[IxDA Discuss] Disillusioned Junior Designers

[Josh Seiden]

Jon,

This is a great post (despite the fact that it's based
on frustration). Thank you for sharing it with the
group.

My first thought on reading this was, "send her my
way!" Seriously, the problem here cuts both ways.
Interaction designers have trouble finding each other,
whether they are looking for work or looking to hire.
In my role as a hiring manager, I can't tell you how
many resumes I see from Art Directors, Creative
Directors, HTML Gurus, CSS Mavens, Javascript Lords,
Flash Goddesses, etc. (No offense! I love you all.
Really. I just wish I saw more resumes from people
that demonstrated an understanding of IxD.)

I do believe that one of the goals of IxDA is to
change this situation--by building ways for those of
us in the community can find one another, and by
evangelizing to those outside of the community.

Regarding your student, I encourage her to find (or
form) a nearby IxDA F2F. She'll find other like-minded
souls, and perhaps make connections that will lead
directly to another job. (Which it's clear to me that
she needs--immediately.)

Regarding educators... I hope that our schools are
teaching both technical and career skills. I have no
idea what your curriculum looks like, so I'll just
share with you some thoughts about the career issues I
see as important for designers.

First, I think we all need to be able to discern good
job environments from bad ones. This is difficult to
do without experience and without a model of what
makes a good work environment. 

For my money, there are two books on the subject that
should be required reading: "Peopleware" (Demarco and
Lister) and "First Break All the Rules" (Buckingham
and Coffman.) Although both are ostensibly aimed at
managers, both do an excellent job of describing the
differences between good and bad workplaces. They have
helped me create a model of what I'm looking for in
the workplace and of the type of workplaces I seek to
create. 

For example, "First Break..." offers a list of
questions that predict great working environments.
They include: 

1. Do I know what is expected of me at work?
2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do
my work right?
3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do
best every day?
4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition
or praise for doing good work.
5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to
care about me as a person?
6. Is there someone at work who encourages my
development?

(There are 6 more---buy the book!)

Second, I think it's VERY important for young
designers to avoid the evangelism business if they
can. It's hard enough to learn one's craft in a good
context. Having to be an evangelist implies that one
is not working in a the right context. (This is not to
say that we shouldn't be good evangelists, just that
we shouldn't expect that to be a healthy part of an
entry-level role.) When I see young designers working
in a vacuum--that is, when they have to be their own
support system--I always want to encourage them to
move on.

JS

--- "Jon Kolko [SCAD]" <jkolko at scad.edu> wrote:
 
> I want to share with the list an email I just
> received from one of my
> students. 
...

> I'm curious how other educators handle this. 
...

> I'm also interested to find out how the rest of this
> list feels ...