Now must feel like a scary time to be graduating from design or art school

I graduated in the last recession and, to anyone who needs to hear this, it will be fine.

A thread...

In 2008 I was doing an unpaid internship and living on jobseekers allowance.

I’m not saying that there aren’t issues with the design job market now, but back then we had PROBLEMS that had nothing to do with the crash 1/9

You pretty much only got a job if you could afford to do it for free. There was no living wage. There was no legislation on unpaid internships (UK) and big companies (including government) hadn’t even heard of design, let alone were thinking of hiring designers 2/9

The number of employers that are hiring designers now compared to 2008 is HUGE.

There are around 1000+ designers in the UK gov now (in 2008 it was more like 20) and that’s just one example. There are countless others 3/9

There’s a whole world out there that needs you and the new ideas you’ll bring, because in a crisis, (and after) we need more designers not less 4/9

There are a bunch of educators out there saying that you need to be spending your time right now improving yourself and the world around you in order to get a job… 5/9

You don’t.

Any employer that even asks you ‘what you did during the pandemic?’ let alone judges you for your response is not an employer you should work for 6/9

Look after yourself, your friends and your family.

Play Xbox, watch Netflix, make too much bread, hug your dog. Cry, drink too much. Be a goddam human. This isn’t a time for ‘self-improvement’ it’s a time for survival 7/9

The only thing your future employer needs from you right now is for you to be OK.

Look after yourself and your family, because you can’t help change the world if you don’t look after yourself first 8/9

Big love and hugs to all the future designers out there from all your future employers 9/9