In one of my last posts I talked about having a career plan and alternative career paths. One of them was being an interior designer and an architect and the other was being a product photographer. I chose them because they are things that I am passionate about, enjoy doing and learning, but when I was researching on the industry here in Australia, my thoughts on both career paths started to change.
Being an international student or simply being a foreigner looking for job opportunities is not easy. Even before you get to that specific country, you should take the time to research how is the scenario and job opportunities of industry you want to work in. Something as simple as knowing if you can get a job just by saying you are an architect in another country.
Even though I always had in mind of studying a diploma here in Australia, I never thought it was so difficult to find a job as an architect. In Colombia I have 8 years of experience in my field, but as I got here, I realized that experience is not worth because of the lack of experience in Australia. For an architect to work in Australia it is mandatory for that person to be registered as an architect and have an understanding and knowledge on building codes.
At the beginning I would look at job offers and almost all of them had these two requirements, but I didn’t know how important they were. As I started with my report and my research, I started to understand that they in fact were extremely important and for me to start as an architect here in Australia, I would have to study something related to architecture and register myself as an architect.
I knew that I didn’t want to start all over again with architecture, therefore I decided to study Master of Design, but the thought of “loosing” my experience as an architect is something that scares me.
I have always wanted to start my own studio, in which my experience as an architect will be used to develop and coordinate projects. It has always been a dream to have my own brand, my happy place to work and design. But that dream has three things that I often think of and that make a huge impact in my 3-year plan:
Pursuing architecture in Australia is complicated.
Being an Interior Designer in Australia is easier and the experience gained is one of a kind.
Living in Australia or living in Colombia.
That third thought is one that pops into my head every single day, for me to stay here I must do a lot of things that sometimes I don’t know if they are worth it (but that is enough topic on it own for another blog post). Sometimes I do feel it is better for me to gain all the experience I can here in Australia for as long as I can and then go back to Colombia to create my studio with that international experience and appeal.
During one of our classes, Michelle, our teacher, pointed out that for some people, going after their career path, meant living things behind, making sacrifices, and moving around in the world. For me it means going back to my home country, which is awesome, but leaving a beautiful place like Australia.
Alternative Career Path
At the beginning of the research, I wanted to focus only on product photography, but after getting to know the industry a little bit more, after interviewing people in the business, I realized that being a graphic designer also meant being a product photography, branding or logo designer, copywriter, illustrator, etc.
And so, the alternative career path changed from product photography to graphic design, which is more exhausting and difficult to pursue, but it has two things that make me want to also go for it. One of them is the possibility of staying in Australia and the other is starting something that I am completely passionate about. After doing my diploma on Graphic Design and being in the Master for just a few months, I have realized I can be more passionate about graphic design than interior design or architecture.
This career path comes with a lot of work, and it takes me out of my comfort zone completely. While interviewing Rachel from Bright Yellow, one of the things she said that was extremely important for me, was the fact that we need a website were our projects and our abilities are displayed. Taking into consideration that I have now work experience as a graphic designer, I would have to start creating projects to showcase in my website. This must be done while getting to know the industry more, studying and improving my skills.
Then comes the tricky part of looking for internships, volunteer work or hopefully an actual paying job that gives me that experience I need in the industry. In my case, being an international student, this must be done in a specific time frame because of the type of visa I have.
In this case, for this plan I would love to stay in Australia, Colombia has a lot to offer in terms of job opportunities, but it is also fair to say that the graphic design industry in Australia is better than in Colombia. Also, I would be starting from scratch here in Australia, in my other career path I would also be starting from scratch but not in Colombia.
All of this to reach my goal: becoming a freelance graphic designer with good experience, an awesome website and portfolio to have the opportunity to travel the world and work from anywhere. If I’m jumping out of my comfort zone I might as well dream big.
At the end, my plan was only to stay one year in Australia, but I have been living here for two years and have two more years to come. Many things can happen, and many things can change. In only one month I went from wanting to work on product photography to wanting to work as a branding designer.
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