Hello
I’m Alice, the Founder of Straight Out.
Responding to my experience as a graduate straight out of university looking for my first design job, I got caught up in the vicious cycle that many graduates have; needing experience to get a job, but not getting experience without a job. I realised companies are missing out on some of the most motivated and exceptional graduates because anyone with experience is a safer option.
Entry level jobs. Entry level experience.
My Story
In 2022, I graduated top in my year from DJCAD, I won multiple awards including outstanding ability across the art school, best dissertation, and was shortlisted amongst twenty fellow graduates across the world for the Global Degree Show in collaboration with Gucci.
With all these achievements on my CV, and a portfolio showcasing award winning designs, I thought the transfer from education to a career would be seamless - how wrong I was.
Fresh out of university, I, along with the majority of graduates, was extremely eager to get stuck into work. Like a dog, set free from the leash of education and able to run round the park of careers and opportunities I was excited to see what industry had to offer. Unfortunately, my park was closed.
It wasn’t all rainy days when I graduated, I was given an opportunity to work in the film industry, a month in the art department working on Star Wars, straight to the high end productions, the dream of making a name for myself in the design world had started.
Now, if you’re an observant type, you would have noticed that I was at university during the majority of covid, you would have also noticed that I studied a practical course. Making models out of the contents of my recycling bin, as I didn’t have access to the workshops, was not the art school experience I had hoped for. I wasn’t able to carry out internships, or be part of networking events to meet people in industry. Nevertheless, I always put down studying a design degree remotely to the development of my creativity.
So with covid over with I was now able to carry on with the design industry uninterrupted. Strikes. The film industry went on strike. With the writers and actors striking, it meant no finalised script could be secured, so no production could start, and with no actors, it was financially wise not to build sets and have to store them. Art department jobs were few and far between.
I had to rethink. Still wanting to follow my dream of design I started applying to different sectors within the industry. Like any unemployed friend on a Tuesday, I would find myself sitting in coffee shops applying to jobs. Entry level design job for a known company ‘click’ Must have 2-3 years experience. Graduate designer wanted ‘click’ Must have a year in industry. Click after clicks all these entry level jobs required experience that I didn’t have, only a handful of applications did I think I had a chance in.
Waking up every morning, not having a direct purpose or routine, slowly watching my savings run low, I had to hang up my leash of dreams, and get a job I was highly qualified for.
At work there was a 20s something club, a group of us who had a degree we wanted to use, but couldn’t get the opportunity. Eversooften someone would leave the club and we’d congratulate them, but they were soon replaced by a new member. We would switch shifts around so people could go to interviews, and soon it was my turn. An entry level role at a design firm in the city, finally all my applications were getting somewhere. First interview. Invited back to the next stage. Second interview. Design task. Highly impressed. Through to the final stage. “Sorry, we couldn’t offer you this job, we had to go with someone with more experience.”
Putting sorry in front of a sentence doesn’t always translate well. They weren’t sorry, they knew my experience from the second I clicked the apply button. Disheartened by yet another rejection late on in the application process, makes you go into a spiral of questions and doubt. By fact, I am one of the best recent graduates in my degree, yet I can't seem to get an entry level job. It’s a vicious cycle that many graduates have that you need experience to get a job, but you can’t get experience without experience. Companies are missing out on some of the most motivated and exceptional graduates because they go for the safe option.
Filtering to entry level positions on many job sites presents the same conundrum. If a job requires years of experience it is not entry level. That is where Straight Out comes in, it is a job forum site, exclusively advertising jobs that graduates have a chance in. They’re straight out of education, so what? They are ready for the gate to be opened for the park of careers.
Contact
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