This week we are getting started with our professional practice module. We’ll be looking at the best ways to appeal to employers and how to communicate ourselves as designers.
We played a round of 20 questions based on different job roles. My job was school teacher and Jareds was Youtuber. It was a fun exercise that helped us understand more about the most important qualities of a job and the skills that are required for the role. This is a good place to begin applying these same questions to ourselves.
Cover letters are going to play a big part in our recruitment process, especially as it is a placement role. Cover letters are a chance for us to let companies know what actually interests us about their organisation. It lets us demonstrate our knowledge of both the industry and their work. Daniel placed an emphasis on research when writing a cover letter, dont take half measures here, it is the time to be true to yourself to ensure that you are a good fit for the company you are applying for. He stressed the importance of finding a name to address the cover letter too as it makes the writing more personal and shows a degree of preparation has been done prior to sending the letter.
Daniel has been quite forward about the importance he places on physical cv’s and even noted that it is an area where many year groups lose a lot of easy marks by not creating one. He has mentioned to us a few times an instance in which a physical cv made a big difference for him and landed him a job years after he actually had sent the cv. It’s cool to note the impact it had on that employer so much so that they remembered it years down the line. Physical design is an area which we haven’t really gotten to explore yet so I will definitely be creating a unique way to send a physical copy out. It seems like an easy win and I love taking those where and when possible.
We conducted a task in which we were asked what are we looking for in potential employers and places of work. The things that mattered most to me were; a mentor, innovative leadership, a good workplace culture, fair pay and opportunities for growth. Overall our class seemed to agree on lots of these things, with an clear emphasis being placed on aspects of the workplaces values/ethos and teamwork. Apparently this was quite different to previous year groups answers. Previous years placing more emphasis on things like benefits and environment with things such as WFH and flexibility being valued more. I think this can be attributed to changes to the hiring market as recruitment in the industry seems to be a little slower at the moment due to economic pressures. Knowing this pushes me to go that extra mile with this module iin the pursuit of a placement role.
We touched on the topic of who are we as designers and who we want to be professionally. There are so many different titles and roles for designers currently and it can be tricky to pick one that best aligns with ourselves. A lot of my peers said they wanted to be research focused maybe becoming ux researchers others strayed a little more opting for titles such as multi media specialist. For myself, and I think I have felt this way from the beginning of the course but I feel that Product Designer aligns very much with my skillset. The idea of creating a product from scratch based on user needs and actually delivering it seems so rewarding. Whether it was B2C or B2B I think i would enjoy both. I think my understanding of Product Designer presents a much more encompassing view of design and research which really appeals to me.