Breaking the Experience Barrier Fresh Designers 7 Strategic Guide to First Design Job

In all the interviews, in the job description it's mentioned we want 2 to 3 years experience designers, 5 years experience designers, 10 years experienced designers. How do I really crack this? I'm a fresher, I have no experience. I am out of the college now. And sometimes you don't have a design degree also, but you have started just completing a course or you've learned on your own. How do you really crack this? Lot of people have very big problem overcoming this challenge, right? Because design industry expectation will not be matching with yourself and your expectation will not be accepted in the industry. How do you really cross this? This particular podcast is going to give you clarity on that, take a lot of notes. I'm going to be sharing a lot of resources as well so that you can utilize that to overcome this zone. Having talked to thousands and thousands of students, what I understood from the people is many times industry really expects a lot of experience, right? That's the big problem. Four years experience, five years, 10 years. People are not even applying for job because of these reasons. More than 50% of the people whom I have talked with out of this 10,000, you know, they are very much stuck because of this reason. They've not even given a try. And the problem is they are not aware of somebody is going to really hire them or somebody is going to even pick them, right? See, there are lot many reasons behind it, why people are not approaching it. It may be a fear of loss, it may be thinking too much about are somebody is going to really understand our profile or not, or my skills are really matching there or not. So there are a lot of confusions also internally for them, right? Let me tell you seven different strategies how you can really cross this zone. You need to be very smart in really overcoming this. You should not become a victim mindset. You should have a winning and a positive mindset then or you can able to crack it. Okay? It's not about the number of years of experience. It's not about the job description, what's been posted for a job. It's about you. What do you really want, right? You wanted a design job, you wanted a good design firm job, you wanted to work in a design studio. So hold that goal in your mind before listening to this podcast. If you don't have that goal, you, you can watch my podcast, which is smart goal setting for a designer and then you can come back because without goals, if you move, it leads nowhere. It's completely a waste of time. Okay, so the first strategy, what I would suggest you is build a Strong portfolio first because quality matters over quantity, right? Showcasing the depth and creativity of your portfolio is very very vital. If you're building a portfolio which can show your skills, which can show your ability and which can show your clarity in your concept, you know what this will make 80 percentage of the employees prioritize your portfolio compared to what your education. This is a survey did by Behance. It's a real time study, right? So you have to understand why portfolio is very important. You can create a free account in Behance Dribble Adobe Portfolio. Adobe Portfolio may be a little bit expensive. You can try with Behance Dribble Notion. So these are wix free account. You can build a website so you can create any good portfolio very fast. So that that becomes the first strategy to overcome this experienced designer zone, right? The second important strategy is develop relevant skills. So you should stay updated with the market. 90% of the job listings require a specific design skills. Like let's say this was quoted by. Indeed they did the survey. Okay, so 90% of the job listings focus on specific skills. Don't just ask for job, show what skills you got. Stay updated with the industry. Even the tools like let's say Adobe xd, Figma, Miro, ppt, all the tools you need to be very proficient so that people will be able to hire you immediately. Familiarize yourself with the methodologies, framework, process. Like let's say if you're doing divergent and convergent thinking. If you're talking about double diamond process, if you're talking about a so called design thinking process. So you need to be proficient, showcasing that through your projects and portfolio, right? So consider taking some courses, some some relevant online materials and you can find a good mentor and a program to learn it. I would say if you learn through a mentor, you will get a personalized support and suggestions and feedback so that you can improve. Okay? The third important strategy is networking. This is very important. Guys. I'll tell you the power of networking. Lot of things. This particular Design for change has talked about networking. But to be very specific, 70% of the jobs are filled through networking. It's a study by LinkedIn. A lot of people have done different different researches but LinkedIn has proved 70% jobs are filled through networking and a good trust and a referral. Right? So attend some events, online communities, form some Design groups in LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, join, communicate and get to have a very good network around you. You can do a free account guys, in all these platforms, whatever I told you. So that increases your Chances of getting hired. You know you can attend many workshop as well. You can attend some conferences as well. Some some what you call. You can go for any live events as well so that you can share your works with them. You can get a feedback can get a very good networking opportunity. The fourth important aspect is personal branding. I mean we have discussed about this personal branding but let me tell you. 76, 76 percentages of the recruiters check applicants online presence. They really go for something like is this person having some kind of a website or maybe is this person really having some page or what is the depth of his content like let's say that's why I always stress about building your own good content in LinkedIn, in Facebook, in Instagram. Let's say you can have a free YouTube channel as well to post few videos about you or maybe your skills or maybe what's your learning in design. So this has a very good acceptance of. Okay, this person is capable of sharing some content in online so that he's feeling shy, free, he's more open, he wants to share his knowledge, he's a collaborator. Something like people will really trust you. Like an open mindset person who is ready to learn and continuously grow and share the knowledge. People are looking for this kind of attitude person. Again you can attend a lot of online communities different, different profiles. You can read some blogs, you can. You can have a podcast also. You don't have to really worry much, right? When I started this podcast you can go and listen to my first few episodes. There'll be a lot of what you call errors, confusion and sometimes I'll not be very confident while talking. But after that I gained that flow. Right now I don't need a very what you call detailed description to talk. I can able to talk for any topic and prepare myself in a research and do it so you can create your own podcast channel. Don't worry about. Nobody is going to. People will listen to you and they will judge you. First do this podcast for yourself. It's a free account. You can create in Spotify or Apple itunes. You can start talking. You can put your normal headphones and start talking in your laptop. There are. There are tools in Spotify and Apple itunes which can recognize your voice and it can add some background noise and you can very easily launch your phone. You can just release two, three episodes. That would be best. What happens is the moment when you show your podcast or your blog or your presence, people build that credibility and trust. Right? This particular information is coming from career builder guys. 76% of the recruiters check applicants online presence. So you need to understand it's not 20%, it's 76. Okay. You can what you call, you can create some account in LinkedIn, you can create some account in WordPress, you can do Medium blog, you can do Spotify podcast or itunes Podcast. So lot many materials are there. It's like when you do a particular podcast or write a blog in Medium, you get to first learn more about that content, right? So it's the proud moment that you can share that in your websites also. And you can tell, hey, I've written two, three blogs. This is my website. I posted some content. You know what? 500 people have liked it, have learned this. So that's a great advantage for you to showcase your personal branding element. You know what guys, you have a more advantage over an experienced guy if you have that personal branding lot. Many times you can code this as a hook point also to get that person for an interview, to get that person to go for a design task, to get that person to even get a good job in design, right? So the fifth important element is internship and freelance work. You can gain a lot of practical experience. You can show some good freelancing projects as well. You can show some internship also. Maybe it's a free internship also. You can show that 65% of the employers prefer candidates with relevant experience in working in real time projects. Yeah, you can do a freelancing project also. You can do a free project and internship also. You don't have to get paid also. But people really prefer experienced candidates. Like let's say if you have a real time industry experience, one or two good project. This was a source by NAC, right? You can go to internships.com upwork freelancing like fever f E-V-E-R.com. you can register your profile and get some freelancing project. You can do some good internship. You can do a good internship indeed. You can find a good internship in Glassdoor. So you can do lot many good internships and showcase that, right? Three months internship is good enough. Four months internship is good enough. Jagdish. Four months internship is really long here. How will I. When will I start the work then? Think about four months back. You are in the same mindset, right? Any which you has four months is going to cross over. Why don't you even try it? At least in the end of the fourth month you will have a good internship to showcase for your next job. Show that you will get hired. Don't think Much guys, the problem is people really think much. They don't take action. That's the problem. If people are taking action one or the other way, they would have found out a way to apply for jobs and get started. Right? Everybody starts as a fresher. Do you think everybody's born as a 5 years experience designer? So all these things, what you're using this words is an excuse. I would say it's a lame excuse which you are putting and hiding yourself not to face the real world of design so that you will get a rejection, right? That's the big problem and the fear what you have. Yeah, I'll beat you like this only in the words. But this is a truth. If I'm not telling you this fact or making you aware, when are you going to get aware? When are you going to learn this real fact, right? The big problem is people don't take action and they hide it with the word saying. Oh, this is for experienced designers. Oh, this is for only 5 years, 10 years experience designer. Oh, the job description says like that. First give an attempt honestly, right? If you are getting rejected also at least you can get the contact of that hr, right? Maybe after six months you can approach that hr. You can form a networking sheet and you can add that particular HR name. You can add the design company name, right? I always tell my students have an Excel sheet maintained. I give them a template to build this company list and people were able to build lot of companies data in that. That's a very what you call sheet precious sheet. I would say it's a gold mine sheet which I circulate for my internal community who are really working hard, not for everybody, even in my community, right? So they collect a lot of information about that company. Maybe after three, four months you can apply there again, right? End of the day you get a chance of talking to an interview interviewer or recruiter and then your list is building. So it is very important to gain that experience instead. Not taking action is not going to result anything, guys. And the sixth important thing is customize your application. You need to tailor, make your application guys, just like that. Going and approaching randomly and blindly will not give you any advantage. Highlight your relevant skills, projects, some experience, what you got and align with that job description clearly so that what happens is people will get that word catchy. Let's say if they are looking for a wireframes and prototype builder, if they're looking for somebody who can do UX research, they're looking for somebody who can do graphic design. Please highlight that Particular graphic design word and align with your skill and then you can showcase. I'll tell you one more technique. If you don't have any project, also take out this three, four keywords. Do a one day project. Go to my podcast one day project. I've recorded. You can exactly follow that. You can prepare a big chart for one particular day. It's a eight hours task. You can start from the morning and complete it before night. Only that particular keywords you can take for the job description and do a project like let's say the keywords could be graphic design, the keywords could be skills like Photoshop. The keywords could be illustrator. The keywords could be proficient in using typeface. The keywords could be proficient in using data presentation method, proficient in using wireframes and tools. Keep that keyword, do an imaginary project or a dummy project only with that keywords and end of the eight hours you would have a project next day. Apply that project matching with this skill set and ask for an interview. 90 percentage chance that you will get an interview. Guys, people don't understand the word specific because when a specific job requirement is given, you need to specifically pick that keywords and match with your profile and you need to apply. People don't really pay any attention by applying. Just because you have one resume, that doesn't mean every recruiter needs. You need to send that resume. Just because you have one portfolio, just that doesn't mean you have to send for everybody, just randomly. If you apply for 10,000 jobs also, you will never get any one interview also, right? That's the problem. Don't go and bang the wall. Understand what is the real requirement of the industry. Very specific and match your skill set and your project and your portfolio and apply with that. You can apply with one PDF file with one project, with one page resume. Enough. Tomorrow you will definitely get the interview chance because people are looking for that, right? See, I always tell you it's all about matchmaking. How you marry a girl, how you marry a guy, right? If your employer is not matchmaking with you, you will not get the job. Either you will not like the industry or the industry will not like you. End of the day it's matchmaking. So specific is terrific. Guys, do not be generic. Hey Jagdish, I have to make a lot of resumes. You will have to do definitely. You will have to work on two, three different sets of resumes matching different customization of that industry, right? It's a simple thing guys. If you are working in a word file or if you are working in a Photoshop file or if you are working in a Figma file, it's very easy to edit your resume based on that job profile and save it as a PDF. How much time does it take? 15 minutes? 20 minutes? If you're not spending that time, then why would you expect results? I really get angry when people are not following that. Even after listening to this podcast. If you're not taking action, what happens is maybe you're not really interested in design career at all. Maybe you're just here and there ranting, it's best to go back to your old work and do it. But if you are really determined, why don't you try this? 2, 3 different type of resumes. 2, 3 different type of projects align with that particular job description and apply. Definitely you will get results. Guys, you can count on me. You can comment in this podcast. Also, Jagdish, I exactly tried this seven strategies. It's not working. Definitely I'll be able to help you. So that's, that's the kind of challenge I'm giving you because it works. It worked for hundreds of students. It worked for a student whom I talked with. Okay, so she was just like that, telling the same thing. I'm not getting job. People are asking four years, five years. This I I told her, don't see about that. Just keep on applying. Keep on applying. Keep on applying. She got selected 50,000 job. She's in Delhi. The other student, she also said the same thing. She has gone into depression itself, approaching More than 150 interviews. I told her, do not worry about experience. Just keep on approaching. Apply. Apply. Don't worry about salary. Apply apply. She got a good salary, decent salary and she got a good job. She started this career, right? It's been six months. She would have gone into another job as well now. So the point is taking action and moving forward, not thinking much. Customized resume increases your chance by 40 percentage. Guys, this was quoted by jobbyte a source, right? So that's the point. The last important strategy is show enthusiasm and willingness to learn. 78% of the employers value soft skills in candidates more than anything. I already told about creating post LinkedIn podcast anything. So people show people wanted to understand that enthusiasm and high energy what you have. If people are understanding and sensing that you won't be able to, nobody's going to stop you guys. You're going to explode the job market and get every single week or every two weeks you will get a job offer, right? You can attend a TED talk in TED platform and see how people are having a different, different creativity towards it. How people are showing their enthusiasm and willingness to. You can learn from them, right? So the point is you need to take action, right? So the seven steps I'm summarizing you again, building a strong portfolio, developing your relevant skill, networking with people, having your personal and doing some internship and freelancing work and showcasing and customizing your application and showing that high enthusiasm to learn and grow. If you're able to do it, guys, nobody's going to stop you. You will be the one who is stopping your career. Okay? So don't be in that victim mindset thinking and shitting about yourself. Take the action oriented steps and if you feel any kind of a void or if you are not able to move forward or if you need some kind of a support, you can go and send an email. Jagdish, I need your support. I'll be happily helping you guys. Okay? I cannot help for hundreds of students. I can select few users, few listeners who are very consistent in my podcast and I can able to definitely help them. Okay? So don't hesitate. Just type out an email, empty mail and just if you need any help, you can ask for it. I'll be more than happy to help you with the customized support what you require. Okay? So all the best guys. Thank you so much much for listening to this podcast and give me a best rating if you find this as genuinely good and you can subscribe me in Apple and Spotify and get notified for further episodes. Okay, thank you so much guys. Bye bye. All the best. Take care.