The Prepared Mind Discussion about designing human interaction.

I just stumbled onto a GREAT article on the Icograda website written by Geoffrey Roche which was also published in Applied Arts Magaizine.

It’s entitled “The Danger of Hiring Juniors” and it implores design firms and agencies to stop shutting our talented young designers and design graduates OUT of the industry!

How does one get experience if nobody will give them a job?

The greatest paradox in our industry and the most cruel joke in the biz. Kids save their money, their parents mortgage their homes, they take out student loans, attend prestigious design schools for 4 years, finally get their degree and what do we tell them? “You need experience for this entry-level job that pays a little more than a waiter earns!”

Wha???? These kids did everything right! They did what we told them to do! Then when they knock on their doors, we mistreat them. We put them down. We waste their time so that we can spark our own creativity by peeking at their energetic portfolios. We bring them in only to see what UArts/RISD/Pratt/SVA/Art Center is up to these days.

What we don’t do is give them jobs. What we don’t do is hire them. What we don’t do is provide a smooth transition of the future stars of our industry INTO our industry. All the while, their peers in other industries are being flown into town by prospective employers. Courted. Woo-ed. Lured with well-paying jobs, perks and benefits.

Most junior designers are lucky to even have health or medical.

It’s not too late

Says Roche:

Now here’s the really amazing part of this whole crazy situation. There’s still a bunch of juniors left out there. That’s right, juniors who are still not too disenchanted after months of endless closed doors and negative feedback, questioning why they can’t get hired for the princely sum of, wait for it, nothing.

Tomorrow’s Brant Mau’s (Wieden & Kennedy), Tim Godsall (award-winning director), Glen Hunt ( Joe Canada ), Shane Hutton (Modernista partner), David Rosenberg (Bensimon Byrne) and Christian Mathieu (ex-IKEA North America client head) are waiting for you to hire them. It’s like American Idol, only more fun, less nasty and a lot more profitable.

I LOVE that! “American Idol, only more fun, less nasty and lot more profitable”! What a line! What a concept!

Food for thought.

.chris{}