Signs of a Happy Designer - A Recruiters Perspective

It may come as a surprise, but here at IC Creative we often speak with designers who are politely, but passionately and vehemently not job hunting. And believe it or not, this is a very nice thing to see.

In the world of recruitment, we receive hundreds of applications and phone calls on a weekly basis from people who are no longer content in their current role. It’s really nice and refreshing when we happen upon someone who is so joyously happy with what they’re doing that they just have to keep us on the phone a little longer to tell us about it - in fact, this makes our job a little bit more enjoyable too!

Signs of a happy designer:

• Wanting to talk for a long time, in detail, about their newest project
• Recommending you check out their company / product and even download it / buy it
• Recommending their friends with similar skill sets who are job hunting
• Waxing lyrical about their new manager and how inspiring they are
• Boasting (modestly, of course) about the new skills they are developing, the training they’ve been on, the events they’ve attended
• Keeping their CVs off the job boards for a while – “just in case something better comes along,” doesn’t even figure
• Being a bit too busy to have returned your call yesterday because they were out with their new work friends
• Basically… when their job just doesn’t seem like work

So next time a recruiter you know from a few months back calls you, let them see how happy you are now. They will genuinely be pleased for you and will wish you the best for the future. And when you say, “I’ll call you when I need you” – they really will take that to heart.

As always, really would like to hear from you - Email me here.

Connected Living – Would you choose this lifestyle?

This week saw the story of ‘America’s Most Connected Man’ hit the news. Chris Dancy, of Denver, Colorado  - who bills himself as a “Data Exhaust Cartographer” on his site www.chrisdancy.com – has been tracking and recording his every move, action and purchase since 2007. Real-time data collected via 700 wearable and lifestyle technologies have amassed this information – however mundane and unimportant each increment of data may seem, imagine the picture which can - and has - been painted about modern life.

I pose the question: Would you rather spend a week without technology, or a week hooked up to hundreds of devices all collecting and collating information about your life?

 

Let me know your thoughts at sam.emmett@ic-creative.co.uk

Recruitment: A Taxi Driver's Anecdote

On my way to a meeting yesterday, I got talking to a taxi driver (an elderly gentleman) who, despite his politeness, is not one for easy 'back of the cab' conversation. He is renowned around town for hitting the hard subjects, which - whether you're on the way to an urgent appointment, or are simply a little tipsy coming back from a night out - are not always what you want to have to deal with. This is the same taxi driver who has tried to sell me his religion on numerous occasions, so I was braced for a less than relaxing conversation. However, I was pleasantly surprised when he asked me what I did, and then proceeded to talk quite eloquently about the pitfalls of trying to recruit specialists within a particular area. I told him he must have had some experience along the line, as he certainly sounded as though he knew his stuff. To this he replied yes, and told me about his time in the army - where his role was to recruit soldiers and figure out who he could put forward for promotions to higher ranks. The problems arose when he was 100% certain he had found the right person, only for them to fail miserably at the task in hand. On paper, he said, people can look great - but when they are called to action they can't live up to what they have promised. He told me all people are actors, particularly in interviews, and can fake whatever is needed to get where they want. He told me about one instance where a deaf man had managed to pass a physical examination, by responding to prompts to complete tasks and answer questions. It was only later on that they figured out he was deaf and had to ask him to leave for his own safety.

I'd like to think that in the professional design world, something like this (or the equivalent) just wouldn't be able to happen. Interview and vetting processes are stringent, whilst design tasks, challenges and presentations are set in order to ensure candidates can back up the technical skills they have professed to on their CVs. It's a given that you will sell yourself to the utmost degree, and perhaps emphasize a little more than is truthful about certain areas of expertise. But completely faking it until you make it... I don't think that could be possible in the UX design industry!

We Are Going Social! Are you?

At the moment we’re on a huge ‘Going Social’ drive here at IC Creative. No, that doesn’t mean popping down the local for after-work drinks every other night (although, if you’re ever in our part of the world you should visit: The Swan at Three Mile Cross, Reading http://www.theswan-3mx.co.uk. What we’re doing is getting our voices and our faces (sorry in advance) out there, in the hope of connecting, communicating and ultimately promoting discourse around the subject of User Experience.

LinkedIn is of course the business networking tool to use, and like most we are riding the Twitter bandwagon. But we’re currently on a mission to open our eyes to the numerous sites and tools aimed at enabling interactions - many of which have been designed by you!

Putting the question out there to you guys – which are the social media and networking sites you’re using at the moment? Are there any up-and-comers which we should know about? Have you had a hand in designing anything like this, which you’d like to showcase here?

I have very recently started toying with About.me - appealing because of its’ simplicity and aesthetic appeal. If anyone fancies ‘Complimenting Me,’ that would be great because so far I’ve only received the default About.me compliment and am feeling unloved! http://www.about.me/samanthaemmett  

Looking forward to hearing back from some of you with some interesting social sites for creative/ UX people!  

As always, you can email me.