Some points to address from a number of respondents. Steven Pautz: I don't look at development experience (or any other ancillary skill) in a negative light, as long as it's positioned as ancillary. I have no interest in a candidate who markets himself as a Project Manager on his resume, or leads off with examples of his development work. I'm hiring an IxD, and I want one who is dedicated to that practice.
Where ancillary experience may work against you is when you have a ton of experience as, for instance, an art director, but no real experience in IxD. I may not be able to pay you based on your employment experience because your ability to produce is only commensurate with an entry-level IxD. This actually happened just recently, which is a shame because I liked the candidate, but I have to be realistic about how happy and retainable he'd be at that level. Dan Saffer: As so often happens, you're dead right. At the entry level, I want talent and passion. At the senior level, I want talent, passion, and experience. It's all incremental. And I totally agree, I can teach you every skill you need if you have the passion and the talent. Robert Reimann: Can't speak for other agencies, but my company is absolutely interested in entry-level IxDs. First of all, there aren't that many senior-level candidates who are available AND are worth their weight in spit. Second, I think it behooves a manager to plan for advancement, attrition, and growth. Your department should be balanced and diverse. Having nothing but aging all-stars is a recipe for inevitable collapse. Anyone a Yankee fan? Dmitry Nekravoski: Driving a design to successful execution is EXTREMELY important in an agency, especially one with ongoing relationships and in-house development teams. I agree that development experience is relevant in both scenarios, but this relevance is not limited to "innie" work. Will Evans: "Fresh out of school, an agency is just not the place to work." It may not be right for everyone, but I absolutely disagree. I just had my 3-month review with my newest full-timer, a recent grad from Drexel. He's doing a great job, and not just by my estimation, I collected feedback forms from his clients and collaborators. As I said above, I like to keep my group balanced and diverse, and experience is a factor in that. By taking a bit of a chance on this recent grad, I'm getting great results from him AND a co-op for less than most senior people would demand. And let's face it, there's a lot of production-style work in every assignment. This is giving my "junior" people a lot of exposure and experience, and lightening the load on the more experienced staff. At the same time, both the new guy and the co-op are getting great experience on a variety of assignments, and are migrating from support roles to leadership roles. They're doing things that I didn't get a chance (as an "innie") to do until I'd been doing IxD for almost 3 years. If a recent grad believes in himself and has the chops, I would outright recommend agency work for the pace and diversity. (I agree with the rest of what you have to say, Will.) That said, if anyone out there is looking for entry-level work in '08, keep in touch. Contact info below. Dante Dante Murphy | Director of Information Architecture | D I G I T A S H E A L T H 229 South 18th Street, 2nd Floor | Rittenhouse Square | Philadelphia, PA 19103 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | www.digitashealth.com ________________________________________________________________ *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
