In my career, I’ve observed 3 areas of discipline that are critical for designers: 1) Design sensibility (”the eye”) and technical ability, 2) being able to communicate your ideas clearly and defend them against criticism, and 3) business intelligence and diplomacy.

It seems that you need BOTH a level of experience in college and a level of real world experience to round out your education. There is nothing that teaches you more about design in the real world than being up against a strict deadline, feeling the pressure of having to deliver for a client that doesn’t care that you haven’t slept in 2 days. That being said, school teaches you about working with others, adhering to deadlines, work ethic, and enjoying learning and progressing.

If I had to choose, I’d probably choose the self-taught work experience route, but it’d be close. I say this because after interviewing and hiring designers in my own career, I can say unequivocally that your portfolio and your personality are the most weighing elements on whether you’re going to get hired or not. It has more to do with your aptitude as a designer and your ability to fit in and work well with the team than your degree.

One thing nobody has mentioned that I believe would benefit everybody, having to work a customer service job. Dealing with people in the heat of a tense situation teaches you more about yourself and life in the real world than any school or online tutorial can.

How far up you go is kind of limited by your degree though. Especially so in the corporate world. My little Big Ten degree pales to some of my co-workers with degrees from Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. Now, they don’t do design but much higher level client and business development work. I could go back to school and get a Master’s degree in business to take that next step up from Creative Director but… nearly 18 years of school was enough!

Note, I do Agency work now but have lots of Corporate experience.

Seeing as I’m in first year at college, I’m still pondering whether I should stay or leave and be self-thought. I already keep up with blogs and books which I find incredibly useful but if I leave school, I’ll be missing out on stuff such as being critiqued by like-minded students and professors. Which really helps because you may think your design works, when in reality it doesn’t. It really helps getting a fresh pair of eyes to look at your work.

ps: You mentioned CrowdSpring and getting work through contests. It may work for some new designers getting their foot in the door but I still think it should be avoided. Even though I’m still new to design I wouldn’t rely on this as this basically spec work.

Thanks again for the article. Really enjoyed it.

But as much as I would wish to think that “If they lack of knowledge or talent, and the serious employers and principals will choose the designer with an adequate portfolio” this is unfortunately rarely the case in real.

When a company turns to a graphic designer, it usually has no idea of good or bad design as long as it’s called design, and at this point the only matter is the price of the service… so it often happens (and I have witnessed it) that amateur graphic designers get the job because they are cheaper as they have no degree… and this is very sad in my opinion.