Burn Your Portfolio: Stuff they don’t teach you in design school, but should

109. Three-Month “Lifetime” Guarantee

I come from a family where I watched my father work for the same company for more than two decades. Naturally, I expected upon graduating from college that I would find a job and stay there for a while. I loved the idea of improving my skills over time and growing inside of a company.

I quickly learned that job security and a graphic designer’s life don’t exactly go hand in hand—this realized after I outgrew my first job in about five months and my second job in six months. My third job lasted about a year, and as I was leaving, the management team was busy running the company into the ground. The job after that lasted almost two years before the company became so financially upside down that I was given ...