I have a similar background, and can speak a little to the reaction you get when mentioning a development background to prospective employers (for usability). I think it's okay to have development in your background, but what folks hiring for usability need to know is that you're going to be focused and happy doing usability, and aren't going to miss the development work.
In fact, I struggled a bit with this in my last search (just landed a job at a new company 2 weeks ago), and after a half-dozen interviews, discovered that I really DO like the hands-on design work, and wouldn't be happy doing pure-usability research. That's the funny thing about job interviews - you often learn a lot about yourself even from interviews where you didn't get the job. Never pass up an opportunity to ask someone why they didn't hire you. Most will just politely say they have other candidates, but a few will actually teach you something about yourself. I took a job as CTO of a 'dotcom' startup, so I get to do everything, which is exactly what I wanted =]. Hopefully, the pure-usability positions I interviewed for were filled with folks who wanted to do exactly that, and are ecstatic to be doing so... Bryan http://www.bryanminihan.com -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Steven Pautz Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 6:29 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] Tips on "breaking into" IA/ID/UxD industry for recent graduates? I'm also coming from a more development-oriented background, which doesn't seem to resonate with many people. (Anybody want IA/IxD/UX/PHP/SQL/C++/OpenGL/OMGWTFBBQ?) In a few cases, it seemed as though mentioning development experience actually hurt me more than it helped -- which makes sense given the number of developers who don't seem to discern between solution and implementation. I'm steadfast in my belief that technical knowledge can add value to design (when applied appropriately, just like any other discipline or tool,) so I don't want to just omit it from my resume/portfolio, but it seems as though some employers/people almost consider it a negative.... Has anybody else experienced this? --------------------------- Steven Pautz seeking junior- to mid-level IxD/IA/UX/UCD work http://stevenpautz.com/portfolio/ ________________________________________________________________ *Come to IxDA Interaction08 | Savannah* February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/ ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://gamma.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://gamma.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://gamma.ixda.org/help
