Perhaps I wasn’t clear
:crazy:
It doesn’t matter if you learn how to tie your shoes or you learn every single thing there is to know about Graphics Design while in school. What you learn makes no difference.
In the current market, to get a good paying job and be able to get another job if that one ends for whatever reason, more and more companies are requiring:
**- 3+ years of experience
- BA in Graphics Design or Similar**
It’s not a matter of knowing how to do it, the companies don’t want to hire people that don’t have the degree. Why? I don’t know, I think it’s bullcrap, because it required me to go to school after working in the Industry for 7 years, having a strong portfolio and significant savoir faire.
When I was laid off, I was a Lead Designer for a mulit-million dollar software company, making $65,000 a year. I was lucky to get 3 interviews out of at least 200 I sent out.
Arriving at the interviews, I found out that I was competing with 13+ other candidates, many of them with more experience, and nearly all of them with some sort of BA - be it in marketing or art. I just couldn’t compete. When given two equal quality portfolios and similar experience, employers go with the guy with the degree, because it shows that you are willing to “stick to it” in college and blah blah blah.
Here’s a test: Go to http://www.monster.com and do a search for Graphic Design. Read the criteria they require now. Unlike just 3 years ago, nearly everyone wants a huge amount of experience (which most of us have), but also that BA. That piece of paper.
So, I’m going to try and and get a double major in Graphics Design and Broadcast Design. I won’t learn much in Graphics Design, I’m sure, but I’m hoping to pick up more about print. Broadcast Design, however will be something new and exciting, and could be quite lucrative.
At least then, I have two industries that have to reject me, instead of just one 
As for the whole become indispensable, be careful with that, because no matter how indispensable you think you are - you really aren’t. At WhisperWire, I was the 10th person hired. I was the man who built all of their marketing, their collateral, their brand and identity, who built the interface for their software, and who did whatever it took to make the company look good.
I was one of two designers, one who was focused solely on HCI and developing the inricate layout of pages based on my visual design. He knew nothing of print, nothing of collateral, and had never branded a company in his life. He worked for Development, I for marketing. Our workload was insane, always busy, always with tons of projects that had to be finished.
Yet, on November 17th, I was called into the Board Room as my CEO and my VP of Marketing informed me that I, in fact, wasn’t indispensable to the company, and that they would be handing me my walking papers.
What you think companies have to have, as far as Graphics and Design go, is a far cry from what the CEO and managers think they have to have. WhisperWire’s website has outdated information now, poor, pixelized graphics on the main page, and their software’s interface is becoming stale and unnattractive. They haven’t released sent out a direct mail campaign or done any sort of collateral since I left. All the things they had to have when I was there are now deemed unnecessary, just as I was.
So, with this line of reasoning, watch out, because there’s always someone who doesn’t think you’re necessary for the company, and there’s always someone cheaper who can take your place 
:pope:
