Career: Deep vs Broad Experience

A question for the more "experienced" folks on the list:

In terms of career advancement and job security, is it better for an interaction designer to develop deep or broad experience, in terms of product domains? For example, would you recommend spending twenty years working on one type of product (e.g., websites) or twenty years spread across mobile, games, web, software, voice, hardware, etc.?

Obviously, this depends largely on what your personal interests are, career goals, etc., but I am just curious what insights experience in this field (e.g., surviving the dot com bubble) has given to those who are further along in their careers than I am.

Thanks,
Phil

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Phil, Good question. And why is "experienced" in quotes... sort of like "not that there's anything wrong with that"? : ) As someone who's gotten paychecks from lots of employers I feel especially qualified on this:

If we word and read our rants very precisely, I hope there would be wide agreement that broad experience undeniably makes the better designer. But you didn't ask that, did you?

"Career advancement" won't come from employers (unless Dave hires you at whoever it was that Motorola bought). It will come from you going both broad and deep and being forceful and strategic at business.

"Job security" has no source of which to inquire because it is as quaint as a steam locomotive. Do not read into this a negative connotation. The best work nowadays is often at volatile sites.

The correct combination of terms, that I will be coaching my kids for, would now be "career security."

The America job market is optimized for short-term returns. This means most hiring situations are fixated on "deep." If you are in an "employers' market" you are most likely to get a job by going deep on whatever is advertised. (Advertisements show employers at their worst, when they have done no planning. Expect to go to a place that has problems because they haven't mastered their environment and culture enough to plan.) If, on the other hand, you are in an "employees' market" put as much energy as you can into going broad.

www.jackbellis.com

Original Message From: "Phil Chung" gradlife79 at yahoo.com To: discuss at ixda.org Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 12:59 AM Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Career: Deep vs Broad Experience A question for the more "experienced" folks on the list: In terms of career advancement and job security, is it better for an

interaction designer to develop deep or broad experience, in terms of product domains? For example, would you recommend spending twenty years working on one type of product (e.g., websites) or twenty years spread across mobile, games, web, software, voice, hardware, etc.? Obviously, this depends largely on what your personal interests are,

career goals, etc., but I am just curious what insights experience in this field (e.g., surviving the dot com bubble) has given to those who are further along in their careers than I am.
Thanks, Phil Looking for earth-friendly autos? Browse Top Cars by "Green Rating" at Yahoo! Autos' Green Center. http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list . discuss at ixda.org List Guidelines http://listguide.ixda.org/ List Help http://listhelp.ixda.org/ (Un)Subscription Options ... http://subscription-options.ixda.org/ Announcements List ... http://subscribe-announce.ixda.org/ Questions lists at ixda.org Home ... http://ixda.org/ Resource Library ... http://resources.ixda.org

Phil-

As a hiring manager, I think the real key is developing a breadth of solution experience, regardless of domain. Having a number of tools and practices that you're expert in will make you an attractive candidate. Most employers will look for at least some experience or familiarity with their industry, but frankly that's the easiest thing to teach. For instance, just being an online shopper was enough for me to transition from application design to e-commerce. For interaction design, being a consumer is almost as good as domain experience...sometimes better, in fact.

The things you want to develop are your skills at solving problems, articulating your solutions, and creating strong professional relationships. Demonstrate your intelligence and passion, and above all your optimism.

And one secret I'll let out of the bag...anyone who told you to try and keep your resume short is doing you a disservice. Tell your story, and however long it is, well that's fine. As long as it's worth reading, I'll read it all. One page for every two years is a good rule of thumb, but your mileage may vary.

Good luck,
Dante

Dante Murphy | Director of Information Architecture Medical Broadcasting Company | A D I G I T A S INC. COMPANY

Original Message
Subject: [IxDA Discuss] Career: Deep vs Broad Experience

A question for the more "experienced" folks on the list:

In terms of career advancement and job security, is it better for an interaction designer to develop deep or broad experience, in terms of product domains? For example, would you recommend spending twenty years working on one type of product (e.g., websites) or twenty years spread across mobile, games, web, software, voice, hardware, etc.?

Obviously, this depends largely on what your personal interests are, career goals, etc., but I am just curious what insights experience in this field (e.g., surviving the dot com bubble) has given to those who are further along in their careers than I am.

Thanks,
Phil

I would take this a step further. A single resume is not enough. You need an introductory resume with a quick list of youir top accomplishments. One to hand over durring an interview - often a timeline of recent positions showing career progress. And, likely a comprehensive multi-page resume with great detail (think vitæ ).

Additionally - an online resume is different than the one you send - or the one you fax. Use your contextual design expereince and think about how each would be handed, read and reference in the specific context. There is not much more important a design project than this.

Also - make very sure you have a couple of good detail folks proof read everything multipe times. Good luck.

Mark

And one secret I'll let out of the bag...anyone who told you to try and keep your resume short is doing you a disservice. Tell your story, and however long it is, well that's fine. As long as it's worth reading, I'll read it all. One page for every two years is a good rule of thumb, but your mileage may vary.

I call myself a generalist. Which means I know next-to-nothing about everything. When I speak of my skills to hiring managers I point out that my expertise is in broadly applicable principles of design and evaluation. I show (by examples wherever possible) that I've applied these principles in areas such as enterprise software, Web applications and PC desktop development.

No, I don't write code. I used to, and I speak "geek" fluently. But someone who wants a crack AJAX/CSS coder ought not to hire me. If they want someone to help that crack AJAX/CSS coder create something people will find compelling, that is when they should hire me.

I have great respect for people who are focused expert specialists. I would never say they were worse than a generalist such as myself. It's simply the path I've chosen (or been forced, go figure) to take that I understand a wide variety of industries and apply skills from all over the IxD spectrum.

Because I don't think one path is better than another I suggest you do what you love. I'm a perpetually curious dabbler who always wants to be learning new things. "Generalist" suits me and makes me damned good at what I do. But that's just me talking about me. You need to decide what works for you and then learn how to package and sell that skill set.

--Alan

I would do it like this:

First priority ...
BE A DESIGNER. Any type of designer will do, but know your stuff about design theory and process as broadly as possible. I find that many in the UX world trying to transition from IA or Usability positions into IxD positions severely lack this in their work.

Second priority ...
Know the palettes/canvases you are asked to design for. In the case of IxD ... understand software generally, and if relevant web or devices

Without these first two things, you really aren't worth a heck of a lot to me.

Third priority ...
Design Research ... I mean how can you do the 1st two if you don't know anything about who or why you are designing. This includes standard UCD methods but also business methods

Extra stuff that can effect your ability to be hired depending on the type of place:

1. vertical market experience - pharma, financial, retail especially have strong affinity towards people who have worked in those environments before. Same with Advertising, publishing and media.

2. Type of organization: innie or outtie. Do you actually produce stuff? The environments are very different in terms of communication styles, priority development and often career path.

Thank you for all the wonderful feedback, and I apologize for the placement of quotation marks around the word experienced. I meant only to emphasize that I meant experience in the general sense — independent of years in the field, number of positions / degrees held, gray hair count, etc. :-)

Phil

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It will come from you going both broad and deep and being forceful and strategic at business.

I agree that both depth and breadth makes for an appealing candidate, but at the same time, most employers only hire you to do one thing really well. Because of this, I think over the span of your career, it's most rewarding and interesting to go deep on a particular aspect of the profession only for a while (say, withing one position in one company), then move to another and another.

When you start getting comfortable, it's time to reinvent yourself. : )

-r-

i agree, i think it's best to have a balance between the two. having a breadth of experience working on a range of projects is very attractive while having depth or expertise on a particular aspect or area of a discipline is also appealing.

Ari

On 3/5/07, Robert Hoekman, Jr. rhoekmanjr... wrote: It will come from you going both broad and deep and being forceful and strategic at business. I agree that both depth and breadth makes for an appealing candidate, but at the same time, most employers only hire you to do one thing really well. Because of this, I think over the span of your career, it's most rewarding and interesting to go deep on a particular aspect of the profession only for a while (say, withing one position in one company), then move to another and another. When you start getting comfortable, it's time to reinvent [trim]

http://www.flyingyogi.com

On Mar 4, 2007, at 9:59 PM, Phil Chung wrote:
A question for the more "experienced" folks on the list: In terms of career advancement and job security, is it better for an interaction designer to develop deep or broad experience, in terms of product domains?

The conventional wisdom up here in the Seattle area is that you should have a more-or-less "T-shaped" experience profile. Broad experience for the top crossbar, plus real depth in one subset of skills. Personally, I think this leaves out a whole host of potential letterform-based experience graphs, and we're only talking about two dimensions.

Nonetheless, the main trick is to show that you have the ability to solve the problems your potential employer needs to have solved. Broad experience in a business area (e.g., web, telecom, advertising, etc.) shows you know the general problem space for that line of work and that you can usefully communicate with anyone in that business. Deeply geekish obsession in a subset of areas is going to show that you're the only person insane enough to handle the problems specific to that area.

For example, would you recommend spending twenty years working on one type of product (e.g., websites) or twenty years spread across mobile, games, web, software, voice, hardware, etc.?

Never spend twenty years doing the Same Damned Thing — ever. Only trees do that, and the payscale for being a tree is lousy. I'm not talking about type of product / type of business — I'm talking about focusing on one specialization around one set of skills.

Personally, I'm transitioning from a long career in software support, documentation and testing into IA/UxD/IxD, but before that I was pretty handy with a wrench and a soldering iron, and before that, my academic work was in clinical psych, computer science and film animation. From one perspective, it looks like a scattered mess — but from my perspective, it looks like different views of analyzing, explaining and solving design problems.

You need to learn enough about what's at the core of _your personal work_ to be able to articulate how your personal work history is related to your problem-solving abilities, and to the problems your potential employers are trying to solve. Once you have a good grasp on that, you'll know which jobs are right for you, and which are just temporary.

- Will

Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

"The only people who value your specialist knowledge are the ones who already have it." - William Tozier