undergraduate, designer, guerrilla, pop-up show, portfolio, internship, unpaid, opportunity, work, graduate

1. Ideate - A detail-oriented, motivated, creative, opportunistic undergraduate and hopeful designer needs a way to
gain a competitive advantage and place herself at the top of the graduate cohort because the design industry is
incredibly competitive, and experience at the undergraduate level is often unpaid.
1. Ask for extra credit
2. Apply for internships
3. Ask lecturers for possible industry connections
4. Ask peers for possible industry connections
5. Look for a more broader internship opportunity
6. Do an honours year – think about work later
7. Do a masters year – think about work later
8. Door knocking to designers
9. Door knocking to hotels
10. Door knocking to restaurants
11. Sending resume out
12. Apply for another position in a design firm to get foot in the door – secretary or assistant
13. Do charity work
14. Work harder to achieve better grades
15. Ask yourself if you are at the best university in your area to be graduating from
16. Take a gap year after university, funded by the part time earnings, to work out whether design is the best thing to do
17. Fly to Milan and beg for a job
18. Take a year off before applying for jobs and work on a portfolio of design ideas
19. Enrol into another course to complement current studies
20. Enrol into a different course and change tactic
21. Go sky diving to re-evaluate your life
22. Fly to Monte Carlo, gamble savings, use winnings to start up own design business
23. Fly to Silicon Valley and surround yourself with really creative people to think of new options beyond these ones
24. Put on a thinking cap and get creative
25. Rob a bank; use money to start up own design business
26. Shadow an up and coming designer now; when they make it big, ask for a favour ;-)
27. Become a tutor in Design
28. Go freelance
29. Try sell one design to a store and see if they like it. If so, capitalise!
30. Seek.com
31. mycareers.com
32. Look into whether there is a design careers website or forum for you to gain insight into breaking into the industry

2. 33. Hang out in Bondi and try meet some models to ask them to wear your designs
34. “Accidently” drop your portfolio in the lobby of the Park Hyatt, business card attached
35. Hang around Ryan’s Bar on a Friday to meet some rich guy willing to give you financial backing to do freelance
36. Throw a charity event – that will get eyes on you
37. Come up with a really innovative design idea, and Copyright it
38. Research whether there is a Graduate Design School that you can enrol in
39. Give in to the man and become an accountant instead
40. Take this course and become more creative in your problem solving!
41. Go back and talk to your lecturer again – surely they have a connection you can talk to
42. Ask really nicely for a job
43. If they all say no, ask really nicely for an unpaid internship
44. Say please
45. Go backpacking around South East Asia and become inspired
46. Stay in university as long as possible
47. Ask your parents to support you
48. Apply for a televised competition e.g. Project Runway
49. Guerrilla advertising – do a pop up show to showcase your designs somewhere
50. Laws of nature – become invisible, sneak into your dream design corporation, hack into their system and input your name as the
new hire... Say Rachel from HR hired you

3. Apply for internships. This would be my first piece of advertise to the undergraduate. Perhaps in
conjunction with asking lecturers and tutors for connections in the industry to see where might be a
good place to apply. Most companies want someone with experience, but some might be willing to
give a talented undergraduate an unpaid internship if they could really show they were serious about
this
Guerrilla pop-up show, showcasing all of your designs and major works from School and University.
Do it on a really sunny day on Campbell Pde, Bondi Beach, and you’ll get a tonne of people wanting to
take a look at your things. Do this a few times. Start a following. Get on instagram. Your portfolio will
be sought after, and you will walk into the job you want
Forget the laws of nature for a moment... Become invisible, and use this power to sneak in to the
office of the editor of Vogue Italy, or whichever is your dream company to work for. Put your name
into payroll. Go inception on their butts and implant the memory of them interviewing you and
LOVING you, and subsequently taking you on board for a GREAT salary. You start on Monday!
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