Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Is admiting to being a student a disadvantage to ones professional credibility?

A peer on my PostGrad Dip Garden Design course has discussed, all be it not in depth, the concern that publicly presenting themselves as a student, as I do here in this blog, will lead to potential clients perceiving them as unprofessional or inexperienced and immature in some way.

I can't deny I have pondered on this, however I AM in experienced in this profession, I haven't delivered scads of garden design and builds yet. I am NOT however inexperienced in dealing with clients, delivering costly IT & business change projects, on time and on budget, consistently buying products and retailing them at a reasonable net profit sit amongst many other skills I've developed in a 20yr career in business, volunteering and consulting.

Several of these roles has had budgets far far in excess of even the most exorbitant garden design project even I could imagine (ok, yes we are talking millions of the multi kind!) So I suppose I'm saying I bring several important and well honed skills to the proverbial party.

So dear reader should I quit this blog? Cease from showing the world my current inexperience? my frustrations at levels of learning? am I shooting myself in the professional foot?


n.b. I should perhaps also stake the claim that I qualified as a designer in 1986, in the form of a BA hons degree in Graphic Design ;)

4 comments:

  1. Rosalind, I don't think it's a bad thing at all to admit your are still studying and sharing your experiences with the world. I got my first decent commission as a student and was quite open with them and the first client I got once I had graduated that I had just finished, they were more than happy, thought I'd be good value for money and enthusiastic - and I was!

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  2. I have always been open with people. I am working with a client at the moment and doing a green roof - I have never done one of these and been very up front about it. They have bought into me and my philosophy - rather than my experience. I think it usually pays to be honest whatever your profession

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  3. Thanks Elspeth, it is good to hear others experiences and approach to these things.

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