As some of you may have heard I ventured to the Coroflot Confab in loverly San Francisco last Wednesday to see what I could see, get myself out there, so to speak. I had an uneventful flight, thanks to some Nyquil, got a free hotel upgrade and had my business cards shipped straight to the hotel. The whole thing was a complete success. Almost. (More on that later.)
I made a cool business connection with a programmer from un upstart known as Farm'sReach, and that was just on the cab ride from the airport. The conference itself was really helpful- the morning session regarding how to improve your web presence and get hired was very eye-opening. Some pointers for those of you who didn't attend: get your self on a wide range of sites, and get them all to link to your main portfolio page. Broad, thin range of sites, one single, in-depth site.
Then the panel discussion, which had IDEO and Google represented, revealed some interesting truths about getting hired in the design industry. Are you ready?
1. Be ready to wait TWO YEARS. Sometimes, even after initial contact, in an industry that considers its hires to be TALENT, not just an employee, the scout might watch you for two years to see how you are progressing as a designer to make you an offer. Although, sometimes its as little as a month.
2. Give a sense of who you are in your potfolio, or how you show your work. Since design is so collaborative, they sincerely care about what kind of person you will be to work with. Skills and programs can be taught. If you're not a decent, interesting, and effective person to work with, you probably will never be. (Time to undertake undertaking.)
3. Applying for jobs you are completely unqualified for is a GOOD THING! Believe it or not, in design, because the job description, usually written six months prior to the actual hire by someone in HR, is so different from the final job that you get hired for, you should go ahead and apply anyway. Its better the scouts know you're out there than have you sit on your hands.
Then after the discussion I got drunk at the reception, and proceeded to lose my new pack of 500 business cards on the streets of San Francisco. Well, I did give like 30 of them out. And I met some very cool design people, and exchanged some info over beers nearby!
Two days after my flight home the hotel calls me. Apparently, some good Samaritan found my business cards on the street and delivered them to the address on the box! They are due in the mail to me tomorrow.
Look for a homepage redesign @ www.MichaelWTaft.com with some help from my friend Jake Cohen.
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