The Job Hunt
Hello friends and welcome back
It has been several months since I last wrote a blog. Here’s what’s been going on,
I completed my courses in June, and started applying for jobs in the Visual and Graphic Design field. There were plenty of opportunities, so I felt pretty confident that something would land. I must have applied for over 60 positions, and heard nothing from any of them. What a wake up call that was.
When on the hunt for a job - any job, it seems - I soon realized that I am a small fish in a huge pond, an ocean even. I was up against hundreds of applicants for roles, I had basically no experience in the design field. In between job hunting, I would work on building my portfolio. After all, a body of work will often speak louder than degreed or diplomas. I was doing everything I could think of to get my work out in front of recruiters and potential clients: applying for jobs, updating my portfolio, building a website, I made flyers advertising my work, learned new programs, and even trying email spamming local businesses. In hindsight, I feel a bit of shame about that one.
For the months of June and July, I applied to every graphic design, visual design and web design position in my surrounding area as well as some remote work options. I got one interview, One! And that one didn’t pan out. It wasn’t that I didn’t succeed in the interview; the company ghosted me. Not a case of canceling the interview because they found a better-qualified candidate - Just GHOSTED. No call, no cancellation.
As someone who has some extensive recruiting from previous roles, I couldn’t believe the unprofessionalism of reaching out to a candidate, scheduling and interview and then simply, not following through.
I see a lot of videos and clips on social media where people are facing similar experiences job hunting, but I believed that they must be exaggerating. As it turns out, they weren’t exaggerating at all.
After two months of applying to design jobs, I downed a piece of humble pie, and started applying to management positions. While not 100% convinced I was ready to give up a career change, I needed to start bringing in some income. I started to get interviews, which gave me a sense of validation and boosted my ego a bit. After essentially getting turned down for two months, it felt good that I was at least getting called. And, thankfully, the majority of those interviews that were scheduled, did happen. Although, there were a few more businesses that, didn’t follow through after scheduling calls. I am still baffled.
So, there was a tiny flood of interviews for management roles. I progresses to the second or third stages in many of them. Again, I applied to well over 50 positions, had a hand-full of interviews, and still - no job offers.
I am starting to take this personally now. I can understand not getting calls in a field I had little experience in and being in a pool of hundreds of candidates. That was a bit easier to swallow. But now, applying for positions where I have over twenty years of experience? It stings to say the least.
Despite the discouraging results, I’ve come to realize that this entire process has taught me a lot about resilience and self-awareness. I’ve learned that the job market is unpredictable and often harsh, but it’s also a place where you need to constantly adapt, persevere, and continue refine your skills. It’s easy to feel defeated when the results don’t reflect your efforts, but I’m determined to keep moving forward.
For now, I’m shifting my focus toward freelance work and continuing to build my design portfolio while keeping an eye out for other opportunities. It might take time, but I believe that every “no” is just a step closer to the “yes” I’m waiting for. Thanks for sticking with me on this journey - there’s more to come!
N
