January 26th, 2010

Tips on searching for a creative job

Having recently relocated to West London from Brighton, I am currently in the process of searching for a great new place to work. I have been lucky enough to have had lots of fantastic opportunities over the last few years. My employers have had faith in me and I’ve been lucky enough to progress quite quickly thanks to their trust and generosity, which I believe I have given a lot of hard work and dedication in return for. I hope that my CV and Portfolio of work are relatively strong thanks to this. Nevertheless, the whole job hunt process can be tough.

At the pub a couple of nights ago I had a discussion with some friends who had recently graduated from their respective universities. Naturally many of my friends have found temporary work in pubs or in retail while they plan their next move. I’ve decided to share with you a few tips and resources on finding creative jobs that I have found useful in the process so far.

Preparation
To put it bluntly, no-one will employ someone who has no experience, or proof of that experience. If you have no experience, and you have no portfolio, then you need to go away and start thinking about how to solve this (see Free Work, Home Learning and Self-Initiated Work). Creating that proof is going to be critical to you getting the job you want.

I spent quite a lot of time putting together my website, CV and Portfolio. Design / brand wise, they all fit together quite nicely. My website features a taster of some of my work, with my Portfolio containing a much larger sample as a PDF document, with the CV being solid text describing my key qualities, abilities, work history, qualifications and references (again, PDF, but occasionally required to submit as a Word or RTF document). It’s been a moderately big task overall.

I feel that format wise, a CV should generally be A4 Portrait, and should reproduce well in Black and White (it’s likely to get photocopied), and a Portfolio should be A3 Landscape as it provides a lot more room to display work. If anything my portfolio is a little cluttered – it’s difficult to know where to draw the line between enough work, and too much work. I try to avoid repetition and long descriptions. I posted an article previously with some CV writing tips, if you’re interested.

Online, my site doesn’t give everything away, but it does provide an taster for initial visitors, and background profile information about me for those who want to read further. As you can see, I keep it up to date with regular blog articles on a variety of subjects related to what I do. The fact that people visit my site and blog of their own accord (not just people I send my CV to) makes me very happy!

You will also need to provide a Covering Letter for each job you apply to. I normally use the body of my email to send this over, but some people like to provide it as a third PDF. For me, it’s very important to write a covering letter for each employer that I send an application to. I am very careful to make sure that I read about the job I’m applying for, and genuinely care about the role and company enough to apply, so for me writing a Covering Letter comes quite easily, and I make sure that it details why I believe I am suitable for the role. For me I think this works well so I recommend it, but if you are intending to send applications to a larger volume of employers, then you may wish to have a more generic covering letter that you can adapt each time.

Searching For Creative Jobs
When I moved to London I was quite surprised at quite how many jobs are available. There are literally hundreds of creative jobs out there. Comparatively, Brighton (where I lived for the past 4-5 years) had very few options available.

This section is unfortunately a little bit London-centric, as its where my efforts have been focused recently. But some of the sites do work at a national level, so they’re worth checking out. If you live outside of the London or London-commute area, then you might find other regional sites more appropriate. In Brighton (East Sussex), for example, my site of course would almost always have been Wired Sussex.

My favourite places to check frequently are…

Creative Pool
National site, listing over 450 jobs at the moment, all in the creative industries. Plenty of opportunities on here for graphic designers, copywriters, web designers, web developers, UX consultants, and lots more otherwise. You must register to apply, and expect to go through recruitment agencies for most positions.

Chinwag
When I asked the nice folks over at Wired Sussex what they felt the equivalent London based job directory was to their own service, they recommended Chinwag. Again, lots of jobs at a national level and a very wide variety of positions available across the board. Currently indexing 706 jobs, so just under double the size of Creative Pool. Chinwag requires a registration process to apply for positions, and please do expect recruitment agencies managing the vast majority of positions.

Arts.ac.uk
Job listings provided by The University of The Arts, London. This site has a lot more entry level positions than either Chinwag or Creative Pool. You’ll also find part time opportunities, temporary work and internships here, plus more positions that are a little bit non-standard (Trainee Footwear Designer, for example). For most positions you will be contacting the employer directly.

Arts Jobs (Arts Council England)
Indexing 275 new jobs this week, including plenty of Freelance stuff and lots of interships (paid and unpaid), this is a great place to start looking for places to get your foot in the door. I also subscribe to their mailing list which sends me a list of relevant opportunities via email – great for getting in early on hard to get opportunities.

Freelancers.net
Despite the title, this site doesn’t just list freelance contracts. In fact it has quite a comprehensive Jobs listing too, although its not as prolific or frequently updated as their freelance projects. If you have a solid portfolio of work though, the odd freelance project might be a good start to build a body of commercial work, or just to meet likeminded individuals or corporate contacts. This site also features a really good forum of UK based freelancers that can be useful in sourcing project work, or for getting more information and useful tips.

Gumtree
Normally a first port of call to sell your old broken kettle, Gumtree is primarily a classified ads site, but it does actually list an extraordinarily large number of jobs across a whole range of industries. In London it lists quite a lot of Creative, Marketing, Media, PR, Fashion and IT related jobs, and offers convenient filters that cut out a lot of the nonsense. Expect a pretty even split between recruitment agencies advertising positions, and employers seeking applicants directly. Gumtree is free for employers to list jobs on, and requires no registration to apply, so this likely explains why there is so much on there. Conversely, ensure your application really stands out, as advertisers normally get bombarded for the same reason. Be especially careful for scams and other nasties too.

Londonjobs (Metro, London Evening Standard)
Currently indexing over 4,500 jobs in London, and with lots available when searching for ‘designer’, this site is also a good starting point. This is a very popular site as it powers Metro and London Evening Standard newspapers’ job searches, so for some reason I have tended to avoid it as it feels a bit oversubscribed – but I’m really not sure what I’m basing this upon, and you may well have plenty of success here.

Using Other Resources

Register with recruitment agencies
For jobs like Graphic Designer and Front-End Developer (i.e. quite specific roles) you’ll find recruitment agencies useful to register with. There are lots in London and I have had mixed success with them in the past. Some agencies will be even more specific, for example specialising in Digital (i.e. only new media, web design, flash, web dev, etc). You will need a solid CV and Portfolio established before registering with an agency though. Expect to be asked to meet your recruitment agent for a short (usually informal) interview, and to oddities like having your passport photocopied by them for their records. Try Propel for purely digital work, Source, ECOM, or maybe Cogs to get you started, but there are lots.

Check individual employers’ careers pages
You may be surprised at how many roles are available with companies that you respect, or that you use/visit every day. I’ve spotted roles advertised by Harrods, Selfridges and Net-a-porter in the design sector within the last few weeks. Make a list of companies you’d like to work for and visit the careers page on their respective sites. Normally expect very high standards of work, and a highly competitive application process.

Google
You’re a genius at creating targeted Google queries right? OK well if not, try using speech marks and plus signs in your search queries for jobs to get more accurate / specific results, for example: “graphic designer”+”west london” will probably return more accurate results that searching: graphic designer west london. Expect mixed results and plenty of out of date jobs though.

Twitter
Searching Twitter for related terms, or adding the many Twitter based job reporting bots out there could be of some use. I added some and then eventually deleted them when I found they weren’t anywhere near as targeted enough for me. Beware spam.

Write to your favourite businesses
Sadly we are living in a time of recession and there aren’t a lot of businesses out there that are going to be prepared to hire people on a whim, but if you have some exceptional talent in your particular field, say Photography or Graphic Design, then you may consider sending some of the places you’d really like to work a copy of your portfolio. This could be an email, though beware of sending to info@ or form based black holes, instead try to find a relevant staff member’s work email address and direct it through them. If you can afford to produce an impressive printed portfolio and post it out to your dream employer, I’d say you’d create more of an impact. Don’t expect instant results or even a call back necessarily, but if you are an exceptional talent then there are employers out there who will snap you up. This can be particularly useful in finding internships, especially if you can manage an unpaid one, as many businesses will be prepared to give you some of their time even if they’re not actively advertising their availability.

Freelance
Freelancing without a body of contacts or without contracts to get you going is likely to end in disaster pretty quickly, but you may find some contract work that will pay enough to keep a roof over your head while you build and extend a portfolio of work. This can be a good way of getting some solid corporate work done, and building some good contacts in the business world. Remember that word of mouth is key, and completing good work on time is likely to lead to more.

Create your own internship
OK I just made this up, but you might consider contacting companies who have no internship programme, who may have never even thought of taking an intern, and offering to do some work for them for free. Just beware you don’t get stuck making tea, and make sure that they aren’t stepping over any employment law or insurance issues beforehand.

Getting cash together whilst on an internship
Sadly it does seem that internships in the UK are reserved for those who’s family home is located conveniently close to where they want to work, and / or for those with rich enough parents to keep them in food and shelter whilst they build up experience. Apparently however, graduates are allowed to continue to claim jobseekers allowance for periods in which they were an intern of up to 13 weeks, according to this article in the Telegraph. If that’s true, then I hope that the policy is rolled out to all jobseekers as it could be a really great way to give lots of unemployed people a chance to improve their skills base and experience during the recession.

I really hope some of this helps. If you have any comments, additional advice, or other links that you think I should add then please let me know!

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Blog | 2 Comments »

January 24th, 2010

40% designer, 40% front end developer, 20% content researcher

Over the last few years I have worked on websites big and small primarily either in a freelance capacity or client side as part of, or managing, a team effort.

There’s a universal draw for businesses, perhaps justifiedly so, to launch a site rapidly upon startup or when a need arises suddenly. It’s fantastic that we finally live in a time where decision makers are quick to realise the power of the Internet as a marketing and a commercial tool. It’s also fantastic that this level of technology is so democratised that businesses of all shapes and sizes can put together high quality materials for the web, affordably and with scalability.

The key term I mentioned above is ‘rapidly’. Rapid deployment is one of the first things to come up in most initial client meetings from my experience. I will normally give a client a basic timeline with milestones for a project based upon an initial consultation and when a project spec has been firmed up. It can be difficult not to overcommit on this, especially if one really big factor is unresolved within the first stages of getting a project underway.

That factor, you guessed it, is content.

Many business people I suspect have had the need for a website rammed down their throat for so long that they have accepted the prospect and launched into it without asking themselves what on earth they’re going to say.

There are some classic business questions that are essential to answer in order to build an effective site, whatever your requirements are. That means tackling questions like: “What does your business do?” or “What are your key advantages over your competitors” and simply “What’s your USP?”

These look like rather basic questions but I have often worked with clients doing business across a range of sectors, with several core products and working in highly competative markets where a clear USP is difficult to flesh out. Add to this a requirement for these answers to be short and effective, and we often have quite a substantial chunk of work.

I’d say that helping clients come to answers for these questions that they end up happy with is actually one of the most rewarding elements of my career to date. It can also help give me a far greater insight into what the client wishes to achieve and communicate with their site than any briefing document ever has.

But for pure cost effectiveness and to genuinely achieve rapid deployment, coming to the table with at least the essential barebones of content prepared is going to let your designer focus on what they really do best.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Blog | No Comments »

January 10th, 2010

User Experience & The Thin Line Between Accomodation & Dumbing Down

On the rare occasions that it snows in Britain, it seems that crisis point is just nearly averted by the fine (and hugely under supplied) men and women who brave the conditions to clear the roads and apply a fine scattering of salt/grit to ensure that the segregation between car and sledge in our society is maintained. Central London is lucky enough to benefit from a plush duvet of insulation that the white stuff just wont settle for. Apart from on Thursday in which I nearly ended up on my bum at least five times just walking down the road. Like the snow clearing heroes described above, you won’t catch me snoozing by the fire indoors on a winter’s day – oh no – I’ve been out and about the whole weekend.

Today’s minor excursion was over to Westfield shopping centre (near White City tube) with the intention of helping my lovely housemates Michael and Joey pick out a good new set of drawers. Westfield is much like any of the glass, mall-style shopping centres that you now find in all major towns and cities up and down the country. Except it’s bigger, much bigger than most.

Large scale shopping in complex glass structures presents a unique challenge to your Sunday homeware shopper, like me. A cynic, you might call me, but I will assume for now that these places are designed to confuse, redirecting customer attention to flashy window dressing and powerful brand exposure. They are especially confusing for first-time visitors and the inexperienced. Westfield veterans may have built a knowledge of corporate landmarks that give them a big time-saving advantage.

The solution provided for us is most often some kind of digital map and store index, usually built into a heavy duty, assault-proof stand. My personal experiences of these have been mixed, but today’s effort at Westfield was surprisingly efficient… for me.

However, while in the short queue to use the device, I just couldn’t resist watching the two lovely young ladies in front try to use it. A catalog of problems proceeded, and I spotted some familiar usage patterns that brought me home to the world of site usability testing. Don’t worry – I won’t bore you with an essay on testing methodologies or anything like that. Instead, I’ll just share some of these points with you!

First of all, our two young ladies were ‘Searchers’. They started off their information finding journey using a text field to find the necessary store. Online, this fits a large proportion of web users, often those who are more tech-savvy and who certainly arrive with preconceived requirements. It really does highlight the importance of running an efficient and effective search on your site. Make sure search fields look like search fields, and are appropriately labeled, i say ‘Search’ will probably do, maybe using ‘Go’ in an associated button. Results pages must be formatted so that information returned can be scanned quickly by the eye for key words – that could mean putting search terms returned into bold.

The second issue arose because there were two users in this case. Friend #2 quickly gives up on the search and switches to a feature labeled ‘Index A-Z’, by way of hitting several areas of the screen which were not buttons, including a titled labeled ‘Find’. This throws up an interesting couple of issues:

Most importantly, that people engaging in a UI for the first time are inherently confused because they are in a place they’ve never visited before. This confusion should be minimised as much as possible – specifically by giving the user as many points of reference as we can. Give them things they’ve seen and used before, and they’ll interact with them in the same way. In this case, navigational items need to be visible. For textual links, that means underlining, for buttons – well, they just need to look like buttons! This is important, because it really limits the scope of flexibility for the designer, but we’re not working with a blank canvas here.

Additionally, when Friend #2 doesn’t find her result using ‘Index A-Z’, Friend #1 promptly hits the back button. Returning the user to a completed set of data is critical (might be worth saying again – CRITICAL), because the height of user frustration comes from having to retype queries or complete forms twice.

There is a dilemma here between how much you, as the designer or site owner (or whoever you are), already know about your site, your product, your service, and so forth, and how much the average user is in the dark. I’ve had long conversations with colleagues about how obvious a particular design element or written statement should be, because for most people who are directly working on something – these things are just plain obvious and don’t need spelling out. Alternatively, you might take the viewpoint that if a user doesn’t know what your site does, then why are they there in the first place. This is all of course looking at the problem in completely the wrong way. It’s our jobs as designers, site owners, etc, to make our message crystal clear to the user upon their first visit; to make their experience with the site as fast and as frustration free as possible, and ultimately to give them the information or product that they want quickly and easily. As a rule, I would say that whatever you believe to be already blatantly obvious to the end user… make twice as obvious again.

Here’s a little summary for the day… Minimise the time a user engages with your UI, and they’ll spend more time engaging with your product.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Blog | No Comments »

January 5th, 2010

Buh-bye ’09

When people publish top ten of the year summary lists, normally I cringe at the choices and often in fact pass the opportunity to read for something more favorable. So, not particularly one for making favorites lists myself either, I suppose it is the end of a decade and things do need summarising and pigeon-holing, therefore…

Albums that I most respect or stayed in my playlist pretty consistently during the last ten years…

  1. Interpol – Turn On The Bright Lights
  2. Low – Long Division
  3. Smashing Pumpkins – Melon Collie & The Infinite Sadness
  4. Cat Power – The Covers Record
  5. Gravenhurst – Fires In Distant Buildings
  6. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver
  7. At The Drive-In – Relationship Of Command
  8. Animal Collective – Sung Tongs
  9. Grizzly Bear – Yellow House
  10. Dizzee Rascal – Boy In Da Corner

Though if you read my Last.FM it may spin you other lies. Over the last ten years I’ve enjoyed a heady mix of indie-rock, electro, electronica, house, grime and UK garage. I tried hard to get a full electronica album onto the list, but it really is quite tough to name something that is either good or relevant all the way through, nor many that I could stomach anymore. The decade was won by Interpol in the end though, Turn On The Bright Lights I must have listened to at least weekly since its release in ’02.

Anyway, so buh-bye 2009 and the ’0os respectively, it’s been fun.

  • Share/Bookmark

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Blog | No Comments »