How long did it take to get your first job?

Graphic Design
#1

I graduated with a degree in graphic design November 2024. I have been trying really hard to find jobs or internships in my city. Unfortunately my city is pretty dead and I’m not ready to up and leave everything for another city yet…

It is almost nearing the end of 2025 and I haven’t had a internship or graphic design job yet. Things were getting tough financially so I’m currently working in a café.

Im really worried that I will have a harder time getting hired the longer time goes on because they will see how long ago I graduated and I have not had graphic design related work since.

I am still trying to flesh out my portfolio in my spare time with fake pompts and such. And I am saving money to possibly do a internship placement program in the start of 2026.

#2

You’ll have to start looking elsewhere instead of a cafe shop.
Have you considered working at a local print shop? They are always hiring for any positions, and this is what you’ll want to get your foot in the door.
I started out much like you, with 4 years of art and design classes at college, a degree, and nowhere to work. I found a job in the shipping department at a local print shop and worked my way into the art department in a couple of years, which lead to bigger and better positions within the company.
Good luck!

#3

I left school at 17 in 1997. College wasn’t for me, I was deep into martial arts and needed money to fund trips to competitions around the world. So I went straight into work. My first job was at a local printing shop, screen printing on textiles. I stuck at it, learned the ropes, and after nearly three years I felt ready to move into the art department. I’d been promised a chance. I’d grown up with a darkroom at home, I was good with computers, and I thought I was a natural fit.

But when the position came up, the boss hired someone else without even asking me. His excuse? They “just needed someone right now.” I was frustrated and felt let down.

Around the same time, a friend of mine got onto a six-month desktop publishing course. It wasn’t glamorous, full-time, barely paid, and I had to work evenings and weekends as a security guard to survive, but it was my way forward. I was exhausted, but I finished it.

At the end, I needed a proper job. So I did things the old-school way, I dug out the Yellow Pages, listed every design and print shop I could reach by foot, bus, or bike. Then I sat at my home computer, printed 50 CVs and 50 personalised cover letters, hand-signed every one, hand-wrote every envelope, bought the stamps, and sent the lot.

It worked. I got several offers almost straight away. I started in one art department, making plates, screens, banners, signs. After a couple of months I got a call from another company offering me an apprenticeship. At 21 I thought I was too old for that sort of thing, so I turned it down. But then I thought when am I going to get another chance to be trained properly and get a trade under my belt?

So I rang them back, took the apprenticeship, and that’s where it all began. The rest, as they say, is history.
The worst mistake of my life.

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#4

Internships are something you should do while still in college. Even part time work in said print shop suggested by DannyD. Not sure what an internship placement program will do for you for your money. Even if it’s some kind of temp agency. When we hire temps, they aren’t newbies. They are plug and play professionals that don’t have to be taught much more than the company ‘way’ of doing things. When we hire trades interns (non-design,) it’s usually through an arrangement with the school where the student is enrolled and is for credit in some fashion (we do pay our interns as staff.) If we like them, we hire them for the summer too.

Personally, it took me two years of working in retail before landing a job in the industry. And it wasn’t as a designer. Print. I don’t think I’ve regretted that happening.

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#5

I wanted to do internships while I was in college, but my collenge didn’t assist with that, and there weren’t any openly offering. I wasn’t aware at the time just how important it was, our teachers never talked about it much.

#6

You need to approach places and ask them if they have any part time work - even in the evening, or at weekends. Getting your foot in the door is literlally the first step.

As I said, maybe it was missed in my ramblings, working 2 jobs or even 3 jobs to get to where you want is pretty much how I did it. I don’t think much has changed. At the moment you’re working in a cafe. If you got a part time job in a design/print place and cut your hours at the cafe and amalgamate two wages to get by.

You might need to pick up extra shifts at the cafe or the print shop when they come up.

As I always say, the only thing stopping you is you. If you don’t change your mindset you can’t change your circumstances.

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#7

I will give my cv and portfolio to print shops as well then. But why did you say it was the worst mistake of your life?

#8

Because in truth, the industry never gave back what I put into it.

I stuck it out for years hoping it would improve, but the bottom fell out of print where I live. Agencies closed, jobs disappeared, and the few opportunities left were badly paid and overworked. I spent nearly ten years as the only designer in a large organisation, working across nine departments that didn’t talk to each other, often stuck in the office until midnight. I gave everything, but was never appreciated.

There were moments that broke me: being replaced by outside agencies without even being consulted (for no reason), having my professionalism questioned over printing costs (they thought I was inflating the print costs and the printer was giving me a cut out of the job - nonsense!), and even missing one of the biggest nights of my life because work wouldn’t let me leave. That was the nail in the coffin.

I eventually changed my mindset, moved on, and found better roles. I’m happier now, but I’ll always carry a sour taste for how exploitative and thankless the industry can be. For me, pursuing design was the worst mistake I ever made, but that doesn’t mean it has to be for you. If you’re smart, persistent, and keep looking for the right opportunities, you can still carve out your own path.

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#9

I see. Thank you for your advice.

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#10

Everyone’s career path is different. For me, there have been rough times and good times, but I’m happy I chose to pursue a career in design years ago. If the situation were the same today as when I decided to go into the field 50 years ago, I’d do it again (if I were that age). However, I got into it at exactly the right time and recently retired out of it at what I suspect was the right time to do that.

Today is different. Too many amateurs are posing as professionals. Too many graduates are competing for the same jobs. There is too much competition from low-cost, overseas designers. There are too many do-it-yourself solutions. Crowdsourcing is also bringing down both quality and cost expectations from clients. How AI will ultimately affect the profession, I don’t yet know, but I suspect it will reduce the number of designers needed.

As to how long it took me to find work after college, it took about 4 months to find my first job at a design studio. That job lasted about six months because the studio lost a few clients and needed to downsize.

After that, I couldn’t find steady design work for about 18 months, but I freelanced at advertising agencies and other design studios. I also identified small businesses that I thought could use what I had to offer, and pitched to the owners about designing better advertising and branding. Surprisingly, it worked more than half the time and was great experience.

After about 18 months of that kind of stressful existence (that included a divorce), I found full-time work as a designer/technical illustrator for a big computer company, which led to a career-long string of increasingly better (and sometimes worse) jobs in advertising, communications, and marketing. (all of which included design work). Of course, I started back in the late 1970s, so much has changed. One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the initial difficulty of getting established in this field.