At thinkpublic we receive lots of work experience applications. To ensure that we meet as many people as possible we have started running a monthly ‘Portfolio Clinic’ where applicants share their projects and get feedback from members of the thinkpublic team and each other.
However, every now and then you receive an application that really stands out, one such application fell into my inbox this week from Chris Brooker. It made us laugh and he jumped right to the top of our ‘people to meet’ list. In fact it was so good that, with his permission, I’d like to share it with you all.
A fine combination of wit, compliments and honesty, we want more applications like this!
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Dear thinkpublic,
I need your help! I am afraid I might not to be able to carry on living unless somebody lets me design a service…!
I am a recently graduated designer with a passion and flair for service design. It is perfectly suited to my attributes as an individual and a designer.
It is all I want to do and to be.
I just desperately crave to be practicing service design as a professional and to be learning from the masters who have been there and are paving the way as I write this.
What should I do? Any and all advice is sought.
I have been extremely privileged and worked on some fascinating projects since leaving university. Clients have come to me with products they want developing, websites they need designing, and even new brand identities they require crafting. But it is professional service design work I desperately crave; somebody to approach me with a problem they need solving…
I will move anywhere in the world to realise my dream and do whatever it takes. I am a service designer trapped in a world of aesthetic products, engineering and old ways of thinking!
Yours sincerely and gratefully
Chris Brooker
Oct 3rd, lauren said:
All this was happening with the Real Work Experience initiative?
Many graduates put all their energy and efforts into for months.
Now it has disappeared!
That is why graduates are skeptical of such ‘portfolio clinics’
Good Luck
Oct 7th, Paul Thurston said:
Hi Lauren,
Thank you for your comment. I understand what you mean about the real work experience and it’s a shame we wern’t able to take this further, as it is something we care about a thinkpublic.
However I would question that graduates are sceptical of ‘portfolio clinics’. I recently attended a conference where these sessions were over subscribed and the feedback from students/graduates about our sessions has been very positive, obviously there is always room for improvement though…
How do you think we can engage with students and recent graduates better?
Thanks,
Paul
Oct 8th, jez cook said:
Personally, I don’t think students are sceptical of portfolio clinics. I think it is just that they don’t really know about them!
I could have done with one when I left college many years ago.
Thinkpublic is already doing way more than most design companies and should be congratulated.
Hopefully, once the current economic climate and ensuing chaos has died down, there might be more of a move towards a more careful/caring way of choosing staff and trying to retain them once in the fold. There are ways of getting more from your workers through positive thoughts and actions, without beating them with a stick.
Perhaps your blog could do more to engage with students and job seekers?
Perhaps the portfolio clinic might include members of other design companies?
Perhaps you could also advise on CV design and ways of contacting prospective employers?