Dear Design Student ..and her faculty
My email to a student after I received an application addressed to another studio in the subject as well as in body.
Hi -----,
Thank you for writing this email to apply for a graphic designer position. Though we are not hiring for the moment I thought of writing to you. You are a young designer and you are just about to start your career in Design.
So some tips for you. Double-check the content of your communication and also of what you design before you hit send button. Sometimes the mistake you have made (you sent a mail for another studio to my studio) can lose you a lifetime opportunity. I know you are in a hurry and it is faster to cut paste send..but this kind of mistake is seriously scary for design studios. Imagine for an Icecream package you land up pasting Shampoo package details..and worse it goes for printing..
This probably is happening because you are applying to too many places. I would advise applying to fewer places, be persistent, go see them before and keep in communication. Any design office would rather employ a known devil than an unknown one. Especially when you are a fresher. Also, it is difficult to refuse a known designer if there is a space in the studio.
Here is something you should let your institute/faculty know.... they should teach you and mentor you thru building relationships with professional designers and studios from much before,..perhaps when u start college. Have tours, attend lectures, write emails, ask questions. This last-minute mass mail for internship and job shows that your college actually doesn't care and that's sad. It could easily be planned or designed.
Hope u take my feedback positively and I really wish I could hire you (even with the mistake you made), but simply no more space at the studio at the moment.
Sudhir Sharma
IndiDesign (www.indidesign.in)
Head of Product Design | Design Educator & Researcher | IDC IITB 05-07 | ADI PNQ committee member| Design Education & Aesthetic Studies
3 年Really useful insights! I hope many students read this... and take more deliberate actions...
Educator at Rochester Community Schools
3 年Very insightful in the wake of internship rush around.
CREATIVE PRODUCER / WRITER/ VISUAL DESIGN/ DESIGN EDUCATOR / E-LEARNING DEVELOPER/ STORYBOARD ARTIST
3 年I remember those days, people used to mass mail disney, pixar and every studio in the same mail. With no portfolio matched.
Co-founder | Director | Animation Films Designer | Creative Producer | AVGC 40 under 40 | TEDx Speaker | Design Educator and Innovation Startup Mentor
3 年To Add Sudhir Sharma: "A studio receives multiple internship requests....and trust me to see multiple studios marked in cc not only shows your desperation, but shows you don't care where you land up for internship. Well if you don't care...the studio doesn't either. Personalise your application add a line saying why you want to intern especially here." Well for someone as lazy as me...if I see myself marked on a long list of cc I take it as a cue that "it's ok if I don't reply...others will."
Director at Thuringia International School, Weimar.
3 年Brilliant teaching and leadership Sudhir... and everyone who reads that will want to work with and learn from you. I know a few others in the field taking this sort of time and care with their teams to help the learn; it's hard work, but it matters. The point you make about what colleges are doing to prepare their students for the real world is so important and so overlooked. It's not only about applying for jobs, but also about what it means to be a good team member and colleague. So many are conditioned by competition that they never learn to collaborate.