Mark Winter is a London-based designer who is a colleague at my present job. He recently saw my blog and mentioned his job-hunting efforts. I found his story so full of lessons others might use that I asked him to write some posts about it for AlwaysBeJobHunting.com. This is the first of three installments on Mark’s creative approach to finding a job in a terrible economy.

In the Summer of 2007 I started a new job, my first as a graphic designer. At this stage of my career, with no university degree and some rather underwhelming A level results behind me, I was very lucky to get this position. Along with the new came a promise of both on-the-job training and various courses to pursue my interests in design.

Unfortunately, the job was too good to be true. Thirteen months later and with little more than a day course in PowerPoint (I hate PowerPoint) to my name, I was made redundant. The recession had hit hard in London and I was the first of many to leave the company.

A couple of years of odd jobs passed while I saved up the money for an intensive course in design at Shillington College. I like to mention my college by name as I can honestly say that without the full three months I spent there I wouldn’t know half the things I do now.

So once done there, with the addition of some seriously great knowledge in Adobe and design, I had the daunting task of finding my way back into the real world of work, specifically, in design.

After college I went straight back to working odd jobs to pass the time while I was looking for roles I felt were right for me. I soon realized that I was being far too picky and swiftly began applying for any role that mentioned ‘designer wanted.’
—Mark Winter