Notes Design

As part of Coroflot's never-ending quest to give you the razor-sharp career-building tools you so richly deserve, Carl Alviani has unearthed an internship-finding guide from a few years back and given it a Web 2.0 era makeover. While some of the advice is timeless (do your homework, be persistent), certain aspects of the search have definitely changed. Like number 3, for example:

The array of resources available for researching a company is massive and growing. There's the official company website, of course, but that's just for starters. You should also look them up on a couple social networking sites, read their blog if they have one, and search for articles that have been written about them in the last couple of years. Coroflot and Design Directory are also great sources of information--in addition to a company profile, many staff designers working at a firm will have their own corefolios or their own personal websites, and you need to look at those as well.

Or this bit on tracking down a contact name:

Once upon a time, finding out who to send things to meant cold-calling, but there are more ways than ever now to get around this. Many design worlds are small, so asking colleagues and professors if they know anyone who knows anyone can often yield a name. If you come across the name of a senior designer or design director while doing your research, jot it down and search out more information on that person: chances are good they're a reasonable first contact.

If you're staring an uncaring world right in the face, with a pile of student loans at your feet, take a look, and offer your own stories and tips.

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photo: I, Timmy