If it is of even the slightest interest to you I still suggest you take all points with a generous pinch of salt.

Many thanks for reading.

- Was never meant to be taken literally and was meant to be taken very much in general
- Some people did take it far too literally and even thought I was talking directly about them and a particular company and a particular job
- Was meant to spur on anyone to Do something about the work they are doing if it was making them unhappy (if they wanted it, only if they were looking for some kind of push). No one is much use to either themselves or their employer (if they have one) if they are unhappy. It is easy to rant/rail/moan/gossip about a job but if it ain’t working out and you are doing something that is wasting your – and other’s – time, then you really owe it to yourself to do something else.
- Believing you can change most things is the easy bit. To keep believing is where it gets harder.
- It’s not the fact that it’s work, it’s the fact of what the work is.
- And contrary to popular believe, you probably build better relationships with clients when you are contracting/providing services.
- Recruiters when trying to hire and not explaining what the work involves (and more often than not having no understanding of the work itself) encapsulates everything wrong with UX recruitment.
- If your not passionate go do something else.
- The previous post really seemed to hit a spot with quite a lot of people as though I had single handedly encouraged a dismantling of all responsibility.
- The previous post wasn’t directing people to walk straight out the door. It was a reminder to always think carefully about what you are doing, where you are and how your working life is working out for you. Small adjustments can make the differences.
- No piece of writing let alone some inconsequential blog post is for everyone. If you don’t need encouragement, if you are happy, then it wasn’t for you. But there are some people who have itches and itches that keep itching and these people need to keep moving, doing their own thing. (Maybe the post was for them, maybe it wasn’t.)
- No need to complain about encouraging folk to do their own thing. Some folk are cut for the long haul and some get those itches. Everyone needs to encourage people flows. Itches shouldn’t be allowed to bleed. You don’t need to get up people noses. There maybe unsettling periods as different people find their comfortable positions and their place in the world. Reward the right people with the right things for them. It is no simpler than that. Hostility rarely attracts loyalty. We are all different and we all have different skills. There isn’t just one solution.
- In terms of the UX design community in London, you can’t have everyone in a full time job and in the same way you can’t have everyone contracting, running their own little shows. Balances have to be struck.
- Great people come in many many different shades and don’t always work/operate exactly the way you want them to. Don’t try and box them in.
- You should go it alone/start your own thing up for the right reasons. Don’t just leave a job to coomand higher rates. That’s a shit reason. Don’t do it for money and less responsbility. Do it because you want to make something, create something. Do it because you want to be able to select projects where you can make a difference, take responsbility, work hard. Deliver.
- Don’t expect everything to just be delivered to you on a plate. Nothing comes easy, least of all being worthwhile, doing something worthwhile (either on your own or in collaboration with others).
- The action is to start something, be something, take risks, don’t panic, don’t fear, explore, think beyond your horizon, don’t be dominated by money don’t think in terms of money. Try it.

//@solle
//London

Ramble on UX job networks

There are many recruitment companies providing services to the burgeoning UX community both for permanent and contract opportunities. However, many of the more established people in the UX community prefer to steer clear of recruiters (some are as less impressed with them as they are with estate agents) even though a few of them provide a decent service and are trustworthy and honourable. Many prefer the “peer-to-peer” UX job network. Here there are no rules of engagement or membership hoops to jump through. There is just getting out there, getting networked, being liked and doing some decent work. From that point people will offer you work directly and word will filter through that you are trustworthy and can actually do what you say you can do. The satisfaction of gaining work (and also passing on work to others) by word of mouth with no motive of financial gain is extremely rewarding. There really is no bullshit. Far fewer “email me your CV in Word 97″ requests and far more concentration on actually providing UX services that produce results. Caution should be observed whenever discussing job or contract disgruntlement as word travels quickly across such a well connected community. This isn’t always a bad thing as bad employers/contracts should be outed but involvement in criticism can become complicated.

When this word-of-mouth-UX-job-network is strong in your town, you know your UX community is doing ok.

These job networks also highlight that even when membership numbers burgeon in your UX Community (London IA is fast approaching 1,600 signed up members on the Ning-hosted pages), there is the sense that the community is physically smaller than you think (especially when you keep bumping into the same people even in a metropolis the size of London). The laws of community state a strong active centre with many smaller groups of less active and interchangeable people orbiting. The people in the centre you keep seeing are the ones that keep things going. Without them your UX community would be far less active (and strong). But the orbiters keep the breadth of interest and tend to draw new people in regularly.

No rules

Ultimately, I think your UX community should have no rules, no guiding principles, no committee, no permissions, no hierarchy, no best UX community. No one has the right to say they are in charge – if they were elected then maybe the election was a waste of precious energy better spent doing. A community should have no walls or barriers to entry. A community is ultimately just a group of groups and activities.

There is just doing. Like sticking posts in the ground and congregating around them. Activities, groups and meet ups should spring up and state their claim whenever and wherever they want. They can all co-exist quite happily and don’t necessarily have to co-operate or synchronise. Overlapping is fine. There is a huge audience and many different interests. The more touchpoints the better. The UX community doesn’t need organising or a committee to decide what is best for it.

So my advice to you – just start doing.

However, I hope that is now going to change with a renewed energy to incorporate a London-based mentor/work with scheme directly into the London IA network with the long-term ambition of integrating partnerships with the UK UPA and potentially the IxDA.

To summarise the original call to action from a year ago but with fresh input:

There is no doubt that the UX community in the UK (and in particular London, Brighton and the South East) has gone from strength-to-strength and grown in confidence. Groups and events are burgeoning and selling out, the community is thriving on a more diverse menu of workshops, talks and meetups organised by an ever-expanding community of interaction designers, IAs, researchers, service designers, UX architects and designers, content strategists, front end developers and good old visual designers hell bent on stamping London (and the South East) as an epicentre of user experience design and thinking. Books have been published, events have been organised, awards have been won but everyone in the community is approachable, helpful, sharing and supportive.

More and more people are moving into UX design, interaction design, information architecture, experience architecture (or whatever you would like to call it) and there is a growing sense of collaboration, sharing of knowledge and experience and resources. UX people are getting to know each other – a real community is being born – and it doesn’t just exist online, people are searching each other out and really getting to know each other.

UX people are sharing work and jobs through many channels including of course Twitter, but as more and more ‘junior’ and less experienced (and some non-experienced) people join the community is the community providing enough tools for them to get started, get experience, and to get work?

There is no doubt that it serves us all if the UX community goes from strength to strength but if we don’t help the more junior and less experienced/inexperienced members with work and learning opportunities a large divide between the experienced and the inexperienced is likely to open up and this isn’t going to help anyone. A unified UX community with a good balance of experience will ensure credibility. It will educate. It will create. It will strengthen and it will definitely improve the online experience.

There are existing initiatives such as the mentor programme at the IA Institute and various intern programmes but I believe we need to do more – more direct and localised action that assists every new member of the community. We as a community – a growing, collaborative, social community renowned for grace, humility and sharing – need to do more.

This is where the London IA Mentor Scheme comes into play to encourage senior, experienced members of the London and South East UX community to support and assist junior and/or inexperienced members of the community to get work and grow their experience and portfolios.

Full details of how it will work are in the process of being finalised. It will be hosted on London IA and will seek to remain open, friendly, and as serious as you want it to be. And it will be free – there will be no costs associated with being a member of it.

In this vein there are plans to develop other initiatives such as developing and supporting members of the community who would like to develop their presence on the conference circuit. We have already made a crack at this with the EuroIA Predux Workshop and will be looking to do more.

More on this will follow on London IA

Any thoughts reply to @london_ia or @solle on Twitter

If you are unhappy in your job – leave and if you aren’t excited about work every morning – stop whatever you’re doing and do something else.

This is what we need to live by.

If you aren’t being challenged in your job – leave.

If you are cruising in your current work – leave.

If you aren’t sweating it at present and feeling under pressure – leave.

If you think you understand everything that you are doing where you are currently working – leave.

If you aren’t failing enough – leave and go find somewhere where you fail before you succeed. When you find yourself succeeding too often – leave again.

If you think you are successful – leave and find something or somewhere where you aren’t. When you become successful again – leave again.

If everyone likes you and wants to work with you – leave and go work somewhere where they don’t (and then get them to want to).

If your work is winning awards and it feels like you win most pitches – leave and go somewhere where no one has won anything and there is a low rate of success at pitches. Help them turn it around.

If you think you know a product inside out – leave and go find a product that you don’t.

If you think you understand the value of all your influences and feel that you have challenged them from all the directions you can find – leave and go find somewhere where there are different (or unheard of) influences that maybe you don’t even understand why they are influences.

If your manager is not influencing you to ultimately leave and go onto bigger and better things – leave.

If someone is standing in the way of your progress (either internally or externally) – leave.

If someone is trying to make you stay in your job – leave.

If your manager is trying to make you stay, they aren’t a good manager – leave.

If the days go too smoothly and there is too much time for idle chatter (or you are surrounded by people with too much time for idle chatter) – leave.

If you don’t work with people who put the same amount of thought and effort into teamwork and collaboration as you do – leave and find people who do.

If there is a culture of persuading people to stay in their jobs by offering them more money – leave.

If where you work there is a business culture of holding on to people to prevent them working for competitors – leave.

If where you work there is a business culture of trying to make competitors fail – leave.

If there isn’t a culture (or understanding) of creating working relationships between the right people and that not everyone works well together – leave.

And if in this work culture there is not the understanding that a certain degree of tension between these great working relationships produces greater work – leave.

What do you do?

What do you want to do?

Maybe some of your work is NDA’d , maybe some of your work is not live yet but the main reason an employer (or those chosen to represent it) asks to see work is so it can establish how you work and whether you are going to fit into a team. They want to see sketches, ideas, work process. So often portfolios concentrate so hard on appearance and design and veer away from showing how the person works. An interview for a UX position is so much about personality and work processes and much less about showy portfolios.

by Ivana Jurcic

My advice is to avoid a portfolio (in whatever form it takes) only containing highly polished wireframes, flow diagrams, user journeys, taxonomies etc. Concentrate on showing prospective employers ‘how you work’ especially if they indicate new innovative ways of working, an interest in new mock up methods (ie JQuery or Protokit) or theories. I promise you it’s really exciting to be awoken from your slumber in the middle of an interview by inspiring infographics, sketchbooks, ideas. Pretty wireframes are a given (and rarely a decider on whether to employ someone).

Some UX professionals are concerned when sending in examples of work as they believe that they have to be onhand to explain them. I believe this is an unnecessary concern as work should be able to stand up for itself without explanation. Be self-explaining and understandable from the work’s included notes? Isn’t that the point? And the state or fidelity of the work is irrelevant.

I believe what employers want to see is examples of process, sketches, artwork, ideas, infographics, innovation, specialisations, concepts, articles etc – stuff that stands you out from the competition. Stuff that demonstrates that you will bring something new to the team and that your processes will fit into the team.

Of course this can be very different if you are a well known member of the UX community nationally or internationally as you will often get work on reputation and there will be no need for any screening process. Your work will be known and there is no doubt that the person offering the work will have some knowledge and experience of your work. But not everyone is in this position of strength (and it takes a lot of effort and hard work to get there) and not everyone gets there either. (Feedback on Twitter on this subject suggests that well known UX professionals prefer not to show work in advance but are happy to share in person or afterwards.)

Problems can occur with experienced members of the UX community who believe that their extensive experience excludes them from the potential ignominy of a screening process. If you haven’t worked with them then I think the same rules apply (and it is always healthy to come over as humble and accessible and to avoid at all costs any hint of arrogance).

by Celine Celine

Obviously to accompany all this it is vital to have an online presence where prospective employers can establish connections with mutual friends/colleagues for references/referrals and build a picture of your interests and strengths. In this day and age with online being the predominant source of information, news and collaboration for the UX community to not have any online presence is rather strange. It is better to start as early as possible as it is not something one can create overnight.

This subject sits close to the interview question that when asked receives so many lame answers it is quite frightening “How do you keep up with the wider UX/IA community and good practice?” Please do not say ‘online” or “Apple” as they plainly are not acceptable answers. The question “Who in the UX/design community are your heroes?” also often receives rather uninspiring answers. It really doesn’t take very much to put together some decent answers to these questions (and if you struggle to remember names – often one of the lame answers – write them down in preparation for the interview). I find it very hard to believe a member of the UX community cannot have come into contact with Don Norman, Jesse James Garrett or Steve Krug.

Below is some of the feedback regarding showing portfolios I received on Twitter:

“I’d say that’s their prerogative, but it’s also your prerogative to not conduct that phone interview.”
“if they have been working under NDAs, this is ok.”
“that could easily be me. I don’t send ‘samples’ of my work in advance, happy to share as as we speak or after a chat though.”
“I would have thought everyone has SOME portfolio pieces that aren’t sensitive and could be sent in advance. I know I do.”
“Even if they worked their whole career under NDAs they should have a portfolio, even if it doesn’t include ‘work’ work.”
“is definitely true that attitude to the recruit process tells a lot about *both* the recruiter/ee, is often a reason I opt out.”
“is not about portfolio sensitivity IMHO, is context. What is a deliverable in isolation? Exception = recruiting entry level.”
“For me it’s about seeing the quality / attention to detail / design of a candidate’s work, not so much the context / process.”
“that assumes wireframes are a key deliverable. What if you’re working collaboratively, fast sketching, straight into code?”
“it goes back to the fit between recruiter/ee. If you’re *looking* to do a detailed wireframe phase, then recruit for it.”
“Any kind of portfolio piece, wireframes, sketches, reports, photos of a wall of post-its, etc. give me invaluable insights.”
“Ideally show me stuff during face to face though, so it’s not in isolation and therefore open to misinterpretation ”
“my blog *is* my portfolio”
“i don’t see what you’re going to get from that out of context except whether candidate can make wireframes look nice”
“yes, see, that’s why I find a blog so useful-so you can get a feel for whether or not the applicant has a clue/any passion.”
“one could argue that you should be able to google them & find everything you need to qualify them (or not) or an interview.”
“a 10 min phone conversation can tell you whether it’s worth getting them in for initial interview”
“Problem with work sent in advance is how it’s judged. Each interviewer is looking for something different.”
“My best work in terms of outcomes is often the least attractive deliverable when seen in isolation.”
“Would ask the reason first but would be concerned that they are witholding ALREADY. We are all about communication after all.”
“It shouldn’t be, but my point is when you send work ahead w/o context that’s what it ends up being about.”
“maybe they can’t because of an NDA…? would have thought they should have something to show even if areas are obfuscated”
“I’d be way more suspicious about the lack of an online presence than portfolio (though I see it all the time depressingly)”
“I always refuse to send work examples in advance of interview as it’s important to outline approach, constraints, etc.”
“Also, as a contractor I need to fit into the client work culture as smoothly as possible – process, etc., always reflect this…”
“My problem is that over 90% of our work is under a NDA and I can’t send it to a prospective client or put it on our site”
“Finally, due to the high calibre of client I serve, most of my 2009 work is yet to go live so is still commercially sensitive…”
“My other concern is prospective clients ruling me out because they don’t see their internal style reflected in my past work…”
“Just because they don’t see their internal style reflected in my past work doesn’t necessarily mean I can’t deliver what they want…”
“So, for all those reasons, I prefer to talk through past work and dismiss requests for any work samples in advance.”
“phone interview without portfolio should be ok, but if anyone turns up with nothing to show for face-to-face, show them the door”

Worth reading Andrew’s blog on “How to get a job at a wed design agency”

I view other people’s CVs on a daily basis and am always refreshed by folk who cut to the quick and deliver to your inbox a one pager with the basic information. One glance back and forth and you get the picture.

(This also touches on the issue of work examples which has been discussed at length recently and is a subject that requires further clarification.)

There is no doubt that a growing number of design types (especially those more at the beginning and development of careers – where ultimately a strong CV is most relevant) have realised that they have got to increase chances of being ‘noticed’ whatever it might be for and the starting point is obviously been to visually enhance their CVs.

The conversation has picked up with the growing interest and spread of infographics. Fine examples are Michael Anderson’s and Greg Dizzia’s. Web Designer Depot added to the discussion with a recent post 30 Artistic and Creative Résumés that garned plenty of discussion regarding readability and inappropriateness of overkill design – ‘a CV is meant to be a document not a poster’ ‘a CV is meant to convey information… your portfolio is for showing off your creativity’. And as one creative director writes quite scathingly ‘I mostly ignore these types of vanity projects when I get them. They look like some school assignment. I want to know about you in 5 seconds. And, that comes from the text.’

There’s no doubt that hiring folk when looking through CVs look for well organised and easily skimmable documents that a decision can be quickly made on.

So what to do? How do you create a balance?

The discussion has also started to appear on Twitter where some good ideas have cropped up such as Bob van Vliet and Clement Boutignon’s innovative use of Daytum.

My advice is pull out a grid and ensure that the written words describing your successes, experiences and deeds are easily readable. If you feel you can add some visual accoutrement to it without obscuring the main information then go ahead though a good barometer is to get as much feedback as you can from recruiters and HR professionals. Some will love innovation, some will be more than non plussed.

Conclusion

words not images, easy to read, easy to scan, 1 sheet, leave fancy footwork for your portfolio