Hi Bob, I'll echo Fred's advice: How is your portfolio? Most design firms and internal IxD departments put a lot of weight on this, not only as a way of seeing your work product, but also as a means of ascertaining whether you can competently tell a story (visually *and* narratively in the case of IxD) about your users, your processes, and your design output. Unfortunately, I think there is a bit of pigeonholing in the industry about Psych/HCI PhD = academic- or usability-focused as opposed to design-focused candidates, so you need to go to some extra trouble to go against stereotype. Figure out how to best tell your story in a compelling (style + substance) fashion, and half your battle will hopefully be won!
Good luck, Robert. Robert Reimann IxDA Seattle Associate Creative Director frog design Seattle, WA On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 12:36 PM, Bob Dickson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > Hi all, > > A couple of questions to put to the readers here. > > I have a degree in psych and a PhD in HCI both from good universities > and want to get a steady position in this field. I've done industrial > work (human factors multi-company collaboration into commercial > aircraft cockpit design - assessment and some design) and commercial > work (workflow apps both desktop & web-based, scientific desktop app, > oil exploration app - design, assessment, development) and educational > (commercial VLE - assessment). This last one was a 3 year project > though it also involved research into other professional learning > issues (CPD etc) which was a good learning experience. The scientific > app's project lasted for about 5 months, the aircraft for about 2-3 > and the rest were for a few weeks each. It's not a vast deal of work, > but it's varied and I think I have learned a lot more than if I just > did e-commerce webapps. Besides, I took this work because I really > enjoy working in this field and want to gain as much experience as > possible. > > But when ever I apply for a regular job, I am always told that I am > too academic and am turned down for interviews. IMHO, only my degree > and phd are academic (and then the phd was applied research). The rest > have all been for profit-making organisations except for a participant > in the aircraft project (a government organisation). > > What am I doing wrong? In IxD, is being seen as "too academic" a kiss > of death for an applicant? If so, the only experience I can get are > projects like these so what's the best way to break out and get > something substantial to prove that I can do this job well? I can't > afford to retrain and go back and take a masters. > > All the best, > > Bob Dickson > ________________________________________________________________ > Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! > To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe > List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines > List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help > ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
