Smart Up, Schools!

Why is it so hard to be a designer professionally?

Seriously, why?

Well the easy answer is that there are more designers than there are needs for designers.  Whether this is a short term economic problem or a long term “new normal” remains to be seen.  But why are there too many designers for not enough jobs?  Is it too easy to become a designer?

Design schools might be too easy to get into, or too easy to get through.  It is considered by many to be a lesser form of making, and the standards of design schools reflect that.  You can be an engineer if you want to make stuff.  You can be a construction manager.  You can be a craftsman.  But designers are too often filled by the ranks of those who are interested in glamor, not making the coolest stuff ever.  That changes the conversation in the classroom, and therefore, in the resulting working world.

Now there are a ton of people out there who want to be designers, and not enough jobs to support their dreams.  Disa-freakin-ppointing.

Becky