Talent alone simply isn’t enough anymore. You have to be a well rounded person to be successful creative in today’s market. There are a lot of things you can do to help yourself on the way, and LifeClever: Tips for design and life has some tips to get you started in the article titled Talent isn’t everything: 7 habits of highly effective junior designers. The seven habits covered are:
- Work quickly, produce a lot
- Attend to details
- Be versatile
- Make an effort to learn
- Anticipate problems
- Set goals
- Display a positive attitude
For your average designer or production artist, preparing your files for printing is nothing more than selecting “collect for output” from a menu in your favorite layout application. But if you want to be more than average, you should get to know the pre-press & printing process and how you can make your jobs run more smoothly. Gregg Stalter at PhotoshopCafe has a lengthy 
I’ve been looking at a lot of résumés at the office lately, and I’m highly amused by the lack of common sense, communication skills or creativity at all. People actually believe all those “how to write a résumé” books that basically make your résumé look like 10 million other résumés – which are the brainchild of a typing instructor from 1952!!! Be creative!!! And for heaven’s sake, PLEASE 
Following up on my previous post about 
One of the most often asked questions by new designers, part-time freelancers and those wishing to make a go at freelancing full time is what to charge. It’s a tough spot. Charge too much and you don’t get the work, charge too little and you end up with a bad taste in your mouth from eating frozen burritos 3 times a day. What I find the most is that most designers don’t charge enough. I’ve heard of people doing entire Web sites for $1,000, brochures for $300 or charging a whopping $25 an hour. This is insane! Here are some helpful hints on figuring out what you should charge: