Career planning.

First of all, I want to say THANKS to all of you for the many encouraging comments and emails I received in response to my blog about going back to school. I can say that it's pretty much official now that I will be starting classes in April! After I begin my classes, I plan to post weekly updates on my blog about my progress and post pieces of my portfolio work along the way. I know I will need lots of support and encouragement and I think this will be the perfect place to get it! 

The more research I do, the more I realize that its near impossible to just jump into a career in freelance design. It's a very competitive market and keeping a steady booking of clients is a definite challenge. But even though I keep finding more and more challenges to this career, I must say that I have never been more sure about anything career-wise in my life. I know this is the right direction for me and I've never been so excited to learn and work! It's kind of scary jumping into something so new but I have so much peace about it and full confidence that I can succeed. To get going I have come up with a loose 3-year plan for myself, with the end-result of having launched my career as a freelance web designer...

I will begin classes and training in April and continue my full-time job at an advertising firm until our end-of-summer move. After moving, I will pursue a part-time job and increase the workload of my classes to finish as quickly as possible. During this time, I also plan to interview several successful freelance designers to gather advice and ideas for my future career. I want to be realistic and ready for what I am getting myself into.

I will complete my certificate in the summer of 2011 and at that time will have the following design-applicable items on my resume:  

•  BS in Business Marketing
• Professional Certificate in Web Design (Emphasis in Graphic Design) 
• One-year internship in admissions marketing at Biola University
• 18+ months as an account assistant at a successful advertising and marketing firm
• A portfolio of 20+ professionally critiqued pieces of web and graphic design

Isn't it amazing that everything I have done up to this point has set me up for the perfect career as a web designer? And it just happened that way. I mean, I only figured out what I want to do in the last few months! My business degree has given me the know-how to work for myself (i.e., setting up business plans, contracts, project management) and my previous job experiences have given me valuable insight into the world of marketing, as well as handling clients, billing, and time management. Without knowing it, I have been setting myself up for success all along and have seemingly just "fallen into" a great career path. That's God working right there... He knew the future plans he had for me way before I did!

Okay, back to my plan. In Summer of 2011, I would like to find a job at a company in web/graphic design, while on the side beginning to build my own online-based design business. Working for a firm will provide the steady income and growing design experience while I take the time to set my business up for success. Within a year or two (hopefully by the beginning of 2013), I plan to make the switch to full-time free lance designing, working for myself and doing what I love to do! My career will no longer be bound or restrained by our ever-changing, always-moving life in the Air Force. Actually, the fact that we will be constantly moving will help me to gain clients in just about every region of the country. 

As you can tell I am so excited about this... Three years is not that far away!