After graduation plans.... Or the lack of.

[animeartistjo]

My current angst, now that I know I'll have no problems finishing my dual English and Design-visual communication Bachelors, is WHAT AM I GOING TO DO AFTER? The majority of the verbal freaking out and physical panic has receded to a deep-seated dread and uncertainty: what if my decision turns out to be the WRONG ONE? As such, I've been bothering all my relatives, professors, friends, people who I end up talking to in line at grocery stores for advice, opinions, and their personal experiences post-college.

I have two major routes to choose from: should I teach English abroad for a year, or move back home and look for work as a graphic designer? Note that I'll be doing the latter no matter when--teaching abroad will only be a year.

See, the issue at hand is that I did not realize that there was an Education minor until too late to actually take it and my grades aren't pure enough to enter grad school for the Master's in it. Also, illogical children baffle me for all their cuteness and I had no illusions about myself as a teenager, so a teacher for life I am not.

Why, you might ask, would I consider teaching abroad then?

It'll only be a year, including a 6 week summer break, and I'm torn between South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, China and Hong Kong. I'm wondering if my inability to interact with children extends to ALL of them and if cultural backgrounds really make any difference.

I've also never been outside of the States, and a week-long vacation isn't the kind of experience I'm yearning for. I want to experience another country in all its aspects, which means interacting with people beyond the level of a tourist asking for help, and I want to be able to take as long as I'd like. I want to experience life as how a native of the country might, which means a job and all the little things about daily life that no one truly pays attention to until they undergo it themselves.

Teaching will not be my life's vocation, so in my free time, I'll still be working on my portfolio, maybe try to freelance work overseas, or see if the language barrier will be an immovable obstacle for design work in which ever country I end up. Of course, no matter where I am, I always observe color, form, and function. If I go to Seoul or Taiwan, I would go with a designer's perspective of the environment. What influence might a foreign culture's design work have on my own?

Or would it be better to immediately begin job searching for designer positions after school, when my connections with professors and friends are still fresh? Especially as I'm not the most social creature?

Teaching abroad means another year of job security as I'll be applying through Teach Away Inc, with estimated salaries of approximately 2k a month. In this economy, that's a truly lovely thing. But after that year, will the job scarcity have improved any? Or would I just be an out-of-touch graduate competing with recent design students just as desperate for work? Would my foreign experience count for anything?

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If I DON'T teach abroad, I'll be moving back home and looking for design work in the Bay Area. Or else, since my mother has not stopped urging me, attending a master's program of some sort for graphic design. If I apply and am accepted.

I'm twenty-one, and I don't feel like an adult at all. Ninety percent of my life has consisted of schooling and I've never been independent from my family. Would teaching for a year in another country be away for me to grow up? Should I force myself out of my comfort zone... For a whole year?

Comments

[skylark97.livejournal.com]

Hm, well, I'd say if you're going to go for the design work, start looking for an internship now that you can do while you're still in school. Paid or unpaid, part time or full time, it'll get you experience and give you references so that you'll look nice and shiny for people when you do graduate and start looking hardcore.

Does your school have any kind of job center for students? Even if you're planning on going abroad to teach, it might not hurt to go there and see if there's someone you can talk to there about what your options are or will be if you go abroad to teach and how you might transition from being overseas to coming back to the US.

[animeartistjo.livejournal.com]

Actually, we do have an Internship and Career Center, but when I went, the lady in charge of liberal arts merely directed me to a website that I had ALREADY found myself. *sigh*

I'm kind of already working as office assistant/graphic designer for two departments on campus and volunteering as art director for an undergraduate health journal. The problem with the two paying jobs is that if I do get references, they'll be from clients rather than other graphic designers. T_T And as they're university pay, they'll most likely only last until the summer after I graduate--you know how those school jobs go.

I hope I start looking hardcore soon. My dearest ambition is for someone to call me hardcore. ^__________^ *is dork*

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Do you know onyx_shinigami on my flist? She is a Canadian who is teaching English in Seoul. You might ask her about how that is. You can always tell her that I sent you if you do not know her.

Whatever you decide to do, do not wait until school is actually over and done with. There is no magic starting line after classes are done. Start job searching now. I started looking for work as soon as I started the last year of school, and was working at an ad studio part time before graduation.

[animeartistjo.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the reference!

I'm already working right now, but they're both part-time jobs on campus. I'm also volunteering as an art director for an undergraduate health journal, so while I've been bookmarking post-graduation internship and job possibilities, I've a full plate right now. XD