Career Advice - opinions wanted

[Tony]

After graduating in June with a 2:1 in Graphic Design, I purposely decided to take the summer off, go on holiday and chill out.

Around September i started looking for design jobs and got my first interview in October. I was offered work until my second interview but in that time did not enjoy the work and did not stay on.

I now find myself in the beginning of February with the following options:

1, Stick with design even though the two placements i've done and the money (imo) sucks.

2, Start my own design company (which is what i did my dissertation on) but that either means getting my own office or working from home and the council tax changing as a result iirc.

3, Go into sales, i've joined a recruitment company and i'd be getting roughly 25-50% more money per year than working for a design company. Although i may not enjoy the work so it would be purely financial.

4, Go into a graduate training scheme with a company such as Lloyds bank et al.


I feel im not choosing any option atm and am im limbo :panic:

What are people's thoughts?

Stick with what I trained for or go with the money?

[Jay1989]

Personally i wouldnt be able to do my job if i didn't enjoy it, and i couldnt work from home as i love the whole kinda ''workplace'' thing. If you've done a 3 yea course on design at Uni then i think you should perservere in what you know best mate or that may have been a waste of 3 years, if you stick at it and work hard im sure you will fall on your feet and everything will be fine.

Other peoples opinions will help but at the end of the da the decision should be 100% yours, imho i would go for option 2 or 4, starting your own business is going to have lots of positive points i.e Being your own boss, working when you want, nobody to hassle you and be on your case etc... But you are in a situation involving unlimited liability where if the compamy was to all go to pot you would have to pay off all the debts yourself with your assets e.g Car and house. Option 4 is going to be good because at the end of the scheme your are probably pretty much guaranteed a job and at a worldwide company like Lloyds there will probably be many promotional opportunities, the only downside i can see is that after spending 3 or 4 years at Uni do you want to go onto another 1-3 year graduate scheme?

Thats just my two pence worth matey :)

[Tony]

Cool man cheers.

I just want to earn a decent wage and be in a position to buy my first house with in 5 years.

With regards to liability i'd make my company an Limited company which doesnt cost too much and isnt much hassle iirc.

[Jay1989]

Yeah i know what you mean, i'd go for opening your own business from home then. Just look to survive in the 1st year then after that grown&expand and start earning the big time money:)

[vidal]

How motivated are you to work for yourself? Given a project, would you spend 8 hours a day working, or would it be work, net, telly, coffee, nap, bit more work, knock one out, quick drive out and then finish for the day? The workplace, with targets, managers etc is the best environment, unless you are truly disciplined enough.

Try for the graduate training schemes - many companies just want a graduate as it shows that they have the ability to produce work to a set standard and have some degree of motivation and analytical thought. Get some of the broadsheet patpers, Guardian and Independent are usually full of interesting graduate opportunities.

V.

[Tony]

I'm a solid reliable fast worker no matter where I work but I know what you mean.

Cheers about the papers, I'll have a look. Im on the Guardian website a lot.