I completely disagree. Its a great and flexible profession. Its refreshing to work a job that I love, as opposed to most people I know who hate their jobs, or at least just think its OK. To say a family member is too smart to be in the design profession is a huge insult to us. Your friend must be in a design job that does suck, there are plenty of those. But, since he’s a problem solver, he should identify the problem, research the situation and provide a solution. The solution is find a different design job. He may have to go out of his comfort zone to find one that is challenging and pays well. But with the internet the way it is, he could work for a company in another land from the comfort of his home, that’s what I do.

I would totally recommend it for my kids. I already recommended it for my little sister, who is a senior in high school this year. I’ll be able to help her along the way so she doesn’t have to make some of the mistakes i did.

Right on, Jake!

My cousin is, in fact, following in my humble footsteps by attending my alma mater in a design direction. Although he may lean more towards animation and interaction—instead of print design, like myself.

I believe there are good design jobs out there, and that—along with your attitude—make all the difference (in terms of happiness, success)

In addition to the strong arguments made for this profession above, I think we may also want to pass to our “offspring” (whether those literally our children or simply those who have sought our counsel in one way or another) that finding a fulfilling enjoyment of this field / practice may not necessarily immediately equal finding a job where you practice this regularly for someone else.

It’s always a little tricky finding the balance between profession and vocation - your job or your abilities - and then finding a comfortable marriage of those things where you’re driven to pursue it again and again, even through the times when you tear your hair out over it.

I think it’s best, however, to work at accurately discouraging those who are only interested in making a buck at doing this from flooding the field - It isn’t an arena that’s so high-commodity that the big bucks are just a given in it, and as we well know, you better just love this practice almost to pieces or the heartbreak inherent with much of the execution of it is going to be the death of the interest.

Students and designers alike also need to be reminded that design is as much a technical skill as it is a conceptual / creative practice, and that sometimes you will need to simply be someone else’s “hands” to help them realize the project / vision that they have. It’s great to be the author / creator / envisioner, but not every project affords that and that’s what allows this industry to be simultaneously encouraging and humbling, and I think a lot of ignorant ego needs to be harnessed in students and younger designers so that they can really be about the improvements to their skill and craft that will carry them further than that initial paste-up job that so many hate.

I reread my last comment and wondering what I had for breakfast that made me so grumpy.

I still think school is a business, but I have never met a professor who didn’t care deeply about the success of their students. Unfortunately even the best teacher can’t instill enthusiasm and passion in an unresponsive student. Ultimately your success or failure in this business is the result of your own determination and attitude. Sorry for making my last comment sound like I am blaming the educational system.

Hi Adrian … I never look at this , but I did today. I can’t think of anything I would rather do than work in this business. I’d encourage family to go into graphic design if they had the heart and passion for it—hey, as a matter of fact, I did just that several years ago, didn’t I? I totally agree with your comment that success or failure is a result of your own determination and attitude. We all have to pay our dues along the way. It makes the dream job all that much sweeter.

Hope your weekend was a good one - got to catch up with Betsy and Emily for just a bit on campus and at the concert, though we sort of crossed paths a little more widely than I’d expected. Wish I could have caught up with them in Lincoln for just a little bit more time…

On the topic, however, as I’m currently sitting in the position of saying ‘yay’ or ‘nay’ to a body of students, and may explicitly be sitting in that same position at our alma mater within the near future, let me just toss out the fact that I hope my presence there and the experiences I’m bringing with me will make some of the realities you faced coming out of the program available and in the face of the future students. I’d love to get a better ‘job board’ set-up going and simply light up the alumni connections more fully for future students.

I know a large number of schools have programs that are established enough to make early cuts in their numbers and only allow the really successful to continue in them, but I’m also finding out from colleagues and former professors about the relative amount of time it takes / has taken to develop programs and their reputations to the point that this is an affordable option.

I feel like the program we studied in is ripe for moving in more this direction, but that still means a period of time where it won’t totally be that and where students are inevitably going to exit the program and say, “Now what?”

The other majorly necessary question that needs to be asked on both sides of the desk is this: Has education EVER been a guarantee of employment? And my personal and future answer is: I really don’t think so. Preparation in any fashion is simply that: readying you for things you might face. I doubt any of us would completely write off the educations we received and say it did nothing to prepare us for where we’re at, though we all certainly have areas of our educations that we look at and say “Well, that wasn’t as detailed an answer as I ultimately needed” - school can only cover so much, and from a teaching perspective you also have to pragmatically weigh how much you want to teach a student against how much they are actually learning. I could simply walk into a classroom and throw project after project and lecture after lecture at students, but there’s only so much proverbial gunk that will stick to so many proverbial walls…I’m currently wrestling through the finer points of challenging students without crippling them and responding to their needs and skills without dumbing down the material too much in the process…It’s an amazingly imbalancing experience!

I know you and Bennett both exited school into positions and situations that might have been less than extensively desirable, but that’s also why our careers are continuing and not ending at the places we happened to find ourselves initially. Design school especially doesn’t end once you graduate from an academy or college - the jobs are an integral portion of figuring out what design really looks like outside of a classroom, and it’s not always the most inspiring amazing thing. It’s sometimes as much about paste-up as it is about ideas - that’s why it remains both a craft and a pursuit.

The best thing is, Adrian, you learned enough and appreciate enough about what you do to have worked diligently and effectively at creating this forum - you made a place for your voice and our voices here and that says a great deal about the things that you have learned and experienced in the wake of your schooling. In that sense, I’m glad your experiences embittered you enough to set-up a quality blog and to use it - thanks for sharing the wealth in that regard…

I think someone else can use the soap-box now!