...when 140 characters are not enough

If you want to know what Brian has done, here is his resume: http://www.briandils.com/resume/index.html
If you want to follow Brian on Twitter, you can find him at http://twitter.com/briandils

NOTE: This should have been in week one of I541.

Brian graduated from the HCI/d Master's program in 2006.

Brian will be available tomorrow between 10-12 to talk to anyone in the HCI/d program.

How Brian got into the Master's program (as told by Marty). In his senior year, he took Marty's I300 class and the only two HCI/d professors were Marty and Eli. Marty didn't know Brian when he started the course and got really interested in HCI. He applied to the Master's program and was persistent in wanting to know if he got in and Marty decided he was going to get in but put off telling him. Brian found out that he got into the SLIS program and when he told Marty, that made Marty finally spilled the beans about Brian's acceptance into the program.

"Things I Wish I Knew" by Brian Dils

Things were easy until he got to to college.

IU>Paypal/Yahoo>Logitech (hardware design)>BDID (freelance - 2-3 days a week)>Adobe

Recession

• It's tough out there
• Companies ARE Hiring - may be called something besides Interaction Designer>Product Manager, Human Factors, Digital Designer
  
• Contractors are in demand - can make more $ per hour and can freelance a lot
  
• Agencies are struggling - you may be able to pick off some freelance work that would usually go to Cooper or IDEO because companies are cutting costs
• Take side projects - helps you learn what you want to specialize at, gives you lots of variety of projects, fills the pipeline in case you lose work
• don't be afraid to do free stuff, take a well-known site and do your own re-design
  
• http://www.freelanceswitch.com
• Don't just work for cash/paycheck - you may be able to work for stock and perks
• get involved with growth sectors - green tech, health care, energy
• start something - great time to build value
• always be ready - keep your portfolio and resume updated (Note: that means you have to have one to update it!!!)
  

Job Search

• What is your ideal job title - get as specific as possible
• What size company will that job fit? Different size companies have the functional jobs broken out differently, the bigger the company the more specialized
• If money is more important, to with SAP or Oracle. Google does not pay a lot but they are a prestigious company.
• What type of engagement works for you? - Full time, freelance
• "Epicenter" search - start with what you are most interested in and then go out from there. Be careful that you don't let something you are less interested in get you distracted.
• 1:1 Cover letters - generic gets tossed. Where did you find the job, why are you different
• One page resume - hard and fast rule. There are just too many candidates. Recruiters don't have time to read more than one page.
• Use your network - connections are the thing that get you past the HR filters.
• control your online persona - companies look at facebook, twitter, linkedin
• Use a recruiter if you have to - they are free to use. They get paid by the employers. Same arrangement as real estate. As candidates, you are their inventory.
  

Portfolio

• some people want you to specifically tell you what you do, others want to know that you can do anything - takaway: make sure you know who your audience is so you can tailor your portfolio to them.
• five wireframes that are all the same don't add value. It shows that you don't know how to communicate and that is a very important skill for designers.
• don't go too deep. Just give a paragraph or two. Make it conversational, real.
• Person looking at your portfolio may not be from the HCI field so don't expect that they know what they are looking at.
• get a visual designer to help you out if necessary.
• Navigation is crucial to be good.
• John Kolko
• looking for raw skills
• phone call - looking for personality, key buzzwords, know what you are talking about
• Need an online portfolio that shows your thought processess - show all of the steps, iterations in the process, how you would justify it
• need to be able to show that you know all of the elements of the design process but you aren't trying to do all of it
• don't need lots of text or explanation
• need to be able to show how design done in class could be incorporated into real practice - not too academic, you are ready to be a professional.
• Adam Hansen - Ideas To Go
• uniqueness, relevance, fresh, your point of view
• the "so what"
• Josh Baer
• screenshots
• examples of some of the code
• design and layout skills - pleasing and able to use the tools to bring that together
• these comments are all across the board so that emphasizes the importance of knowing your target audience
• sample portfolio - matt dente , good example, great navigation, simple and straighforward, good balance between text and images
• use password protected links for things that may be NDO issues and get permission from the employer/client that the work is for
• keep it to 5-7 projects, does not need to by collection of your life work, may be good idea to add some tagging or categories
  

Interviewing

• Know the company
• get the interview schedule - know who you are talking to and what their job is, tailor your approach to each interview based upon their job
• prepare but don't rehearse - know it front and back but make it real. An interview is a conversation and you cannot predict where it is going.
• don't overdress - contrary to popular opinion. Designers think they are cool, thus we do not need to dress up. Wore a suit to Paypal interview and everyone made fun of him.
• be interested in EVERYTHING - cafeteria, any department
• find a connection - use linkedin, check out each person you are interviewing with and know their background. At Adobe interview, one of the people worked with Eli so Brian started talking about PRINCIPLES
• Be positive - don't bad mouth your current or previous employers
• don't bluff - you will get caught, no matter what - everyone knows everyone - it's not six degrees in design, it's more like two degrees1
• relax - be yourself, don't stress out over the job as it will just make you worse, be laid back
  

Job Offer

• Don't speak first - let them say a number first, don't fall for all of their tricks. Just say "Make me an offer" and smile!
• Don't negotiate in person - use e-mail
• Don't "horse trade" - it's not an auction. When you counter, give a logical argument and stick to it.
• No two jobs are the same - you aren't applying for your last job.
• Salary isn't everything - incentive based salaries are very popular right now.
• working from home - get that in writing, lots of folks are working from home 2-4 days a week
• conferences - get it in writing, make sure the money is set aside.
• get it in writing!
• Don't "price them out" - it doesn't work. You will come across as being an arrogant jerk!

First Job

• Look out for #1
• If you don't know, ask. "we don't have a pmm so we need you to do a pcm and swag it by the end of the day"
  
• underpromise and overdeliver
• find a mentor - they will lead you through the uncharted paths that they have already been down
  
• write, everyday - blog, journal, notes, anything just to be able to see patterns, trends, growth
• work in time blocks - turn off everything else and use an e-mail sig that lets people know when you check e-mail
• learn about your team - find out what they all do, skills they have, how they interact, go out with them after work to get to know them
• work safely - ergonomics - chair, keyboard, lighting - sit/stand desk
• get sample projects - helps you learn to write specs, notate wireframes
• you don't have to go to every single meeting - especially important with bigger organizations. Pick and choose which ones to go to. It is ok to decline meetings. Make sure you have time to do what you are hired to do - design.
  

Skills

• Learn to speak
• Learn to code - at least enough to prototype
• Learn to draw - the whiteboard is your friend
• lose an argument
• negotiate
• take criticism
• write a contract
• start a conversation
• communicate your design
• Learn to say "No"
  

10 Truths

• Confidence is more important than skill
• You don't always need user research - if you have a great idea, just do it. You may risk losing your "voice" or you may "cherry pick" the research you get to support your idea.
  
• People won't respect what you do - Steve Portal, well respected in the field, came into Logitech and did some ethnographic research. Don't take it personally.
• People don't care if "studies have shown" - most of the time they are making it up anyway.
• The best ideas are inevitable - someone else has already thought about your idea and they are working on it right now.
• Users are dumb - you need to understand and accept that and then design for it.
• You're the last one hired, first one fired - we were doing design before you got here.
• You can't do everything.
• You are going to have to do everything - don't wait on someone else for everything.
• Your're a better designer than most because you are coming out of this program. Grads from other programs are technically great but they can't do all the other things that make good designers.

You are never going to work totally on your own. You will always work on teams. You are secretly in charge of everything, but youwill be considered to not be in charge of anything.

http://www.briandils.com/talks/iu.pdf - slide deck of presentation