

How am i supposed to get the experience you want? - joshuahornby

I recently got turned down for a chance to work with a company on some new designs for their website. When they approached me they didn't know i lacked experience as they like the few designs of mine which they saw, once they found out i was a student i offered to work for FREE and if they like the designs then we could arrange payment and carry on working. This still didn't tempt them, so the question is how do i gain experience if you won't give me a chance?!
======
kfcm
Don't let your experience with this one company demotivate you. You had what
they wanted (they sought you out, not the other way around), and were willing
to work with them on contractual terms. From the sound of it, you did things
correctly.

My main guess is they had a bad (very, very bad) experience with either a
student [intern] or recent grad, and don't want to take the chance again.
Second guess, they want to hire someone full-time, so there's no "work-for-
hire" questions later on and no non-company distractions for deadlines.

Now, what you've discovered out of this is your designs aren't just marketable
--they sell themselves. 90% of the battle is getting your foot in the door. In
this case, the potential customer walked in. That means others will too. This
might be the time to start marketing yourself and your work a bit more.

~~~
kappaknight
Agreed. You will have many more opportunities come your way if you keep
pushing out good stuff. If they're unwilling to work with you over this simple
thing, you probably don't want to be there anyway.

------
pedalpete
At what point did you offer to work for free?

If they liked your designs, you shouldn't be offering to work for free, even
for the experience. Show them your value.

Like the other say, don't let this one experience affect you, it is likely a
one off.

I'm working with a bunch of start-ups in an incubator at the moment. Send me
your portfolio and I'll pass it around and see if we can get you some
experience. pete kitchon

~~~
joshuahornby
After they said they were looking else where. Thanks you very much, for now
all i have is this: <http://dribbble.com/joshua_hornby> and also
fibrestar.co.uk which is a site i designed and coded. although I'm working
hard to learn and grow my skill set and portfolio. Like i said I'm more than
happy to be on a 'trial' period when working and i would love some real world
experience. Thank you pete.

I also have my site: joshhornby.co.uk

~~~
mrgreenfur
Nice looking sites! Your home page has some huge background images, the site
is over 5mb! You really should down-sample and use repeating background images
to cut this down. A site this simple should be under a meg at most, I think.
G'luck!

~~~
joshuahornby
I agree and it's on the list of things to do tomorrow. I was in a rush when
pushing the site out and forgot that the images need optimisation. Glad you
like the design though.

------
pasbesoin
Ongoing support may have been a concern. Transitions in support are expensive
and fraught with their own risks.

I'm not saying you couldn't provide satisfactory service and support. But if
you are looking for possible perspectives they might have.

(Support is not just sufficient skills and/or prior experience. It's "will
this person be moving away to or after college?". "Do they have emotional
maturity/stability?" Etc., etc.)

As for a practical approach on your part, I agree with the others here: Move
on. You're doing the right thing in looking for what you might address with
respect to this experience, in future endeavors. But there are many other
opportunities out there, and they won't all have the same hang-ups.

For example, you might encounter someone who was given a break when they
started in their career, and so who is willing -- even eager, perhaps -- to do
the same for someone else, if and when it seems like a good fit.

Last year, I put significant effort into helping out a family member whose
business had gotten their web property "behind the eight ball". When it came
time to decide and coordinate, however, their partners dismissed my
suggestions without ever really looking at the work or the documentation. Best
guess: They had hang-ups about bring a partner's family into the work and/or
relying on same.

Sometimes, it's not you, and there's not much you can do about it.

~~~
joshuahornby
Good advice. A fresh way to look at the issue, I like it.

