Is an internship necessary for a career in graphic design?

How do I get experience to figure out if an animation/game design or illustration oriented career is for me?

• I live in Toronto where I'm finishing up a graduate degree soon in a social science area. I also have some experience doing Web design. Now that I have a lot of free time on the horizon, I want to seriously probe my career options. The one thing I'm really good at is drawing, both creative and true to life. My background is in humanities/social science research and not fine or applied arts. I'm intrigued by animation and game design, so avenues that are creative in some way are very appealing to me. Although I'm not a developer, I'm not allergic to programming. I want to explore my options by gaining experience in these areas but am clueless about how to be proactive in getting experience. I'm thinking that a next step would be to approach studios and businesses in the Toronto area and see what internship options there are. I'm not averse to going back to school one day (and I happily don't have any debt), but I don't want to commit to more school until I've made an informed decision and have work/volunteer experience under my belt. My questions: how do I figure out if creative work of some kind is for me, find mentors, and potential sources for employment/internships? What has worked for you? Where should I be researching?Thank you :o)

• Answer:

  I think one thing you could look into is the mod community. You'll get experience working with tools the pros use, as well as working with a team.