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You know that story of the young university student who meets an employer at some convention or on the street, while still in school? "Here's my business card son, give me a call once you're done. I like you" says the employer. Said student then shoots off the employer a call after graduation to hear "Ah yes I remember you, how would you like a position at our company x". I know several people with similar stories! Even a co-worker of mine met his employer while on vacation in Jamaica. They started talking on the tour bus, and it turned out they were both from the same city. By luck and coincidence, that co-worker was then hired on by the guy for some high paying trades position.

I've been trying to break into some junior graphic design position since before I even went to school for design. Are there any tips for building valuable connections? I have had some in the past, but regular work has forced me to withdraw from design for a while and I lost touch with most of the people I knew. I have many graphic designer friends, and even though people wanna help each other out, everybody would still prefer to get that internship or position for themselves. There's nothing wrong with that, that's just the type of competitive industry we're in.

I have had a nice list of clientèle, but all them were low paying single gig people. I never managed to get lucky and meet an art director or an IT company manager. I had a few near chances, but my portfolio was weaker at the time.

My current plans for the next 2 years after this year are:

a) Go teach English in Japan for 1 year and build up my portfolio
or

b) Stay for 1 more year of design school and build my portfolio
or

c) Build my portfolio and just try to find a job

There is a chance plan a will screw up, a good chance. So that leaves me with the other two.

So yeah...tips welcome.

Well, in reference to the "story" of the student randomly meeting someone. That's sort of what happened to me on the subject of my thread. I was working with my dad installing a furnace for that bulldog breeder. She ended up asking me what I really wanted to do with my life and I told her I'd like to be a graphics designer. She about flipped out and asked if I did websites at all. I told her I'd give it a go and ended up designing her site. Now she's trying to hook me up with her company.

And to think I didn't want to go to work that morning

Here's an advice someone gave me: "The more bananas you eat the more peels there are to slip on."

In Sweden we say when you are lucky like that you slip on a banana peel Basically the more happenings, meetings, lectures, expos you go to and the more employers and others you talk to the bigger the chance of something interesting happening.

A good idea is to try and enter competitions etc. you may find if your work stands out you might attract somebody, for example in the 3rd year my Mum was studying Illustration, she entered a competition to illustrate a poster for a theatre production, she won and the theatre company that funded the competition gave her 3 more jobs to do. Freelance is a good way to get yourself known, apparently, but it seems the hard bit is starting to find freelance work to do.

As I am doing a Writing course, I will need to get my prospects out, what I plan to do is to send work to magazines, competitions and try to get freelance work whilst I am university, so when I leave university and apply for that job I have a nice CV and a decent portfolio, as well as my 'getting involved' in university life I hope will prove useful too (such as doing the radio show). Things like that are suppose to impress employers. It also helps to have a bit of published work to flash in their faces.

Connections do help you get a job, of course no one is as lucky as someone to say 'I like you, you're hired', freelance work with a specific company can help, some like Future publishing like freelance work to be done for them and of course their actual job applications require a qualification and/or published pieces, so in turn in this example (which is geared towards writing, but same principle should apply) they know you name, you could show that you've got some work published in their magazines, if they're satisfied they'll hire you.

And of course researching the companies doesn't do any harm either.

Generally, just have a lot on your CV and have something about you to sell to them that stands out and is relevant for what you're applying for. And more importantly, don't be fussy like my sister, one thing you don't like doing could well be the step to doing something you really enjoy.

Get a blog

Check out if there are any open positions and just apply for them. Don't worry about papers or something, just try. Companies that see your skills might just be interested.

CVs are not as important as connections or to actually visit the company in question. If you only send in your CV you're just another one in the pile. Well, design work is a bit different I guess. You're not gonna get hired unless you can show off your skills. But people in general hires people, not paper. If you have talked to them and they like you, you are more likely to end up on the top of the pile.

Go to tradeshows and career fairs at your school and the local Universities. You can meet tons of contacts there.