In her position, Chua creates digital work and designs for various events ranging from small weddings to music festivals and fashion shows.
Chua found this job through ziprecruiter.com, an online employment search engine. She said location helped narrow her online search to jobs located in California cities and Chicago.
“I wanted to be close enough to family but still have my own life outside of that,” she said.
Chua explained she switched from painting to graphic design because of the increasing demand for graphic designers. She also said her search for paint-related jobs came up dry.
While Chua had taken several graphic design courses through IU and could use Adobe Suites programs comfortably, she recognized she was not as qualified as many other graphic design applicants. Regardless, she sent in a resume, an online portfolio and cover letter to Kehoe Designs and got an interview a week later.
Despite being able to quickly find a position related to her area of study, Chua said the job search was more difficult than she expected.
“For weeks, I would wake up and apply for jobs until I fell asleep — looking for a job became a full-time job in itself,” she said. “It was a lot of rejections, even more waiting around for responses and very few interviews.”
Out of the 150 jobs she applied to, she only heard back from 30 and of those responses only three requested interviews.
Chua graduated IU having earned scholarships, fellowships, internships and freelance work experience, and she said this was what frustrated her most about her unfruitful job search.
“None of it seemed to matter when you’re a kid without any real working experience,” she said. “It was a really emotional time in my life because it felt like all the work I had to put into school didn’t get me anywhere.”
Chua said she has also not painted since she left IU.
“While I was in school, I did the BFA program in painting because that’s what I was comfortable with, but as I took classes in ceramics and graphic design, I realized that I was more interested in exploring new mediums,” she said.
Chua said the speed of her recent digital work has given her insight into how she plans to approach her studio practice in the future. She indicated she plans to work more quickly in paint to prevent herself from getting bogged down by what she considers imperfections.
As for her future, Chua said she will always put graduate school in consideration but is happy where she is right now.
“I love my job and the life I have right now, and it would take a lot for me to put that on hold to go back to school for something that I’m not as passionate about right now,” she said.
