I agree with the "If you can execute, they will come" point. I live in the non-agency, FT product development and implementation side of design - mostly big enterprise apps and small startup products, and gravitate toward managing design and development teams. Design is in my DNA, so all of my teams have to have a design component. That means I need at least one person on my team to keep the usability factor ahead of the geek factor.
If you're new to the field, and looking for someone to shadow or for whom to intern, the best I can say is: bring your strongest skillset to a job, even if it's unrelated to IxD or design, and be passionate enough about design to move into that role on your own. I led a usability research team for a large company awhile back, many of whom were master or phd-level human factors folks. While they were all absolutely brilliant researchers, by admission, most of them could not execute their recommendations beyond Visio, PPT or Photoshop. To maintain our relevance in the organization, I did most of the translation into functional prototypes for the team. I learned many new research techniques from them, and they didn't have to worry about the "geek stuff". Once I left the company, however, the group eventually dissolved for lack of tangible impact on their projects. I guess the point is: If I have budget for one designer, and a resume for a genius researcher, a photoshop guru, or a front-end developer with a passion for the previous two, I'll pick the third resume. Otherwise, I have to do the front-end work, and I'm not getting as much for my budget. Bring something to augment your desire for IxD experience, and you won't have a problem going where you want...just be patient and expect to spend several months to a year slowly moving into the role. Bryan Minihan Email: [email protected] Cell: 919-428-4744 Web: http://www.bryanminihan.com LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bryanminihan On Feb 25, 2010, at 10:16 AM, mark schraad wrote: > I hope this is not too much of a tangent... > > Over the last month I have probably looked at close to a hundred resumes. > This is only partially specific to the Chicago area, but there is a ton of > talent out there. There are a lot of folks with excellent educational > background, wonderful experience and great portfolios to show. What I find > myself more and more concerned with is the ability to partner with product > and technology folks to move great design forward and into the market. > Frankly, it really does not matter if you are the worlds greatest uber > designer... > if you can't sell it, work collaboratively and push your passion through the > labyrinth of compromise. Not everyone needs to have these skills, but in my > world it will surely get you hired quicker and make you a more complete > professional. > > This has been my call to the world of education (both under grad and grad) > for the last year or so. You have to do more than supply studio skills. You > have to teach students to think, to adapt, to explore and to work in their > future environment. > > Mark > ________________________________________________________________ > 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
