Advice on soft skills
Wanting my students to hear more from the industry about what they need to know, I asked my twitter feed about what advice they’d give recent design graduates. Here is what they shared.
On interviews
@samkap Make eye contact. "Hello my name's -name-. Nice to meet you."
That's a good one.
— Matt Jared (@matt_jared) March 24, 2014
@samkap Follow-up after interviews or whatnot
— Ethan Leon (@ethangl) March 24, 2014
@samkap That people hire people, not books or portfolios or assholes.
— Diana Berno (@diBerno) March 24, 2014
On attitude
@samkap Be excellent to one and another. Don't be a snob.
— Danh Hoang (@danhhoang) March 24, 2014
@samkap don't be afraid to say no.
— Andy Keil (@alwaysunday) March 24, 2014
@samkap Be stoked, really stoked. Genuinely caring makes you understand what the employer needs as opposed to what they want.
— Bushra (@goatsandbacon) March 24, 2014
@samkap + Most things have a tendency to blow up in your face, Always take the higher moral ground.
— Bushra (@goatsandbacon) March 24, 2014
@samkap People won't believe in your work unless you believe in it.
— Chris Meeks (@chrismeeks) March 24, 2014
@samkap Be nice, but be honest. Feedback that doesn't hurt a little probably isn't worth anything.
— Brandon Weiss (@brandon_weiss) March 25, 2014
@samkap Empathy, first and above all else. That psycho across the meeting table is a people, too.
— David Sleight (@stuntbox) March 25, 2014
@samkap Passion, which is read through the story behind the work; decision making, failures and overcoming, insights, teamwork, PROCESS.
— Zac Snider (@ZacSnider) April 8, 2014
On Communication
@samkap How to articulate their process. How to describe a design to a non-designer. How to choose audience-appropriate deliverables.
— AustinUX.org (@AustinUX) March 24, 2014
@samkap strategies to work with product, marketing, sales, and engineering teams. How to say no and sell ideas to clients.
— Ashley Hathaway (@Ash_Hathaway) March 25, 2014
@samkap The ability to quickly understand a person's personality and adapt to cater for it
— Chris Compston (@ndxcc) March 24, 2014
@robertbanh @samkap Tardies? Like being late?
— Alex Companioni (@achompas) March 24, 2014
@robertbanh Great point! On saving time, @samkap: your students need to ask questions well. Poorly-formed questions waste everyone's time.
— Alex Companioni (@achompas) March 24, 2014
On Job hunting & interviews
@samkap Get a good portfolio, and meet people. Cold applications are so impossible.
— Luke Connolly (@kidminded) April 7, 2014
@samkap Never send a boring cover letter. Never doubt the power of a Twitter friend.
— Tiffany Duening (@tiffapiffa) April 8, 2014
@samkap Pay at least one personal compliment to the interviewer and at least 2 commercial compliments to the company.
— imJim (@ImJimScott) April 8, 2014
@samkap be upfront, honest, and nice. Worked for me.
— Tim Smith (@ttimsmith) April 8, 2014
@samkap Think of it as you interviewing the company.
— Chris Meeks (@chrismeeks) April 7, 2014
@samkap Stay level headed, don't psych yourself out, keep things simple, focus on your work, and feel out potential employers in interviews.
— Josh Higgins (@JoshRyanDesign) April 7, 2014
On Everything else
@samkap observe. While understanding users is massive, understanding stakeholders, clients, bosses, etc is just as important.
— Ryan Rumsey (@ryanrumsey) March 25, 2014
@samkap To not chase that dollar, let it chase you.
— Andre Jurgensen (@thejurgy) March 24, 2014
@samkap learn how to learn and never stop doing it. Absolute #1 trait we need in employees.
— Matt Stauffer (@stauffermatt) March 24, 2014
@samkap Always steer clear of buzzwords and aligning with trends
— Daniel T. Hall (@danielthall) April 7, 2014
@samkap Feel free to share my observations from #DMIFuturED: https://t.co/05Y8RqcvVb Points 4 & 5 particularly apply. cc @DMIfeed
— Tom Berno (@tberno) March 24, 2014
I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who shared their feedback and advice with my students and me. Without people like them and their interest in making the design industry a better place, we’d all be lost.
I shared my advice in the last post. What’s your advice?