Some advice for a junior designer?
18 Nov 2010 - 2:37pm
5 replies
746 reads
woobijewels
2010
Hello.
I need some help from you guys. Where do i find jobs or how can i market myself to find a job as a user experience/visual designer? I just got a job last year working in a fortune 500 company but just two months into the job, the department shut down and I'm having the hardest time finding work again. What do I do to show companies that i can perform at a higher level than what my years of experience shows?
Thanks!
-Jewel
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Hi Jewel,
I'm sorry you were laid off! The market is pretty hard right now.
Some companies won't consider you, no matter what. They have a rigid mindset and just won't talk to anyone outside their specifications. That's perfectly fine - they're not the place for you anyway.
However, other companies will be open to talking to you. Show them you are very serious by doing extra work up front - send them a critique of their current UI or a solution to a design problem on their site along with your cover letter. Also, make sure you've got a portfolio of strongly relevant work. If you need to, take a month or so to look at a bunch of major websites and "redesign" them - then put those in your portfolio as design exercises. (Do NOT misrepresent yourself as having a relationship with those sites though! It's important to always be honest)
Also, consider smaller companies where other skillsets you have might give you a leg up. Startups and small companies need people who can wear more than one hat - and as they grow they'll let you specialize. So you can start as a Visual Designer/Copywriter, or User Experience Designer/Product Manager and rack up experience points, then focus down on just your chosen field once the company is a little bigger.
Good luck to you!
Hey,
check out this post:
http://www.ixda.org/node/23949
Regards
Ali - FINALLY got a job in the field of UCD!
Is it possible to copy protect, patent an Interaction Design? Need a little bit of insight, thoughts or discussion on the topic.
On Dec 5, 2010, at 8:11 AM, Richard Carson wrote:
> Is it possible to copy protect, patent an Interaction Design? Need a little bit of insight, thoughts or discussion on the topic.
The short answer: yes, but it's expensive, and difficult to enforce.
Plenty of threads about patents in the past, including our discussion about NOT having discussions about specific patents on the list:
http://www.ixda.org/search/apachesolr_search/patents
Dan
If you're looking to build your portfolio on your off time, you could do contracting work off of websites like http://99designs.com/ to show off your skills.
-Emily