How to sell yourself

A few days ago, we had our twelfth and final class of contemporary design culture. For this class, be looked at the matter of how to sell yourself…. legally might I add. But yeah, we looked at all of the different things that helps someone portray themselves in a professional manner and the skills they need to further their career besides the obvious design skills. The first thing that comes to mind when I think back on the class is how important first impressions are and there is much more to this than just a firm handshake. First impressions begin as early as your CV and if an employer finds spelling mistakes in a CV, a document of utmost importance to furthering your career, they’re not going to think very highly of you. During the class, we were tasked with doing research on a few websites and documents to put together a database to help with the whole process and perhaps the thing that stood out to me the most was the fact that a suit and tie wasn’t always the best approach when going into an interview and that if you are looking to work as a designer, the best approach to take would be to take your own twist on the average dress code and show a bit of personality. Although I can imagine myself sticking to the suit considering I like to spend most of my time in a tracksuit bottom and t-shirt.

For the task, my group chose to look into creating a portfolio and all of the tips and tricks you should know before you begin. Looking through the handbook really gave me a better understanding of what the whole thing was about and how broad the concept of a portfolio really is. A portfolio is something that represents you as not only a designer but also as a person and that appears to be something that employers want to see. Of course the work is the first thing you should be thinking about when making your portfolio. As I read further I found a line saying that you should concentrate on including your work first and that if you are passionate about each project, it should easily shine through. For me this highlighted the importance of how we should embrace being designers not only inside the course but outside as well, taking part in things we have interest in and giving ourselves our own projects to do that we can explore freely and express ourselves through them. The best thing about this is that it will be easy to get a feel for what you’re really about and your real interests are and if you happen to fail maths and physics, perhaps the numerous paintings and restored cars and photography projects you’ve undertaken will provoke an employer to look beyond the grades and look at the person at hand and what they are really capable of in their own right.