What I thought would happen when I graduated and then what did happen.
(Written Aug 15th 2017)
You step up onto that stage, hundreds of eyes watching you as your name is called and you’re walking across the stage towards the Chancellor who is holding your certificate waiting to congratulate you (though you’re too busy concentrating on not falling over). Only afterwards once your back in your seat staring down at the certificate on your lap does it click that this is it- you made it- You’re now officially a graduate. Then it dawns on you that you that now you’re no longer a student, just another unemployed person with a degree and a large amount of debt.
However, I was a little more fortunate than some of my fellow classmates as just a couple weeks earlier I had attended my first (and currently last) interview from the vast amount of design jobs I had applied to so far – having little luck with responses. Yet when I received an email from KEA, which I recall applying for the Illustration Graduate Work Placement I couldn’t help but feel excited upon being offered an interview.
Jump to the day after the interview and I was called receiving an offer for the job, this was incredibly surprising considering I hadn’t officially graduated yet at this point- I wasn’t much expecting anything for months after graduation, imagining that I would end up working in a bar or restaurant again for a while.
I consider myself lucky to get this opportunity and my foot in the door of the creative industries this early on.
Working for Kim Emson Animates so far has been a steady journey. Though it has only been a week, there is so much more I am looking forward to experience and get involved with. As the business is still small in terms of the number of employees I am able to work one on one with Kim to improve my development as an illustrator and gain a closer look at how a creative business is ran. So far I have already done multiple illustrations and researched into the inner working of KEA, and even brainstormed ideas for future projects.
I am looking forward to what the next few weeks of my internship entails and will continue to record my journey with KEA so that I may look back and see how much I have developed.
