I would have a pretty good idea what to do these days I think; I'd be all over the internet (not in that way) with a FlickR account, personal web page, Twitter account, Facebook page, public sketchbook etc. to infinity and beyond etc. I'd be writing letters which had been proof-checked to perfection and printed on beautifully designed personal stationery. My portfolio would be razor sharp and I'd bolster the content with voluntary work including charity work and impressive examples of various disciplines undertaken whilst in numerous stints of work experience in decent agencies. I'd apply for every job I could - not just the ones in the paper that plops through my door, even if it were just for the interview experience, and I'd follow each meeting up with a pleasant phone call to get some feedback about my interview performance. It's easy when you know how.

The heartbreaking trouble for students is that they don't know how and their courses which teach such fantastic depth in terms of creative left-brain thinking or whatever it's called now - don't seem to cover basics like how to get a job. I mean this with utmost sincerity and I'm not trying to knock anyone, but I think it's a genuine issue and it was certainly the case for me. How do you write a CV that is intended to get you that all important first rung up the ladder? Are you supposed to make some kind of clever post-modern reaction to your work experience that has wow factor (that you have forgotten to put your telephone number on)? Which agencies do you apply to? Who do you address the letters to? Where are the jobs listed? What are you supposed to do when all the jobs request minimum of 2-3 years commercial experience? Certainly my degree had no useful input into these areas, they were far too concerned about asking us to write tens of thousands of words about Russian typography (or something just as lame) for that.

It's a crying shame when I think about some of the high-flying student associates I had - people with real talent, who for one reason or another have fallen by the way-side and are now working in a completely unrelated field. I don't want to insinuate that what they are doing is somehow less important or  without honour, or even that they are scraping a living driving a bus or whatever. But even if Joe Shmoe is now on £65k a year doing very nicely selling those paperclips to the Budapest office of whogivesashit.inc they would probably prefer to be doing what they trained in - after all, they chose that career path for a reason. I can't help but think if there was a more direct method of actually teaching students about the big wide world that they are about to enter into then less talent would go to the dogs in the wake of financial demands and the cosh of existence. For my money there's too much pressure on students to be ideologists and very little support with regard to practicality.

We get quite a lot of enquiries here from plucky youngsters looking for some experience and a nod in the right direction and I admire their tenacity and hope they continue with their struggle until it pays off. Not wanting to condescend - if I had my way I'd take each one of them by the hand, pat them lovingly on the bottom and send them on the fast-track to design success, but sadly we aren't in a position to help just yet. I have compiled a little check list of things to do to help students before approaching an agency in search of a leg-up:

1) Run a spell-check on what you write - even if it's an email
2) Get someone else to check what you have written and then run the spell check again
3) Include some work examples
4) Don't include 50mb of work examples
5) Show respect, but don't kiss ass - that is the path to the dark side my friend