[IxDA Discuss] Disillusioned Junior Designers

[Tommy Eskelinen]

Hello,
Here's my word of advice for young people ;-) 

- Being new in any company means you have to gain the trust of your
co-workers to be heard. As a junior, you have to prove that on-site, bit by
bit. As a Senior you probably have a good track-record that helps you along
the way. For me this means that as a junior you should try to do change in
small quantities in order to build up that trust. 

- In any company you will have politics. As a newcomer with a broad
knowledge you might pose a threat to some of the other employees, be this in
the graphical design area, be this in the marketing area, therefore people
don't trust you. As a senior you usually are higher up in the hierarchy, and
are considered more of a leader and therefore have more trust. For me this
means you need to keep a quite low profile and speak up in terms like "Could
we do like this...?" and also pick your fights, don't try to win every
battle (I guess this goes for all levels)

- Get to know all the details of the product/company you work for, listen to
the old people. Not many companies welcome change easily, my guess is that
many companies are risk averse. Why risk losing 50% in sales to gain 20%% in
sales. This is why the product development process many times is done in
baby-steps. For me this means that I try to listen to all people in a
company to understand how the company makes money, and find innovative
solutions for things that would add value to the core product or for things
that could develop into a money maker in addition to the core product. There
will come a time for when you will get to do that major change that you look
for. 

I guess it all renders down to patience and hard work, or maybe I'm just a
manipulative son of a female dog.

Thanks,
tommy

-----Original Message-----
From: discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com
[mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.interactiondesigners.com] On Behalf Of Gabriel
White
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2006 3:26 PM
To: jackbellis.com
Cc: discuss at ixda.org
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Disillusioned Junior Designers

[Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted material.]

Jack,

Understand your point.

The guidelines I suggested should probably be used to help evaluate
potential employers, not as set of minimum necessary requirements.

But also, I'd strongly encourage graduates to at least find a
workplace which has other experienced and passionate interaction
designers. Even if the organisation is screwed up, there will
hopefully be opportunities to learn from experienced practitioners.
Without that it's going to be a much longer road to travel.

Gabe


On 8/26/06, jackbellis.com <jackbellis at hotmail.com> wrote:
> [Please voluntarily trim replies to include only relevant quoted
material.]
>
> Gabe,
> Each of your bullet items properly distinguishes good Ux environments, but
> the sum of your letter's parts presuposes that recent graduates (or most
of
> us for that matter) choose our employer. For most folks, that was barely
> even the case in 2000 at the height of the 'employee's market.'
>
> Being a US-East-Coast-er, I'm constantly impressed by the abundance of
> sophisticated Ux job posts from the Bay Area, but surely that is not an
> accurate measure of the "long tail" that comprises most of us scratching
and
> clawing to do Ux work.
>
> -Jack
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gabriel White" <gabrielwhite at gmail.com>
> >
> > My recommendation to graduates who want work in IxD is to look for a
> > company that ...
>
> ________________________________________________________________
> Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
> To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
> List Guidelines ............ http://listguide.ixda.org/
> List Help .................. http://listhelp.ixda.org/
> (Un)Subscription Options ... http://subscription-options.ixda.org/
> Announcements List ......... http://subscribe-announce.ixda.org/
> Questions .................. lists at ixda.org
> Home ....................... http://ixda.org/
> Resource Library ........... http://resources.ixda.org
>
________________________________________________________________
Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)!
To post to this list ....... discuss at ixda.org
List Guidelines ............ http://listguide.ixda.org/
List Help .................. http://listhelp.ixda.org/
(Un)Subscription Options ... http://subscription-options.ixda.org/
Announcements List ......... http://subscribe-announce.ixda.org/
Questions .................. lists at ixda.org
Home ....................... http://ixda.org/
Resource Library ........... http://resources.ixda.org