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, 2014On 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, 2014On 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, 2014On 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, 2014On 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, 2014I’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?