Back in January I got feeling rather ambitious and I set out four simple goals for myself for this year. They were: use my sketchbook more, plant a garden, move every day, and ‘figure out the next step’. My intention was to write an update on each of these goals fairly often, but of course, my intentions with blogging are often grander than my time allows.

In April I did write an update on the “move every day” goal, and you can read it here.

This goal, “figure out the next step”, refers to what I will do, job-wise, after school ends, and since that’s coming up rather soon (my work term ends this week!) I figured I better write an update on the goal! While I can’t yet share some of the specific details of what is going on, I can share a bit about what I’ve been doing since January towards this goal.

First of all, working on my schoolwork and doing my best to make it look awesome, is important. My design work is what I rely on to get a job! So lots of time spent here, in front of the computer with a coffee and some good music, was a part of this goal.

Second of all, job-searching. I aimed to do more of this, but time was precious and often got spent on the first part, working on my schoolwork. I did visit the local job resource centre in North Sydney, and wrote a post about that here. I’m lucky in that I’ve got lots of connections, and once I made it known that I was looking for work, a few people sent me links to jobs they had seen that they thought I would be a good fit for, which I did apply for. But this is a good strategy even if you don’t write a popular blog and know lots of people: make it known to the people you know that you’re looking for work. You never know what lead will turn out to be a perfect fit!

And then of course there is the resume! As part of my course we had to create both a two-page and a one-page resume. In Graphic Design, your resume can be a bit more “splashy” than an ordinary resume, simply because the discipline is creative. That’s what we do! I wanted mine to be both well-designed but also simple. I ended up tweaking it slightly for each job I applied for, but leaving the main portion of it the same. Above is a screenshot of my resume in editing mode in InDesign.

Something else that’s important is networking. My classmates and I fundraised and attended the Growing a Creative Economy conference last month, which was a great chance for us to get our faces known, and chat with people about the local creative economy, and find out what other people are up to. Again, like with job leads, you never know how a contact can help you find work, so the more people in your community know about you and how awesome you are, the better!

Another thing I did that I don’t have a photo to represent is that I met with a business development counsellor at the Small Business Development Center in Sydney, and took a one-evening course that they offered for free. The folks that work there are really awesome, resourceful and helpful. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to open my own business or not, but wanted to find out what was available to me if I did go that route! And I met some other folks who are starting their own businesses, which was great networking.

So, with my work term ending this week, I’ve got some things in the works, job-wise, but can’t share them just yet. Once I can, I’ll be a bit more open about the details of that, like preparing for job interviews, etc.

Overall, I think an important part of this goal is actually to “figure out how to relax with not-knowing”, because as much as planning and research is important, I will never be able to plan and research all of the future! So trust that things will work out is almost as important as working hard towards your goal.

Happy Wednesday and I’ll leave you with a link to a great podcast series that’s taught me a lot about owning your own small, creative business: Elise Gets Crafty!