Life on a Job Board

There will be some of you out there who will never look for a job. That’s because you’ll either be so happy in your role that you’ll never want to leave your current company, or you will be fortunate enough to make useful industry connections and move from job to job in an organic way.

Then, there are those people who make tentative steps into job hunting as and when feels right for them. This might involve updating your CV and LinkedIn, connecting with recruiters, joining job boards and applying for advertised jobs.

For some people though, job hunting is a constant and ongoing process. There are those people who live their lives on the job boards, updating their details regularly (sometimes even daily) and very active about keeping their channels of contact open.

For contractors, who only commit themselves to companies for weeks or months at a time, having job board visibility can be a fantastic way to keep informed of upcoming projects. For designers in permanent roles, there is nothing wrong with keeping yourself abreast of the job opportunities which could be out there for you or your industry acquaintances.

As a recruiter I do sometimes wonder what it must be like to be in this position.

When I’m actively resourcing for a new role, one of the first places I will look is the job boards.

This is where I find people who are flagging themselves up as open to hearing about roles. I think, “Well, this role matches their location and expertise, why don’t I give them a call?” But then I think – if I’m looking to speak with this person about a new job – how many other recruiters are doing the same thing? How many calls to job board regulars get in an average week?

It must be hard to keep tabs on the names of recruiters who have called you, let alone which jobs they have sent you information about!

It would be great to hear from job board regulars about their experiences.

How can recruiters like me make it easier for you to find your next move?

Look forward to hearing from you. please email me.

Scribble – Is This the Future of Design for Everyone?

Remember MS Paint?

Remember the colour picker tool where you could click on any pixel from an image and recreate that colour somewhere else on your page? How useful that was for when you really didn’t have the patience to spend an hour picking the perfect shade from the RGB colour palette.

Well, things have really come along since then. For a projected £90 you will soon be able to purchase the Scribble Pen - currently in development with California developers Mark Barker and Robert Hoffman. Available in either the ink or stylus versions, by simply pressing the colour sensor against a desired surface of colour the pen will then draw in that exact shade. Impressively, the pen will be able to recreate an estimated 16 million variations of colour.

Imagine what that will mean for designers everywhere!

When deciding upon colour palettes for apps and websites, graphic designers could select inspiration from surfaces around them. In collaborative design, rather than trying to explain, “a little bluer, no, a bit greener,” it will become second nature to be able to express oneself visually.

I, for one, am looking forward to this pen making its debut on the UK market!

As always, I enjoy reading your thoughts. Please email me

UXPA Careers Event - Attendee Review

On the 19^th June, Thomson Reuters in Canary Wharf played host to this year’s UXPA Careers Event.
Raj Arjan (UXPA) was the curator for the evening, with Jiri Siftar (Design Lead at Thomson Reuters) giving a rousing welcome speech.

This speed dating-style get together saw a number of UX job seekers meet with over 15 potential employers and industry recruiters (including IC Creative).

Representatives from UX teams around London and the UK sat in pairs at their designated tables, which were of course laden with leaflets, booklets and most importantly SWEETS.

Rotating every 5 minutes, the budding UX Designers and Researchers had a chance to talk about themselves and their qualifications. In turn, employers were able to discuss any upcoming vacancies of interest.

With a huge pool of newly graduated UX’ers as well as industry experts looking for a career change, this was a worthwhile event which we would recommend to job seekers next year.

As always, we are interested to hear from you, please do email us.