Hi,
Here's a question for you all along those lines. What's a good way to
create a new portfolio, when all your past work was company
confidential? (i.e. I cannot use any of it)
Can you suggest some projects to do on the side perhaps, which are
meaningful (i.e. useful), but can then be shown as portfolio
experience? Perhaps this will take too much time to do, not sure.
thanks
mark
Robert Reimann wrote:
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
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