There’s always a level of uncertainty that comes with entering the workforce after design school. But for the graduating class of 2020, that uncertainty is about much more than just where they’ll land their first job. Like so many of us, soon-to-be grads are struggling to maintain some semblance of normalcy at a time that is anything but normal. The rapid spread of COVID-19 is forcing us to adapt to the practice of social distancing both personally and professionally as we cope with the discomfort, anxiety, and collective grief caused by a global pandemic.

Everything about this moment feels surreal and lacking of any clear endpoint, and yet eventually, the pandemic will subside. So what happens after we’re allowed to leave our respective quarantine bunkers and reunite with our friends, families, and colleagues someplace other than a Zoom meeting? How will a post-Coronavirus job market affect designers who are just beginning their careers?

This isn’t the first time that students have graduated into an uncertain workforce—many designers working today can recall graduating during the dot-com bust or the 2008 recession. But it is an unprecedented scenario in many ways. We talked to seven design educators about what advice they have for students who will be looking for work in the coming months and what they’ve learned about the design industry from past economic downturns.

Look for jobs in government and in education  

“Having worked in the Bay Area and Tokyo, I’ve lived through the San Francisco earthquake, the dot-com bust, and in Japan the Lehman shock, the Fukushima disaster, and now this. I’ve found that most realms of design are incredibly fickle during an economic downturn, and teaching is something that has relative stability. This is a time in which companies and clients are seeing how much labor they can extract from people working from home so they don’t have to pay for real estate, pay annual salaries, pay benefits, or generally do the things that Fordist companies did for their employees once upon a time. I think that right now is really the time to get into design education if you are so inclined, and if you have a terminal degree, you can teach while still pursuing a career in the tech world.

“Right now is really the time to get into design education if you are so inclined.”

“For those not interested in teaching, be a bit more creative in terms of where you might be looking for employment. A friend of mine is a full-time designer for the Los Angeles Zoo which is owned by the City of Los Angeles. He is not even close to 50, and having put in nearly 20 years, he can retire within the next year or two. It may not seem glamorous, but he has had an amazing career working with animals and people who love animals—and he’s a City employee. That gives him incredible job reliability and a fantastic retirement plan. If you are a graphic designer who is just graduating, it is a good idea to look for potential jobs within governments.”

—Ian Lynam, faculty at Temple University Japan in the BA Art Program, Vermont College of Fine Arts in the MFA Graphic Design Program, and visiting critic at CalArts in the MFA program

“If you are a graphic designer who is just graduating, it is a good idea to look for potential jobs within governments.”

Target employers who think about design in a deliberate, strategic way 

“During the dot-com bust in the early 2000s—back when I was a junior designer clinging to job stability—design was widely considered a superfluous, decorative act. I do think that has shifted dramatically in 20 years. Design is now a strategic core competency in many sectors. That should mean really different prospects for junior designers just entering the workforce. That isn’t to say that this won’t be scary, but I think design on the whole is in a much more compelling position in the world than it was in 2001 or 2008.

“I think design on the whole is in a much more compelling position in the world than it was in 2001 or 2008.”

“My advice to job seekers would be to target employers who are using design as a critical decision-making lever, who are measuring design outcomes relative to the bottom line, and who consistently talk about design in a deliberate, strategic way. Indicators of this could include companies where C-level leadership have a design background (regardless of their titles), or where there is a pattern of investment in design-related projects over the last few years.”

—Kate Canales, department chair in the department of design in the School of Design and Creative Technologies at UT Austin

Reach out to people you admire—they’ll likely be receptive right now

“It might seem like nobody is hiring right now, but from the companies and organizations I’ve reached out to, 95% of the people hiring designers said keep applying, despite the situation we’re all in. Maybe the job won’t start till August or whenever this thing lifts, but just keep reaching out to employers.

“The separation between the higher up designers and those just starting out is diminishing, especially now.”

“I think that soft skills like verbally expressing yourself in the written word are so important right now, whether that manifests in a job proposal, a pitch, or just a thoughtful email to a potential employer or someone you look up to in the design community. The separation between the higher up designers and those just starting out is diminishing, especially now. We’re all at home. We all get it. This situation is awful, but what I have found is the design community has been mind-bogglingly great. Twitter, for all of its faults and issues in the past, has become an amazing family and people are being incredibly generous with their time, even reviewing students’ portfolios and offering advice. Don’t be afraid to hit up your favorite people, not necessarily for jobs, but just to engage with them and be in conversation with other people from the design world.”

—Mitch Goldstein, assistant professor at Rochester Institute of Technology

For lack of physical community, turn to social media

“I think this necessity to move the design industry and design education fully online has burned away a lot of residual taboos around working from home. We can’t debate this anymore. Working from home works. That’s just the reality. I think we will find the happy medium of these extreme pendulum swings that will create a hybrid scenario for learning and future design jobs that offer more flexibility to more people in terms of where they work or how they attend class.

“We can’t do a lot of things right now, but we can keep on making.”

“We’re going through some really tough times right now, but trying to find some amount of hope and opportunity for growth in this is possible. Even if it’s in self-care or caring for others. You can fall into a pretty isolated place if all you’re doing is sending out resumes and applying for jobs. But you can continue to refine your portfolio or create self-directed projects or start networking on Design Twitter or Instagram or these other social platforms where people are gathering. We can’t do a lot of things right now, but we can keep on making. It’s hard to get started without the structured time or social bonds of a creative community, but we have social media, so keep making stuff and showing your work publicly even if there isn’t a client attached to it.

“Take this time to regenerate creatively and learn how to connect with people at a distance. Everything we’re making is so experimental right now. Even ‘The Daily Show’ is being filmed on an iPhone. The rules are being renegotiated and rethought so now’s the time to be bold.”

—Lee-Sean Huang, AIGA design education manager, adjunct professor at Parsons and SVA

“The rules are being renegotiated and rethought so now’s the time to be bold.”

Take this as a moment to reassess your priorities

“Designers are well equipped for pivoting and iterating. We might not have a physical community right now or have access to tools and production methods, but we can adopt a “yes and…” improvisational approach to design. Embrace this moment: how can you make do with what you have? How can you foster community in digital spaces? I’ve seen a real spirit of generosity among designers in this time.

“Embrace this moment: how can you make do with what you have?”

“My hope is that we find a way to stay as supportive and generous with each other after this is over. This crisis is actually exposing the incredible problems, especially in America, that we have around class, around access, around ability, around identity. And I think those who are privileged are getting a pretty hard, clear picture of how much privilege they have. I am among those who are privileged in many ways. I think the only reason people are paying attention to those things right now is because the economic impact is affecting everyone. I worry that as soon as the flow of capital changes, people will develop short term memories and go back to business as usual. There’s so much emphasis put on productivity; it’s important to also know that we have limits in terms of what we can do during this time and moving forward. It’s okay to be gentle with ourselves.”

—Silas Munro, assistant professor at Otis and Design and advisor and chair emeritus at Vermont College of Fine Arts

Be flexible, and think about what your practice adds to society

“In previous recessions, there hasn’t been the same questioning of what is essential, and what isn’t. This could lead to a change in how we view visual communication practice. Be flexible, and be clear what your visual communication practice adds to the field, and to society. Embrace online platforms such as Slack to communicate with peers and tutors: many design agencies use these anyway now as a normal part of work, so it’s a helpful skill to learn now. Regarding productivity: just do what you can. Try not to worry if you can’t work at full capacity right now—it’s a long working life ahead of you and you can restart the momentum later, if you find you have to take the foot off the pedal during the current situation.

“I hope that in terms of visual communication, the industry will increasingly value visual communication as a socially engaged practice.”

Covid-19 has really illuminated who the essential key workers are in the UK and how valuable their work is to society. I hope that in terms of visual communication, the industry will increasingly value visual communication as a socially engaged practice, support the work of key workers, and look more critically at visual communication that doesn’t have an essential role to play in society, and even a detrimental role.

Despite everything, many students have responded with the most awe inspiring adaptability to stay creative during these uncertain times and some students have chosen to initiate projects to support society with the problems of quarantine. For those in their final year, it’s uncertain what graduation will look like, but positive outcomes might include more developed online communication of graduating portfolios, whether that is more comprehensive degree show websites, or platforms created to specifically to support creatives during uncertain times. For example, two final year graphics students at Central Saint Martins have launched the ‘Nearly Published’ platform to harness the power of the studio environment, online, to show the progress, the mistakes, that are all essential parts of the design process. The platform is there for creatives to ‘lean on each other, share our working progress and watch how we flourish into the creators we know we can be.’”

—Ruth Sykes, associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins and the University of Hertfordshire