Ask Us: Advice for College Students

We got a great inquiry about advice for college students in our email this week, and we thought it was great food for thought – enjoy!

Q. I’m not sure if this form is here for advice but I’ll give it a shot anyways. I’m currently a student in college working on a double major in Management (General Business option) and Graphic Design (Illustration/Multimedia option). I get asked a lot, “What do you plan to do?” This question has confused me and I’m having trouble truly finding my way and really wanted some advice from the professionals on this. At this stage, all I know is I would really like to create graphics with a twist, not something you see every day. I don’t really have interest in creating plain jane graphics. I know, when I become a professional, I will have to do work I don’t want to do in order to make a name for myself and gain the experience. What advice do you feel is best for college students? Is there any blog you feel I should read? Any company I should follow?

I really haven’t been exposed much to the world of graphic design. I’m self taught in Photoshop. I don’t know how to go about finding my personal focus goal in Graphic Design. I think I would like to specialize in animations. Any advice would be wonderful.

Hearts and Laserbeams

A. So great to hear from you, and I’m really glad you’re thinking about the future as you’re getting through college.

My single biggest piece of advice is to learn super marketable skills along with the stuff you love to do, because as you’re already realizing, you’re going to need to make ends meet. When I went to school, I focused on 2D hand drawn animation – it was super fun, I loved it, and I was good at it. But then I graduated with my BFA and it took a year to find my first real job out of college because of the massive shift in demand to 3D animation.

To this day I remember my Intro to Graphic Design teacher asking what I was majoring in, and sounding disappointed when I told him. I really wish I’d gone into graphic design to start with, because I would’ve left college with lots more skills to pay the bills right from the start.

I’ve still absolutely made it work, obviously, as I provide all kinds of graphic design and web design services to small business clients all over the country. But if I’d studied something that gave me a better jumping off point I definitely wouldn’t have felt like I had to play catch up to land a job after school.

What you need to get a job in design these days: Photoshop skills, Illustrator skills, web skills. Web design isn’t going anywhere, and if you’ve even got a rudimentary base knowledge of html and css, you’re head and shoulders above the job applicant standing next to you that only does Photoshop and Illustrator. If you’ve got a handle on how social media works, and can help out with some writing, that’s icing on the cake.

As you’re getting through college, really plan for the future – what do you love to do, but then what will pay the bills as you work towards that. Keep both of those in mind, and make sure you’re setting yourself up with a skillset that will really prepare you for the types of companies you want to work for.

Stay flexible, and think of every job opportunity as exactly that – it’s an opportunity to get your foot in the door and build your skillset for the next opportunity to move on up.

I hope this has been really helpful! Absolutely let me know if you have any more questions.

Freelance Illustrator Steph Calvert • Steph Calvert Art | https://stephcalvertart.com

Freelance illustrator Steph Calvert is an award-winning artist with 24 years of experience working as a creative professional. She is based in McDonough, Georgia, just south of Atlanta.

Steph Calvert has expertise as a children’s book illustrator. She is an expert surface pattern designer for art licensing and creates line drawings for publishing and product design. Steph has years of additional expertise as a mural artist, creating original art, and logo design for small businesses. She is currently querying literary agents with her first author/illustrator book projects.

National SCBWI Conference, 2023
Illustration Summer Camp – The Highlights Foundation, 2021
Make Art That Sells, 2017
BFA in Computer Art – SCAD, 1999


3 responses to “Ask Us: Advice for College Students”

  1. Steph, this is great advise and so needed right now as Cameron is getting ready to start college next month. She will be working towards a BFA majoring in Animation. I am going to have her read this! She is certified in PS CS6 now, but definitely needs to look into html and customer. Thank you!

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