InDesign and the Job Hunt

If you have ever wondered whether you need to learn about bar graphs, foreign capitals and Adobe InDesign for your future career as a graphic designer, be assured many companies want employees with an InDesign background.

According to Peggy Snyder and Ian Manasco of Adobe Systems, Inc., Seattle, Wash., Adobe has a number of clients wondering where they will find InDesign talent. Snyder is North America education sales director and Manasco is product marketing manager for Adobe. In an email interview, they said students with InDesign skills today are ahead of the demand and will be in a great position as more companies continue to move to InDesign.

This is a job-hunting plus for students.

Snyder and Manasco said using InDesign would give students a competitive advantage of having the skills to get positions at firms where InDesign is used. Not only can these employees step into a company’s workflow without the company having to invest in training, but these employees can train others.

This is good news for college students who know InDesign and will begin a job search soon. But what about younger students? InDesign has been in the marketplace for three years. Like all products, evaluation of its staying power can take time.

So the key is to evaluate for students what the market will look like in the next couple of years and what skills will be required. The trend suggests that more and more customers in the workplace will realize the benefits of an Adobe workflow and will soon move to InDesign, they said.

Now you realize that knowing InDesign will help you in the future. But what about those bar graphs and foreign capitals? One day you will have to design bar graphs. Practice by charting the summer and winter high and low temperatures of major world cities. If you are lucky, maybe your employer one day will offer you an overseas assignment in one of those cities, one with a temperate climate. Your future awaits. Bon voyage.