Hello there,

Firstly, this forum is very cool and quite the helpful resource. :) Anyway, on to my question: I graduated in December from Berkeley with a non-design degree (English). However, I do have roughly seven months of industry design experience via a user interface design internship for a web start-up company which I worked on while in university, and which I am still continuing until I find a full time job. I am confident in the design skills I have built as a result of this internship experience but of course I understand that I lack formal training, so as I search for jobs I wonder am I at a great disadvantage not having completed a design degree? Can industry experience plus my portfolio of work substitute formal training? It’d be great to know what employers are thinking! Problem is, sometimes you apply to these online positions and you never hear back from them, so I don’t know where the heck my resume has gone or if it’s just floating along in space somewhere. :] Or perhaps I am just being impatient and the job search will take much longer than I anticipated?

I’d appreciate your advice on this matter!