Hi I live in Los angeles and I'm a graphic designer. I've been looking for a graphic design assistant job or even an internship for the last 6 months but I can never find anything. A lot of the jobs require that you know flash and dreamweaver but I only know Illustrator and Photoshop. Does anyone have any advice or info they can share to help me?
smashingmagazine.com > jobs > freelance > design elance.com freelanceswitch (pay for it, but good listings) My advice, now take it for what it's worth, just one guy who's new to this whole thing. Find a stable non-design job that pays rent. Restaurant, retail, something easy enough. Then freelance here and there to augment income, keep your skills up, and build a dynamite portfolio. Look for a job, and if it takes a year, if it takes 2 you're still okay, you're still designing, and you're still living nicely. That's my plan, and I have enough faith in it that I'm willing to bet the next 3 years of my life on it. Just today, I got a call from a designer-friend who is looking for my skills for a major project he's bid on - all I had to do was help him fix his computer one time in the past and he's thinking of me. Never underestimate your networking skills, or your network of friends. I don't consider this my strong point either, but it's already at work for me. If you have a twitter, facebook or other social networking account, harness it - let it be known that you're looking for a job - maybe that friend of a friend can see it and refer you to somebody - sometihng that you'd never tell that person about otherwise. Anyway, I wish this post was more structured, I hope it helps none the less. Good luck to you, I hope you find stable work sooner than you hope