At Jobcase.com, we pride ourselves in being the social platform for every aspect of your working life. The members of our community represent a rich diversity of work and life experiences that we all can learn from. Read on to hear the perspective of our featured Jobcaser – Sanjit Saha (https://www.jobcase.com/p/sanjit.saha).

Sanjit is from London, England and has an extensive print and web design background. He spoke to us about how he uses Jobcase to not only to help her in his job search, but to help other people out who are in the similar situations that he has faced.

Can you tell us a little bit about yourself? Sanjit: I’m Sanj - I’m a web designer, and more so, a digital designer. I started my career back in 1994, working in print graphic design, and it’s just kinda progressed into this digital field. I started off working for a company called “Little Black Dog”, which is a publishing house, and I used to do the marketing peripherals and all that, and all of a sudden, they needed a web presence. That was back in 2003. I had never done web design before, and it was just a learning curve for me. We started off with Flash, and progressed into code, and I designed their website for them, and with a development company, we managed to get their wholesale online bookstore launched. When the recession hit, they went belly up, and I found myself in the job market again. Three weeks later, I got a job with a company called “Red Tie”, they are a web-to-print company. This was my next step in going from a graphic designer to being a web designer. I did all the front end design for their sites.

What do you think about the Jobcase community? Sanjit: This is a little better than Facebook, because Facebook is not useful in the job market at all. It’s good for selling stuff, but not really all that if I wanted to get a job. I wouldn’t ever put my CV up on Facebook.

I found it interesting to get onto Jobcase and work with some of the stuff on there, and I thought that maybe I could help. There are a lot of people on there, that are feeling a little low about themselves, because of what has happened over the last 10 years, since the market crashed. And gradually people have started losing work. The older generation in particular have found it difficult to get another job. From my experience, I can share what I did, when I was made redundant (laid off). I was made redundant (laid off) twice, and I thought to myself “how am I going to get another job”, because there were no jobs to be had at that time. No permanent jobs, only three month contracts and I had never contracted before. So I rebranded myself. My sort of thing is, I’m an illustrator to begin with - so I illustrated my CV.

What keeps you coming back? Sanjit: It makes me feel good, for starter. Secondly, I want to help other people. I go onto Jobcase to help, especially the older generation, they’ve done graphics for a long time now, they are quite good at it. They aren’t getting any work. The older generation may think they can’t do it, but yes they can, and they have a hell of a lot more experience. I just go onto Jobcase to tell them that. I have been in that situation, that they are in right now, and I want to help out by sharing the experience that I have had. It gives you confidence if you go on Jobcase, and you start interacting with other people, because you need that when you go for a job. You want to be excited about stuff, you want to be excited about yourself, you know you can do it. Everybody needs help sometime.

You can make a difference in someone else's life. Plus, it’s nice, you make friends!

What’s the best advice you’ve been given, and what would your words of wisdom be to the community? Sanjit: Never give up your dreams, just work on your dreams. And sooner or later those dreams will become reality. If you are passionate about something, you should do it. Don’t go for a steady 9-5 job, where you will be bored in ten seconds. Go for something that you know that you really like.You should always follow your dreams, and work on those dreams. If you need the tools to get there, you should learn how to use those tools in order to get there.

Do you have any tips or advice for job seekers looking to start or get back into the design world? Sanjit: Find your niche and build on that. I’m an illustrator at heart, I have sketch books everywhere. If your thing is photography, you should follow that route. But get to know all the things that will actually make you successful. You can draw with a pen and a paper, but I also need to know things like Illustrator and Sketch in order to develop them into a product that can be sent to market. Because I’m the product, I’m selling myself, these are my skills and I’m good at it. That’s the way your mind should work. It’s basically learning new skills to enhance the skills that you already have.

Anything else you would like to add? Sanjit: Drop me a note, and I’ll come back to you, and I’ll talk to any designer looking for work. I’ll help them get through the sticky patch, to get to where they need to get to. It’s all about helping other people out.

Want to connect with Sanjit? Follow him on Jobcase!

Interested in being featured on Jobcase.com? Send us a message to schedule a time to speak about your experience with Jobcase!