it has been a year since I graduated and do not have a job. Is this normal? Or at least is it a really big problem. I am thinking will employers now not hire me with the pretext of “what the hell did he do for a year”
to be honest I wanted a year off, just to do my thing, no real logic behind it, that is just what it is.
I have learned a lot this year and so forth.
So do you think it is a big problem, or will employers not care about that, and just treat the application based on usual criteria
What are you doing to keep in touch with the industry while you aren’t working? Do you do any freelance work or manage a portfolio of your own sites?
You could build templates to further improve your skills as well as bring in a bit of money and show employers your designs are in demand.
I think employers would still treat your application like they do others, how capable are you, experience, personality fit, good communicator etc…
But you should expect the question of what you’ve done for a year and know how to answer it.
A year is a long time to have a complete break from web development, to me it could seem that it’s not really a hobby or keen interest for you.
But I have not had a brake from web development, I work everyday in learning new stuff and have managed to build up a portfolio with few websites (three that I like the most)
Basically I just have not had a payed job. Other than that I could easily say I worked 4 days a week on different web development and design work.
Is just I have had a brake from having a job (as in working for a client or a company)
I have been learning new things and improving on what I already know. I have managed to finish my personal site which is a blog and a portfolio <snip> - so I am saying that I have not had the conventional job.
There’s nothing wrong with taking a break from work. The fact that you’ve continued to learn and build a portfolio without a job shows interest. You don’t have anything to worry about
The idea behind my brake was that I knew nothing about web dev before going to uni. Then uni was not only web but also multimedia, and so I felt that (for sommeone that knew nothing about web development) I did not learn as much as I should have. So the brake was a genuine plan to learn more about web design/development before hitting the job market. Plus of course the “brake from having to go to work” could be seen as a bonus (sometimes), but that was not the big reason. However, employer would not care about this!!!
Sadly, it has become normal in this current economy.
True. They will. There are employers out there that will not consider hiring any candidates who are currently unemployed. They only want those that are currently employed. In my opinion, this is an idiotic way of thinking.
Employers expect their candidates to be “go getters”, someone driven to succeed and willing to work like a dog. Candidates are not going to look to highly on someone who took a year off after college. I, too, was burnt out after college and needed a break. I didn’t get one.
The bottom line is that while many employers look for reasons not to hire someone instead of reasons to hire someone, some employers–especially smaller ones–want employees who can accomplish things. If you can show some track record of accomplishment, you can get a foot in the door.
As the old saying goes, once you get hired it’s not where you went to school that’s important, it’s what you can do.
As this is the situation. would it be a good plan to just start apply for jobs and if nothing comes, get the experience I need through charity work? if i do that, would employers start seeing my application in a better light?
Of course, because you don’t have work experience yet you should be looking at graduate positions as well.
The job opportunities are different in each country, where are you looking for a job?
In addition to making a nice portfolio, I’d recommend you work on your communication skills as well.
Your English grammar and spelling is not too good and I’m assuming this is because you’re not a native English speaker.
You should work on this.
All the best!
P.S. Could you show some of the websites from your portfolio? I’d like to see some.
At the moment that site you are referring to is in working progress, I do need to look at it for grammer. In terms of the websites, I am working on the description pages where I am going to show screenshots of all three sites I am going to include. In a very near feature I am going to have live link .
I have searched on this topic and found that having screenshots without the live links is not that bad.
btw, when you say that I have grammer problems, are they in the ‘about’ page - as I thought there weren’t any there. Im asking because that is the one page I took extra care on
Oh no! Not in the about page. In general, the posts you’ve written in this thread. They have a lot of spelling mistakes and grammar mistakes. But nothing to worry about, you could work on it.
If you are self employed , definitely there is not any problem but if you were employed and took a big break of 1 year, you have to mention the details to your future employer ! Simple
