Can't take it no more..literally going crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FuG!!!! No job listings for graphic design for months, none, zero, fuggin nothing! Called up a temp to temp agency, they fuggin told me my portfolio site isn't what "corporate america" wants. So I am thinking..has the past 4-5 years of learning and college just a waste of time?

Or should I change my site to a less graphical site and do barely any graphics with just simple text links...I am really close to making a simplistic looking site. Like one I could of made when I first started learning html.

I should of just went into custom auto body and fabrication. :(

Find another job, print, CG.
Or you could approach a gfx company or freelance.

i hear mcdonald's have some great health plans and benefits (from what i hear, its true too, lol) :D

hehe, that layinbody site looks like a porn site from the outside. I like the layout and colours

If you are looking for a corporate gig, I would tone down your site about 30 notches. Lose the orange, the glow... the matrix falling letter thing, pretty much everything, and like you said, simplify everything. You need to make it look clean, and professional. Right now it looks like you are a 15 year old that makes sites for porn sites and Counter Strike Clans. No offense or anything... it is a pretty nice design, but not something that would be considered professional in a corporate world. You could keep that site as your freelance site and try to get more creative jobs thru that, but for corporate work, you need to tone it down and simplify. Also, most of the sites in your portfolio are for car clubs with rap music and half-naked women. Again, not that professional. I would make up some fake templates that have a corporate look. Maybe make up a fake company, or offer a company in your town to do a web site for free or for very little money. You'll need a couple of professional looking sites in your portfolio to get anywhere.

Good luck.

Do any of you have any links to good looking corporate sites so that I can gather up some ideas?

you're not alone lowizzy - this is the worst time to look for work in 25 yrs.

try newspaper layout or small kinko's type places, try photo studios, print companys, etc. - and - are you willing to relocate? I got like 7 interviews from Monster.com because I was.

you gotta crawl before you can run. remember that. College is definitely NOT a waste of time/training - although sometimes it looks that way - trust me. Been there. Don't expect 60 G's either - I did. College bullsh*ts people into thinking they are runners, not crawlers.

hang in there, nobody will hire a grouchy, egotistical punk (re: me, not you )Keep your attitude good, and it'll all work out.

Yeah, I am a patient man, I am not looking to earn 50gs a year,I just want a graphic design job I am thinking of going to this community college near me and start learning PHP if they teach that. I think learning how to do databases would help me out greatly,but I could be wrong.

Yeah I could of had a job if I relocated to another state, but I am not ready for that move right now. What I dont understand, is what Deker said..why is a site with graphics bad now a days? There is a company that I tried to get into that charged 100 dollars + per page and it was corporate type websites,with extremely simple pages, and graphics that...blahh looked like crap and you can tell that they used filters to get cheesy effects.

I am just not getting the point...whats the point of a graphic designer, if there is no graphic design in a web page?

to answer Deker's query: Possibly because people mistakingly associate good graphics with slow loading pages. Corp's want to deliver their messages quickly, and to lots of traffic. Often times companies get graphically good looking pages without using photos and animations and flashy buttons and all that jive. - that's where color theory, 2 D/3D design, illustration, etc. come into play. (Most valuable part of my graphics degree was learning to handle criticism through critiques. I thought THAT was brutal...not hardly.)

the PHP mixed with graphic design - not for my white ass!!! Bold move! I'm too artsy to play by all the rules that come with code. Hell, that's why I hate HTML and CSS and XML and PHP and aaaaaagggggghhhh -- now I'm going nucking futs! :D

You have to balance graphics with load times... It's not like print. In web design if something doesn't need to be there, and doesn't add any value to the site, then you take it out. Because it's just another thing that has to be downloaded by people with slow dial-up modems and adds precious seconds to load time.

There really isn't that much creativity in most corporate jobs. I mean you can be creative, but you have to stick within a professional boundary most of the time, and can't go out and do something super original or different, because then it won't be like the competition, people won't understand it, etc.

The point of corporate web sites is to sell a product, or a service, or inform people about the company, etc. It is not a place to showcase your latest photoshop trick. Design takes a back seat to the information, and is simply a tool to present the information in a pleasing manner that doesn't make the site look too boring and not worth reading.

If you go to large sites like amazon.com, ebay.com, etc, you will see that they only have one or two graphics on the entire page (minus the pictures of items, etc). When you are trying to sell something or provide a service, you want to do just that, no impress the viewer with how cool the navbar looks. It just needs to be pleasing to the eye, but also simple enough to understand at a glance, and fast enough to load within a few seconds.

Some sites can get away with being graphically heavy, like photoshop sites such as this one, most band sites, movie sites, etc. Because the point of going to those sites is to be entertained and wowed by the special effects, pictures, etc. But when you are out on the 'net trying to find a toaster to buy, you could care less about the graphics. You just want to find it fast and buy the thing. So that's what you have to do for corporate sites... (most of them... there are always exceptions)