Paul,
I appreciate the thought and passion that went into your missive? rant?
:-)
In principle, I'm more than happy to have interns and think its a great way
for graduates and those in the middle of their program to get experience and
learn about the business world.
However, it is a misapprehension to believe the labour is not free (even
excluding overheads).
Every person I supervise, no matter how senior or experienced, takes time
and the sad fact is the more junior a person is, the more supervision they
take -- especially as, until they've proven themselves, I couldn't put them
on production work.
But that could be 'cause I'm at a medium-sized agency and don't have the
layers management to do so.
To be honest, I believe only the larger companies / consultancies would be
your best bet.
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Robert M. Fein
Director of User Experience
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----- Original Message -----
From: "paul" <farm...@gmail.com>
To: <disc...@ixda.org>
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: [IxDA Discuss] The state of UI/UX employment.
I'd like to start this reply with a pre-emptive "thank you" for
reading along in case it gets a bit wordy; this is a topic very
near/dear to me.
I too have noticed on twitter, and on the various nonMonster job
boards that words like "usability", "user experience", are being
mixed in more and more with the UX / UI / IxD tags thrown in as well.
This is relatively "fresh" and not the usual 'web developer'
posts that I've been used to seeing for years now.
Fresh has it's questionable freshness factor though (as was
commented on numerous times in the comments preceding mine) - it
seems that someone in HR doing the posting for many of these
companies replaced the former "IT" position with that of the "web
developer" to the current "senior UX/___ developer" positions that
seem so fresh and vibrant on the job and helpwanted area's.
"Junior Usability Guru/Ninja/Coordinator/Developer/Evangelist/Etc
wanted * "
Oh cool, something for ME! - junior level, something I can learn more
of the ropes with, something to advance on, and give back to a company
in the near future as I develop further... oh wait, an asterisk?
* - oh... junior to this company stands for having mastered 4
programming languages, with 5 years of experience, with the added
pre-req' for having managerial experience in a specific field. oh..
ok, gotcha. (gulp).
As someone that is (pardon the capslock) SINCERELY looking for a
junior level position, that was raised on his own
non-O'Reilly-coding-only diet of Zeldman, Krug, Nielsen, Garrett and
others on the side to his university required programming/design
courses that didn't include many of these UX/Standardista "titans"
of industry - I have seen nearly ZERO job posts in the past 5 years
with a legitimate "junior" position to work at, and WITH UX/UI. An
internship here or there? sure, a handful out of 1,000 potential
internships, that'll really "reach" the next generation of
UX/UI'ers out there.
People flock to the conferences as gold.
People retweet one designers approval of another designers redesign
as gold.
Many people are buying the books, and are retooling their "role" in
the IT department, in the Web team, in their immediate world; and are
forgetting to give back, and to share, and to open doors for the next
generation of UX'ers that exists.
There is an entire generation of UX'ers that are not "former
(insert internet language programmer title here)", or are not a
hybrid of a former position that worked out and now they wear a new
hat, or are not former artschool graduates that ground away at
earlier photoshop or quark software on box monitors and now can boss
others about typography...
There is an entire generation of new, UX-minded, UX-from the
ground-up future workers that are seeing that they have to go
"freelance" if they don't have that ridiculous toolset - as being
too well-rounded is a downfall that doesn't get you interviewed like
these positions call for.
This is not a cry for help, not at all - but an honest remark from my
end to yours - how many 'experts', how many 'senior level', how
many of those directors, managers, consultants, or other leaders of
this UX/UI world that is bursting with life these days are willing to
take on an intern?
To take on an 'apprentice' that lives locally?
To take on a 'shadow' that learns, works, and gives back to the
company/team-project, and also builds for the future ahead?
In all honesty, I can pull out 20? (30?!) names and emails that would
be willing to work for free. Not one penny. Not one "oh, the
economy is bad" excuse - as the money will come some day, but the
c..h..a..n..c..e.. doesn't - because there is no job listing for
"chance".
A bulletin board by the coffee maker, an online forum for
UXSUPERJOBS'ETC that posts on twitter the same post that another one
reposted 4 minutes ago, a Linked'In job listing area doesn't exactly
cover that, list that, or offer that.
Beside the university that offers (some/limited) help in placing
students into a UX based position, or a freelancer willing to grind
away and learn the rough world of being on your own (but hey - you
can write a great inspirational blog post someday of how you "did
it", no?) -
Where is that current and previous generation of coders, "IT guys",
of those that attempted to convert a coworker into a 'usability
expert' that COULD reach out to the new generation that is already
grounded in best-practices, accessability, content
quality-kings/queens ?
Are there more UX/UI postings and listings? Yup.
But where are the jobs that are cheap on your monthly/yearly budget
that offer a double reward (extra productivity - an extra helping
hand to free you up, and doing something to help someone advance
their career, hopes, or dreams to hopefully give back later on down
the road!)
Those job posts don't exist (yet). Junior... isn't.
Thanks again for reading along. I would like to finish on the
thought that I >> am
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Posted from the new ixda.org
http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=49535
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