Don’t get discouraged. When I started out, I had a spreadsheet to keep track of all my job applications. It was crazy how many places I applied to and didn’t hear back from. I think a lot of people just need to be reminded that it’s not a discouragement. It’s totally common and normal. It’s hard to recognize that when you’re first graduating and applying to a hundred jobs and only hearing back from a couple.Also, try not to limit yourself in where you apply. Think about how your skillset can be applied across various industries and companies. By using a wider variety of keywords, you may stumble upon a job posting or opportunity you wouldn’t have previously thought of — or even knew existed. And look for people who are where you want to eventually be and follow their path to how they got there. I like to use LinkedIn to look at people’s profiles and see what past jobs they held. You can pretty much exactly trace the path they took to get where they are.
Getting your resume reviewed professionally is helpful, too. USC and Annenberg have great resources and counselors ready to help you! I think a lot of people’s resumes when they first graduate might not be the most polished thing in the world because there’s not as much experience on there. But portraying yourself as the best possible candidate through your resume is your first line of defense. It’s so important to fit everything on one page that really tells the entire story of who you are. If you have the time, and if you’re applying to a certain job that you really want, taking the time to personalize that cover letter is really important.
How did you deal with setbacks during your job hunt?
When I was still in college, I applied to intern at Fox so many times and never heard back. But now I work there, so all you need is for one person to say “Yes!” It sounds cliché, but the whole USC “Fight On” thing is super true to my journey. Persevering and not giving up has really gotten me to places that I didn’t think I could go.
When I had setbacks looking for a job, I just doubled down and tried harder to make myself a better candidate. I think it’s important in a creative field to be a multidisciplinary creative and make yourself as versatile and valuable to an employer as possible. Because if you just pigeonhole yourself to one specialty, that’s going to close off a lot of other opportunities. I dabbled in creative fields like graphic design and video editing, so I wasn’t limited to just reporter jobs.
Getting experience in a little bit of everything has also really helped me become a better designer overall. Working for Snapchat, working on the tech side and designing for a mobile app — that’s all definitely been helpful now that we’ve launched our own app at Fox. So, all kinds of experiences have been useful in my current job as a designer.
How did you gain job experience as a student?
A lot of coursework that I did at Annenberg helped me prepare for real-world experience. Some of my favorite classes were “Sports Commentary” and “Sports Public Relations.” My sports PR class was taught by Jeff Moeller, L.A. Kings PR director, and we’d go with him to games. We went to Kings, Dodgers, Clippers and Lakers games, and we got to sit in the press conference afterward with all the media members. And that was cool to see as a student how things operated. I thought that was a great opportunity and probably one of my favorite experiences that you really can’t get anywhere other than USC. I got a lot of great real-world experience in my coursework and working for Annenberg Media and ATVN [Annenberg TV News], too.
Now that you have a job, how do you continue to learn and grow?
Working in the creative field, you encounter a lot of potential burnout. It’s hard coming up with a bunch of original ideas every single day and then waking up and going through it all over again. Taking care of your own mental health and making sure to give yourself breaks whenever possible is important, and so is finding sources of inspiration to just keep yourself going.
Another thing I try to live by is to avoid becoming complacent with my skills. It is really competitive, so you have to keep up with the latest trends — whether it’s design or social media — and be in tune with the general social conversation. I’m trying to learn different things every week. I was a journalism major, not an art major, so I don’t have that traditional art background. I’m always trying to learn new things, like illustration, new design tricks or new software. Not being complacent with where you’re at is really important in order to keep growing.
USC Magazine summer 2021
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