Design is About People: Precious Bugarin’s Job Search Success Story

When Precious Bugarin started her design career, she poured herself into fine details: the letterforms and flourishes of wedding invitations. Today, as Graphic Design Manager at Toole Design, she’s zoomed out, focused on how design helps people understand complex information. In this job search success story, Precious shares how relationships have opened doors throughout her career.

What do you do for a career? Who do you work for?

I’m a designer, art director, and educator. I currently work at Toole Design as their Graphic Design Manager.

What do you like best about your career?

I love so many things about what I do. My favorite thing is connecting with people; learning how to best communicate through visuals and vision. Early in my career, I hid behind my work — I was most interested in making beautiful things and speaking through them. At one point, I immersed myself in the small details of wedding invitations. 

My career is different today — I’m zoomed out. I think less about individual artifacts and more about graphic design’s impact on communication. I think I came out of hiding once I worked with nonprofits. I learned that visual communication can help people through things like community health campaigns and using design to translate complex information so that more people understand it.

What resources have helped you in your career and your job searches? Are there specific tools or tactics that have contributed to your success?

This comes back to my favorite thing about my career — it’s people! Investing in real relationships with trusted clients and peers (and now friends) has always helped me find full-time, freelance, and client-based opportunities. I found my job at Toole Design through Indeed, and I applied right away, no hesitation. My gut reaction to the job post paid off, and within 12 hours they contacted me for a screening interview!

Throughout your career, what obstacles have you encountered when doing a job search, and how did you overcome them?

Searching for a job is stressful and overwhelming. I’ve watched the job search change dramatically during my career. It was slower in the past — which helped you be more intentional about where you looked and what you applied to. I think my obstacle has been becoming obsessed with the online search — rather than seeing what’s around me. Getting offline has helped me, and using my gut on this round for sure! 

What piece of advice would you give to job seekers or professionals trying to advance in their careers?

Become a mentor or find a mentor for yourself! Mentoring/becoming a mentee helps you see your work in new ways, which could spark ideas about why you do it or what you want to do in the future. 

Because everyone is looking at the same resources online, consider how you can stand out by meeting people in real life.

Everyone’s job search story is different, but each individual story can inspire and empower others who are on their own unique path. We love to hear how our readers have found rewarding careers in Portland, and we want to share these stories with you to inspire you in your job search and to help us all better understand the local job market.