First Job Advice

Teju Abiola

rachy

@teju-abiola Sounds exciting! Good luck Teju! I hope it all goes well. My advice from various 9-5 non-art jobs is to take a little notebook with you and if someone’s giving u lots of info on something take some notes. I’ve found sometimes at a new place it can be information overload at the beginning and it helps to be able to remind myself of things by looking back at my notebook. xX

Teju Abiola

@rachy That's a great idea! I kind of already do that, and I'll remember to carry it over to work. I get overwhelmed really easily so this will help a lot!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@teju-abiola WOAH! I'm so happy for you.

Teju Abiola

@nyrryl-cadiz Thank you

rachy

@teju-abiola I hope your 1st day went well

Teju Abiola

@rachy It did! Even more excited for the second one!

Eli

@teju-abiola So glad to hear! I was wondering also and sending good vibes your way

Teju Abiola

@eli Thanks

rachy

@teju-abiola brilliant I hope the rest of the week goes as well xX

Sarah LuAnn

Congrats! I'm sure you'll do great. They're lucky to get such a hard working, enthusiastic intern, whose work is also gorgeous.

As someone who has had 2 different 9-5 art jobs (though each for a relatively short time), my advice is to become the queen of "under promise, over deliver," especially when it comes to delivering art on time. If you're asked how long it will take you to get something done, give yourself a generous margin in case something takes longer than you think (it usually does.) And then if you deliver early, well, happy surprise! If you don't get to pick the deadline, keep in mind how much time you have and choose your concepts accordingly--maybe that complex idea is super cool, but if you need to get it done TODAY, well, maybe this simpler concept is better.
On a somewhat related note, finding a process that lets you deliver good work on time, rather than endlessly-noodled-with-and perfected-amazing-work late, is awesome. In my first art job, I will freely admit that I was probably one of the poorest artists in the group--some of the work I did then I'm really embarrassed to look at now. I would look at what my co-workers were turning in and feel really inadequate. I didn't know until later, however, that I was the only one there to consistently deliver work on time. That got me a long way with my supervisor, and when she mentioned it to me it made so much more sense why she kept me on.

Anyway. Probably unnecessary advice (basically boils down to "turn stuff in on time," which we all know from years of school anyway) but you asked ;-).

Teju Abiola

@sarah-luann Thank you This is great advice! My mentor told me that he'll start out giving me a lot of work to see what I can handle, so finding a good process to help deliver on time is probably some of the best advice you could have given me.