Freelancing
I caution students to not count on freelancing when they first graduate. Freelancing is networking, if you don’t know people in the business you won’t get much work. Plan on working for one or two graphics companies, giving each one about two years. In those four years, you will (1) learn so very much from working with other professionals and (2) make an incredible number of contacts. These contacts won’t necessarily become clients but they will know someone who needs your skills… networking.
Freelancing is also a lot of hard work. Imagine going on job interviews 3-4 days a week to get one job that will pay about $150. Do that every week for several months and you might build up a client list and a reputation for quality work.
Lean times always seem to hit freelancers first. Agencies and studios will try to keep their staff busy rather than send work out. Even if their people take twice as long to do a project it is cost effective to keep them busy first.
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I agree it is very difficult to get work as a freelancer. I am in the Graphics program currently. I do some web design and graphic design for other small business owners, like myself. I fell into this as a freelancer because I had some experience through a past employer where we did everything in-house. People liked what they saw and asked for my help.
I realize there is a lot I don’t know and, while some things never change, other things change all the time. That’s why I am back in school. Even though I do some work now and things are growing off of referrals, it can be exhausting looking for work. As Earl said, it’s like going on multiple interviews and then not making much from the job sometimes.
It is an ongoing challenge to never know where your next check will come from, when it will arrive or how much it will be for. Working for someone else for at least a while, provides some stability and security in addition to learning so much from others who are more experienced.
I agree with Earl that the experience of working for someone else in your field is invaluable. Thanks for sharing this important piece of information.