Schools, universities, books and magazines, classes, tutorials, trainings, they all teach us techniques on how to make the computer work for us, helping us grow from beginners into experts. They help us express our vision, however they don’t teach us the most important lesson: the experience we gain from working on real projects for real clients. These real projects have tasks that need to be completed and limitations to be considered, deadlines to be respected. These are all projects that have an ending, serving defined purposes, for which we get paid afterwards. Having worked on a lot of projects, I can say that all these projects will give you the experience that you need to go on, evolve, and maybe get hired at a better workplace/company/agency.
As a young designer, you can gain experience in many ways and from many directions.