Looking for a less competitive industry

July 3, 2019 10:46 AM

I've been looking for a design job at a publisher for almost a year, and I've had a lot of interviews, but no offers. I know that publishing is extremely competitive, and I'm wondering if I might have more luck in another industry.

I have a master's degree in Book Design and a BA in Graphic Design, and I've worked as a freelance typesetter for the Folio Society, and as a designer/copy-editor at a small illustrated non-fiction publisher. Are there any less competitive fields I could explore?

posted by Chenko to Work & Money (8 answers total)

Graphic design and marketing tend to go well together, as could any sort of events planning (though they may want you to have experience making large-scale events graphics) or anywhere that publishes their own materials, like financial institutions.
posted by xingcat at 10:56 AM on July 3, 2019

Industry! We all create publications - for example, a company I am quite familiar with publishes this glorious beautiful print magazine every quarter. I'm sure many leading companies in whatever industry do the same.
posted by rebent at 12:26 PM on July 3, 2019 [1 favorite]

Ad agencies and retail. Even grocery stores need someone to design ads and posters and signs.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 12:32 PM on July 3, 2019

My mom is a graphic designer. She's spent most of her career doing catalog layouts and some packaging design for a department store and then an automotive parts manufacturer.

I work for a nonprofit large enough to have its own graphic designers, who do everything from publication layouts to web design to banners for protests.
posted by showbiz_liz at 1:02 PM on July 3, 2019

You might want to look at museums and, as showbiz_liz suggests, other nonprofits. Most of the larger ones have graphic designers on staff.
posted by mygothlaundry at 2:04 PM on July 3, 2019

As mentioned above, many large private companies have their own designers on staff. These are often disguised as part of the "communications" department or marketing department.
posted by hydra77 at 2:08 PM on July 3, 2019

Higher education. The university where I work has designers and most of the colleges (and museums, arboretums, etc.) within the university have their own designers as well.
posted by belladonna at 2:14 PM on July 3, 2019 [4 favorites]

If you live near any large food manufacturers, most have packaging departments that employ graphic designers. Or on the flip side, large printing companies will also have designers on staff.
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 4:50 PM on July 3, 2019