Portfolios provide tool for job search
ISSUE: 05/01/07 > NEWS > Portfolios provide tool for job search
The end is near… At least it is for senior design communications majors. For them, the end of April means a final review and presentation of their portfolio before graduation.
“Every senior is required to have a portfolio,” said Jamie Browder, a senior design communications major. “It’s a reflection of [our] best stuff through the years.”
Browder explained that design communications majors begin taking their design classes sophomore year. Each semester, they meet with a professor and a design professional from the Nashville community to discuss their work and possible improvements.
"Every senior is required to have a portfolio. It's a reflection of [our] best stuff through the years." Jamie Browder |
“The professor and the student decide on what pieces to include,” Browder said. These decisions can be crucial as a portfolio is a primary tool used when interviewing for jobs.
“Ultimately, it’s what you carry to job interviews,” said fellow design communications major Katie Turner. She added that seniors must “revise everything.”
When asked if it was hard to hear criticisms of their work, both Browder and Turner agreed but said it was a necessary part of the process.
“[The professors] only want to help you,” Turner said. “It’s better to hear it now than later.”
Browder echoed this sentiment but added a caveat. “You have to remember it’s one opinion,” Browder said. “Opinions are versatile.”
Browder is versatile herself. Originally planning to double major in design communications and musical theater, Browder decided to concentrate solely on design communications. She has no regrets.
“As a kid, I loved packages. I loved colors,” Browder said. “I took design courses in high school. My teacher sat me down and told me I had talent.”
It was her senior year in high school when she decided design was something she wanted to do. Doubt was never part of the equation.
“Design is a growing career and there is a growing need,” Browder said. “I don’t think design will ever die as a field.”
For Turner, her realization of design as career came a bit later. She entered Belmont as a music business major but was turned off by the number of math classes required.
“I took one art class spring semester, digital imaging,” Turner said. “My teacher told me I should do design.”
It was a perfect fit.
“I like making things look better to be able to communicate,” Turner said. She also said she decided there were more job opportunities in design than in music business.
Both Turner and Browder hope some of those opportunities will turn into job offers.
Browder currently works at Blue Tractor Design Company in Antioch and thinks it could possibly turn into full-time employment. Turner is contemplating a move to Chattanooga.
“It’s far but it’s not too far,” said Nashville native Turner. However, distance is not the ultimate determinant, “I will go where I get a job.”
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