As my time at Cohorted has begun to come to and end as my original plan was to leave in September before university starts again (before my actual contract with them ends in November), I felt like it was important to let my manager know now and have a quick chat with him.
The chat with Anthony was very quick and brief as it was quite a busy day but the main things that he mentioned was that it would be a shame for them to lose me as one of their designers completely and that the company can work around my uni schedule and do half days for example.
This chat got me thinking about several different things, which is why I felt like I needed a follow up phone call and chat with Anthony in order to get some answers.
Things to mention and ask:
- Would I be able to do a couple hours a week even? What would be the minimum per week...Since I’ll have uni deadlines some weeks etc
- Need to mention to him that I’ll be in uni at least 3/4 days a week and at least 4 close to deadline
- Would this just be until November when my contact ends?...If he says I could carry on afterwards then ask whether it will still be an unpaid internship or will it be a paid job properly working for them from then onwards
UPDATE
This morning I arranged a phone call with Anthony to go over some questions and thoughts that I had.Notes made from phone call:
- Anthony said the opportunity is there to start working full time and paid for them after university
- They can work around my uni schedule and be as flexible as needed- I told him Wednesdays would be the only definite day off weekly and he said I can do half days etc
- He also mentioned that they need me as much as I need them, as the company is growing bigger
- They wouldn’t wanna lose me completely and said he wants to introduce me to more of the design content for the brand moving further, as the quality of my work is good.
- Anthony mentioned that I have the opportunity to start adding more of my own creativity into the design content for Cohorted- as I now know all the basics, rules, and aesthetics that Cohorted use for their branding. Moving forward I will be focusing more on design for print (booklets and packaging) as most of the work I've done so far is design for screen.
I was really happy to hear that they want me to continue working for them as a paid job after graduation as I feel that my biggest worry for after graduation was struggling to find a design related job in a studio, so its a massive relief that I have something secured. But I will of course still keep my options open for other jobs and freelance work.
I spoke to family and friends about this and they all agreed that I should keep this placement throughout university where I can if it means I have secured a job for straight after graduation. Also, third year of university is still my biggest priority so it is convenient that they can be flexible with my uni timetable.
Furthermore, the contract for my unpaid internship is till November, so at some point when I have my next chat with Anthony and ask whether I would start getting paid after that as I think that is fair.
A selection of the work I have done over the past month:
