot of internships available and NO work for a newb unless they are very very lucky.)
There are a few oldsters here that came up from prepress back when you could do such a thing, but it took years and some of them have found it very hard to change jobs without having that little piece of paper.
You want to do crowdsource logos and that level of stuff? Have at it.
I agree with what’s written in that article, but it downplays some important educational considerations regarding freelancing. One still needs to know what one is doing, and skipping the formal education puts one at a decided disadvantage, even in freelancing.
I live in the U.S., and not once has a client asked about a degree. I suppose it might have come up in the course of doing business with them, but it’s never been a prerequisite.
On the other hand, I have never applied for a job where I wasn’t asked about a degree, and it’s almost always been a prerequisite to consideration for employment.
As I mentioned earlier in this thread, in my role as someone who has hired lots of people, I’ve never hired anyone without a relevant university degree. There are just too many people applying for design jobs to evaluate everyone, so I’ve always relied on degrees as preliminary indicators of basic competence. Even so, a degree isn’t a fool-proof indicator of competence, but it’s a good place to begin making initial cuts.
That said, I’ve met some good designers who do not have college degrees. However, they’ve all been very talented, have shown unusual motivation, or have come up through the ranks working in some capacity with other talented and experienced designers and mentors who guided them, taught them, and critiqued their work. Here in the U.S., though, that’s the exception and not the rule.
I’m not at all sure, though, how someone lacking a formal education or the equivalent experience working with qualified and experienced designers can begin freelancing. They would have neither the skills nor knowledge to do so.
Someone with a modicum of smarts and talent can learn to use the software to produce pretty layouts — that’s easy. What isn’t easily learned are the deep and broad insights needed to become proficient with the complex and nuanced aspects of the profession.
Without the foundation of a structured program that introduces students to these issues and the constant critiques that come with it, it’s a hit-and-miss situation whether or not self-taught students will ever pick them up. At best, it will be a long struggle with a patchwork of skills in one area with an absence of them in another. The problem with teaching oneself is that the teacher doesn’t know any more than the student.
However, success at design freelancing or starting a business isn’t necessarily dependent upon one’s skill, knowledge, or experience in graphic design. I know designers who I wouldn’t call good designers but who have still been able to build successful businesses in design because of their entrepreneurial, business, self-promotional, and people skills.
Likewise, I know even more immensely skilled and talented designers who lack those non-design skills and would really struggle at making a go at it doing freelance work or running their own businesses.
Some companies run a contract to make a service, and is common the company requesting the service, stipulate that only professionals that haver degree can work on this service. Then the company that will do the service can recruit only people that haver a degree. This occour by many reasons like to attend a Pattern ir certification that the request company mau attend, like some ISOXXXXX or other, to Ensure quality, etc…
Or the company that Will do the job can haver a iso or certification, and this is a requisite to them attend that certification. This ensure that they haver a “high level” and allow them to apply to contracts that have a big Budget, and because this they need some garantee that the company os capable of handle the job.
And because this the Financial return for the professional is high, generally above the average in a normal situation.
A example: the us government want a New site for a section, they make a licitation where any company can apply. As the sistem is big, they define some criteria that meet their needs of quality and execution. With this i have a company and want apply to the licitation to run the project, so I need a certification that my company can operate in a project like that, fulfiling their needs. So some requirement is that I have a Budget on my cash, meaning I have a big company, and 70% of my emplooyes have a degree. Them i get that certification and can apply to the licitation. If I Win and run the project, I have tĂ´ meet some criteria, like have only degree emplooyes, delivery at least a % of the planned, or i Will Lost the contract and the project, or be charged with a fine.
SĂł because that is important, It has a big Budget, a big salary too. And you degree is valuable, because they need professionals with that degree, so you get a little because you have that too. And the good point is that IS not only have a degree, If you have a diferential you Will make diference, and profit more, because they need competent people to run the project without delays.
This is a Very common scenario in job market, because many cannot figure out this, because IS not Very explicit, many people negligect the degree.
So the degree is important as a First factor of oportunities.
Ah, I see. Thank you for clarifying that. You make a very good point that I hadn’t considered.
some of the organization look into the university say most of them and only some of them look into the protfolio this is the most sad part to say
The really sad part is two-fold.
- That universities offer these courses and collect large sums of money without any hope of the student actually being able to work in the field
and - That potential students and their parents are unable to figure out even the most simple of Return on Investments. It doesn’t take too much research to figure out that for each job in the creative sector, there are more candidates than jobs, and the gap grows wider every year.
From the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (bls.gov) there are about 23,900 openings per year for graphic designers. Divide that by the number of universities offering Graphic Design degrees (at least 520 according to a “best” list) x approx 50 graduating students per year = 26000 grads. See a problem there? And those aren’t all new jobs, most are due to attrition (people giving up or retiring.) Stepping into one of those requires real world skills.
The median pay is $53K. That’s median and that’s PRE-tax. Most will be making far less for significant number of years. You can’t live on that and pay back student loans.
Yeah, you wanna do Art, but sometimes you have to figure out how you are gonna eat and stay warm and dry. That employers can’t hire based on portfolio is directly proportional to the reasons above.
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Yes, is matter.
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