Career Track Tuesday - Recruiting Creative Graduates

Asda Home and George
Clare Gillen  is the design manager of Asda Home and George. She graduated with a 3D design degree and went on to do freelance in textiles in places such as Next and  Marks & Spencer.

For Asda Home and George, the design team does four trend presentations from all four seasons each year.

It is important to do research on competitors as the retail sector is a hard sell and you most make sure that the idea will sell and therefore you will have to sell them to senior team.

The design team usually have to sign off samples and give feedback of the item to then present it to the senior team.

There are 9 designers on the design team and is fast paced and there is a lot that is expected of you.

There is usually 4 stage recruitment process at Asda.

A design graduate would to apply for the design assistant role. Asda Home and George designers usually go to design exhibitions to find new recruiters or if they know of you and your work or if you have interned there before, they are more likely to give you a job.

Zeal
Ross is the Head of Development in Zeal and had graduated 15 years ago with a New Media Production Degree.

It's not a bad thing to say that you are still learning.

Clients can be wrong but so can you -  you sometimes have to be resilient and diplomat.

Portfolio -  quality over quantity - submit your best work and don't try to fill it up with work that you don't particularly like.

You will be Googled by employers.