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On January 29, 2026, Emspace + Lovgren hosted Forge student office hours, welcoming current students and recent graduates from Metropolitan Community College, the University of Nebraska Omaha and Creighton University into our Midtown office. The event created space for open, informal conversations with our design, public relations and account service professionals, giving students the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about creative communications careers in a real-world setting.
Our team enjoyed connecting with students who were at different stages of their journey — from those still in school to those navigating their first steps after graduation. We’re excited to continue creating opportunities that give students a closer look at what working in a creative communications environment actually looks like. And because we know not everyone can attend events like this in person — or may not be able to make it when they happen — we asked a few of our professionals to share some of the advice and conversations that came out of the evening.
One piece of advice I shared with Patrick, a recent graduate of University of Nebraska Omaha, was about what to do in the space after graduation — especially if a full-time role doesn’t come immediately. I encouraged him to think of himself not just as someone looking for work, but as someone who is actively working right now. That might mean taking on freelance projects, but if those opportunities aren’t there yet, it can also mean creating projects for yourself. Find something you’re genuinely interested in, something you care about and keep developing it. Treat it like real work — because it is. Those projects can, and should, become part of your portfolio.
I think there’s a common misconception that once you graduate, your student portfolio is “done.” If you land a job right away, great — but if you don’t, the work can’t stop there. Continuing to build projects outside of class shows initiative, autonomy and curiosity. It demonstrates that you don’t need a syllabus, a professor or a client to tell you what to do next — you can identify opportunities and move forward on your own. That kind of self-starting mindset is incredibly compelling to someone hiring an entry-level designer or creative professional, and often says more about your potential than a sequence of class assignments ever could.
It’s so easy to hold yourself to an impossible standard as you’re exploring different paths early in your career (or even as you’re preparing for that step). In talking with Charley, we enjoyed discussing how that process and exploration of continual improvement can be hard, but also so much fun. Whether you’re trying to figure out how to write the best press release, come prepared with the best interview questions and research, or craft a great piece of storytelling for a marketing campaign, that practice of studying others, getting (so much) repetition and seeing how your work resonates with its audience is such an important part of the process. Nobody wins a Pulitzer, a PRSA award or a big marketing honor with their first article, press release or campaign. Very few do it with their tenth or hundredth, either! Once you stop expecting that and just focus on getting 0.1% better every day and adding new capabilities (rather than pieces of a pre-defined job description) to your skill set, it feels so much more like you’ve been given the green light to just have fun and experiment, fail, pivot, pivot again, improve and — ultimately — find success in so many new ways.
The advice I gave Oscar when asked about landing an internship or a job with an agency was to start by looking beyond the agency world. Agencies are flooded with internship requests from recent graduates and current students, which makes the odds pretty slim. It’s often more effective to look in adjacent spaces, places where there’s less competition and where an internship request might actually be welcomed. I used my own experience as an example.
My first internships weren’t at agencies; they were within nonprofit communications departments. After completing those internships, I reached out to agencies to ask about opportunities. In those emails, I clearly outlined where I had interned, the type of work and experience I gained, and who within those organizations could recommend me. That experience and credibility helped me land an internship with an agency, which also led to landing my first job.
This approach doesn’t guarantee an internship or job at an agency, but it does significantly improve the odds. It shows initiative, effort and a genuine commitment to your career. It’s about getting your foot in the door, and once you do, momentum can build quickly from there.
Although I’m not a designer, a piece of advice that I shared with Ryan, a design student at the University of Nebraska Omaha, is an important consideration for anyone in an agency role. When pitching strategy, creative campaigns or any other work to a client, it’s important to tie it back to their goals, what you’ve heard them say and the relevant research you’ve done. By teeing up presentations in this way, you’re setting a strong foundation for your pitch to their team. It not only makes it more likely that your message will land and resonate with them, but it also shows that you’ve been listening and are a good strategic partner.
We’re grateful to everyone who took the time to join us for Forge student office hours. We firmly believe that gaining insight into a real professional work environment while you’re still in school is incredibly valuable — it’s often one of the few times when access to people, places and perspectives is wide open.
With that in mind, Emspace + Lovgren is expanding one of our most popular Forge opportunities — job shadows — into a virtual experience. This upcoming series is designed to give students a chance to explore creative communications careers in a more accessible way, hear directly from professionals about their day-to-day work, and better understand how different roles function within an agency environment.
Whether you’re still exploring what path might be right for you or looking to better understand what early-career roles actually look like in practice, these virtual job shadow sessions are meant to provide clarity, perspective and connection — no matter where you’re starting from.
