“Bigger studios [are] most likely to have the means to sponsor someone like you”

Creative Career Conundrums is a weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative industry answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.

This week’s question:

“With the rise in salary threshold and other rules passed by the government, its getting much harder for international students to pursue a career in the UK. Design is already a very niche industry, where little to none international design students crack into the job market, is it all for nothing if entry level creative roles especially in design studios don’t lead to sponsorship jobs?

I’m an international student currently on a post-study visa with a few years of experience in design from back home. I came to the UK over a year ago with the goal to get into a design studio, it’s been absolutely horrifying to not able to get any jobs because of having to be sponsored. I have a year and a half left on my visa and still don’t know if I will ever land a sponsored creative role in a design studio.

Is it impossible for design studios to sponsor international design students?”

Alex Bec, cofounder of It’s Nice That, Creative Lives in Progress and If You Could Jobs:

Firstly, thank you so much for your honesty and bravery to write in. This is most definitely a challenging time for the UK creative industry when it comes to full-time jobs – so remember, you’re doing this at a tricky time so please don’t let that context make you doubt your own abilities.

From my vantage point, it’s clear that the amount of full-time opportunities in design studios has dwindled over the last 2 or 3 years, with much more emphasis being put on freelance hires to give employers flexibility over their overheads during uncertain times. So as those full time roles decline, it makes sense that the sponsorship opportunities also decline alongside them.

With a year and a half left on your visa; my advice would be twofold. Firstly – can you get your foot in the door at some studios as a freelancer? Giving you the chance to show what an asset you could be for them, how you can help them thrive, with the hope that in time you’ll be able to convince one of them to sponsor you full-time. If you’re already up and running, know the team, the systems, the projects you may have more chance of landing that permanent role than if you were applying or interviewing cold.

Secondly, I’d do some research and look at bigger studios, with more resources who are doing well, as they’re the ones most likely to have the means and systems set up to sponsor someone like you. The burden of setting up a sponsorship for a small studio is much greater than the bigger studios who most likely have experience in doing so, so aim your search at some places that have the means. Also, dig around and see what studios have successfully sponsored before, as they are more likely to do again off the back of a successful prior experience.

It wouldn’t hurt to meet some great design recruiters (think Represent, Eden Marsh and more) who can give you a finger-on-the-pulse understanding of who might be hiring people like you.

Best of luck! Keep your eye on our jobs board for leads, and of course on the Creative Lives in Progress opportunities board too.

In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.

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