USC graduate Laura Boshammer, 21, has proven that sometimes it takes a little initiative to land your dream job.

Ms Boshammer’s rather “off-road” career path has taken her from responding to an administrative job advertisement on Facebook to designing Australia’s leading 4x4 magazine in less than a year.

“It’s been an incredible ride,” Ms Boshammer said, “but the design principals I learned during my degree have enabled me to progress in ten months from an admin role to designing the entire next print edition of Pat Callinan’s 4X4 Adventures magazine.”

Having completed a USC Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Design and Communication, Ms Boshammer began the hunt for employment as a graphic designer.

While working for a local photography firm in Brisbane, Ms Boshammer was alerted by a friend to the Facebook post advertising an office administration position at Australia’s leading 4x4 media company, Pat Callinan Media. The only catch – it was in the outskirts of western Sydney.

“It was a big move and took a lot of courage moving to Sydney for an admin job but I knew it was a great opportunity to get my foot in the door of an expanding publishing company,” Ms Boshammer said.

“I told them up front that I aspired to work in graphic design and after two months of working on admin I was moved to the design team.”

Ms Boshammer, who grew up in the small town of Brigalow near Chinchilla, said the extensive groundwork laid by her USC degree program had given her a strong foundation for the design work she now carried out in both print and online media.

“We have also just released the latest edition of our monthly digital magazine, Unsealed 4X4, which has been one of the most exciting and interesting projects I’ve ever worked on.

“I can’t believe the development and progression this project (and I) have made in such a short space of time.”

Photo: Lauren in the back seat of a 4wd during a staff drive day.

— Brent Hampstead