Jordan Lomax completed her degree at Curtin last year. She’s now based in Sydney, working in Social Communications and Design with OMD Australia! Here, she’s shared her advice on getting your first professional position.
- Don’t just look at well-known jobs
My job is something that I didn’t even really know existed and it’s an amazing job. There are so many different jobs out there and taking a different job could also be a way towards working in the role you want or you could find you love the one you are doing even more! People think of media as TV, billboards etc., but with digital becoming so much more important there are so many cool roles working with social media and digital activations that are a lot more exciting! - Don’t wait for a job to come up, be proactive
This sounds like something everyone says, but it’s how I got my role and the job wasn’t even posted. I rang up OMD asking if they had any positions suitable for a graduate and they put me up for an interview for a very ‘business’ type role.Unfortunately I didn’t get the job because it didn’t really fit my skills, but they were impressed with my interview and said there was a role they think I would suit much better – the one I’m in now!Simply emailing for a position that 50 other people have probably emailed about is not going to do you any favors, try to get in first before they have the chance to talk to anyone else especially in Perth where the jobs available are a lot less than somewhere like Sydney! - Use anyone you know that can get you a job!
Networking is obviously important. However, I’m talking more about when you actually want a job! At OMD we constantly get emails from HR asking if we know anyone for roles/internships because they would rather hire someone that we can vouch for rather than taking applications from anyone, so if you know someone (even if it’s literally just from reading someone’s article or profile and making contact) then definitely make the most of it! - Do a unit or a course in Graphic Design basics
Many people studying advertising/marketing through business school have little to no knowledge of using Photoshop or InDesign. If you have electives, try to take a unit such as Design Practice to learn the basics of Photoshop and InDesign, or if you don’t have electives, do a course outside of uni. I can’t explain how important this is to getting a job – even a complete business role benefits from someone who can quickly mockup what an ad is going to look like or create a great looking presentation on InDesign. It is also a huge help at uni when doing assignments – it gives you the ability to make them really impressive and better communicate your ideas.
