Stepping into the real world.......

It's been about 3 and half months since I officially left university and the world of education, and I have to say it was probably one of the scariest times that I have encountered. For the first time in 19 years I was stepping out of the bubble that is education and entering the real world, I have lived the last 19 years living by an academic year and being told and guided in everything that I did.

The first day out of university came a massive reality check for me, I didn't have a job to go straight into, my student grant was decreasing and I had absolutely nothing to do, and to be honest it was scary at first as I realised that was it no more uni I had no guarantee as to what was going to happen next.

The first step I made was to the Job centre to sign on and start the search for a Job. Searching for a Graphic design job can be tedious if you don't look in the right places and even with that there was one big down side...... experience. Yes I have a 7 GCSE's, 2 A levels, 2 Diplomas and a BA Degree in Graphic Design but virtually no experience (2 weeks work experience doesn't tend to be enough). As a graduate how am I suppose to gain the relevant experience in the industry if all the Jobs require you to have experience in the first place (and I know you are going to say WORK EXPERIENCE, but when you e-mail 10 different places asking abut work experience and only 1 replies it can become difficult to get the 1 or 2 years experience that a lot of jobs ask for).

Soo after applying for about 9 jobs (and only getting 2 replys) I finally got a job interview which resulted in a Job!!! Yes I now have a job as a graphic designer working for a small printing firm in Newport. So this begins my journey into the 'real world' of work and getting used to working 9 - 5 for 5 days a week (which hasn't actually been a really big deal, although I'm still getting used to getting up at 5.30 every morning).

In the last few months of university soo my people kept saying to me 'just wait until your working' or 'just wait until you get out into the real world' and I would always shrug it off without too much of a care (and it did get very annoying) but know I'm out there it's actually a bit scary. I have had to adjust to a working environment, juggling 3 or 4 projects at a time (though I did do that in uni) dealing with real clients and working to shorter deadlines. But the good thing is that when I finish my day I leave work in work, I don't have the worry of taking a project home and staying up late to get in all done, and off course I get paid a wage!! I am no longer reliant on student loans and grants or Job Seekers Allowance.

I have learnt a lot in the past 3 years at uni and no its time to put all of that into practice and start learning how to be a designer in the real world......