Workshop Attendance—10 points
2 Portfolio Reviews—20 points
Project 3 Total —50 points
Today was the AIGA Iowa chapter's "Get A Job Boot Camp" workshop. The event consisted of several speakers followed a 1 on 1 portfolio review session. The first presentation was called "The How To...". The speaker talked about how to find a job, how to start the search and how to recognize opportunities to get exposure. She also gave us tips on how to market ourselves and present our portfolios. There wasn't a lot of new information for us in this presentation, considering we've spent the whole semester discussing and researching pretty much that exact topic. Its always nice to hear how someone else does things, but at this point, we're starting to hear a lot of the same thing.
The second segment was called "Defend Your Design". This presentation was a series of skits recreating typical interactions with the client. The speakers then demonstrated techniques for handling difficult situations. This was pretty fun to watch. Already, most if not all the students in the audience had encountered situations where a client is asking you to do free stuff for them, or isn't happy with your price. While not exactly an earth shattering presentation, it was nice to get some help dealing with that stuff.
After that we broke for lunch and "networking". Unfortunately, I was assigned a table where only one person wasn't from Drake, and she was a student. So not a lot of networking occurred. It was kind of lame. We were expecting the older designers and speakers to kind of work the room and give each table some face time. Nope. Maybe it was unfair to expect that. Maybe we all should have taken the leap and sought them out. Oh well. It was awkward.
Finally, we got to the portfolio reviews. This was the most valuable part of the day in my opinion. 1 on 1 feedback from people other than my professors is really, really, really helpful. My first review was with Monte Ballard, head of DMACC's Graphic Design Department. He was kind of grumpy when I said I only was showing my digital portfolio today. "Some of us older folks want to see a physical representation" Yeah, I know...but today I wanted feedback on my pdf email portfolio. After that he warmed up and gave me some really good feedback, and some of the best suggestions I've gotten about how to solve some of the layout problems. Unfortunately, I forgot to have him fill out my review form. (Fender, you might remember that Megan Leese mentioned we shared a reviewer at this, in case you need more proof that I did it.)
My second reviewer was Antje Gray, Principal of Design Matters. She was definitely less enthusiastic, but it was the end of the day and it could be that she was getting tired of seeing kids portfolios. At any rate, she did have some suggestions and she caught a mistake no one else has noticed before. It went okay. Like I said, she didn't seem that into it. It was kind of weird. I DID however manage to get her to fill out a review form.
Overall, I'm on the fence about this workshop. I think I'd prefer this late in the semester to just spend a whole day getting my portfolio reviewed. The reviews definitely were the most effective part of todays presentation. Meh, I could take or leave the rest of the speakers. Probably more valuable for juniors or first semester seniors. The older kids have heard most of it by now.
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