Mario Bourque and Russ Unger
Abstract
The IA Career Workshop is a half-day event that teaches IAs and other User Experience professionals how to optimize their career search. Attendees will learn the skills needed in today’s market, and will get the opportunity to network and share ideas.
Divided into four information-packed sessions, the workshop will include discussions, and individual and team exercises:
1. Career Listings, Career Sites and Agencies
- Looking at recent career listings to understand what employers are looking for
- Communicating what IA’s do to recruiters
- Applying lessons learned to cover letters and interview conversations
2. Resumes
- Examining sample resumes
Tips for designing an IA-oriented resume that stands out
3. Portfolios
- Understanding what makes a great portfolio
- Determining the best method to display it
4. Interviewing
- Examining what interviewers want to hear
- Presenting yourself through your portfolio
- Communication tips for before, during and after the interview
Workshop Details
Learning Objectives
- How to immediately apply lessons learned in a career search.
Improving resumes, portfolios and interview skills
Gather a list of resources on UX career opportunities
Core IA-related Issues
- Develop or improve their career path
Improve job hunting skills
Audience
This workshop targets IA/UX professionals of all levels, who are looking for a more successful and rewarding career.
Preparation Requirements, Restrictions or Conditions
- Participants are not required, but it is recommended they bring a laptop, to follow along with online examples presented. Writing utensils are necessary.
- Participants should examine major job sites and look at current postings in their career/field:
- Hotjobs.com
- Dice.com
- Monster.com
- Workopolis.com
- Eluta.com
- Careerbuilder.com
- Other sites
- Participants should bring printed copies of their resume and generic cover letter.
- Participants should also bring their existing portfolio and identify examples of other portfolios they think are prepared well.
How will the workshop be conducted
The IA Career Workshop will run for half a day. There are 4 sessions, each filled with information and exercises.
Each session is approximately half an hour to an hour long, with a 15 minute break between session two and three. More time will be spent on popular or more complex topics, so that the structure is optimum for learning.
Detailed Schedule
Part 1: Career Listings, Career Sites and Agencies – 60 minutes
Part 2: Resumes – 60 minutes
Break – 15 minutes
Part 3: Portfolios – 60 minutes
Part 4: Interviews – 60 minutes
Questions and wrap-up – 15 minutes
Topics and Exercises
Part One - Career Listings, Career Sites and Agencies
TOPIC
Recent career listings provide insight into what employers are looking for. We’ll analyze postings and also look at some career resources and agencies for job seekers.
LEARNING GOALS
- How to ‘decipher’ a career posting - look at some of the jargon that the company uses to understand what the requirements of that position really are.
- We’ll learn the language the company uses, and how they go about describing the work that IAs do. Take the information from postings to prepare participants for writing a cover letter.
EXERCISE
A. Discussion points
- What are employers really looking for?
- What do the terms in the postings mean?
- Are we all on the same page when it comes to expectations?
- Why do some career postings look like wish lists and seem unrealistic?
B. Activities
- Look at various recent career postings
- Look at job sites and career agencies
Part Two - Resumes
TOPIC
Examine resumes from participants and a major national resume database to give participants a better understanding of how to build their resume. Teaching tips and tricks to developing an IA resume that stands out from the rest.
LEARNING GOALS
- Design an IA oriented resume that stands out
- Learn to read into a career posting and draw key elements and keywords into your resume or cover letter.
- Look for cues during the interview process, also covered later in the session.
- Compare your resume with others and see where there’s room for improvement
- Best practices when writing resumes.
EXERCISE
A. Discussion points
- How to make a resume relevant for a particular career posting.
- Explain what some of the terms mean in a UX oriented career posting.
- What to look for when researching a potential employer based on a particular career posting.
- How a cover letter complements a resume and whether they are still relevant.
B. Activities
- Look at examples of resumes and focus on content and structure
- Pull keywords and terms from career postings
- Using resumes from participants, we will match them to a set of career postings that will be chosen by the presenters.
Part Three - Portfolios
TOPIC
We’ll look at various portfolios, discuss how to present them to a potential employer (format, content, etc.) and narrow down key documents to take to an interview.
LEARNING GOALS
- Establish what should go into your portfolio
- Determine the best method of displaying your portfolio
- How much is enough / how much is too much to display in a portfolio?
- Creating an effective portfolio to help you land the dream job
EXERCISE
A. Discussion Points
- Look at what makes for a good portfolio.
- Define what a potential employer may be looking for.
- How to target particular pieces of your portfolio for a particular position.
B. Portfolio Review
- Discuss effective strategies for presentation.
Part Four – Interviewing
TOPIC
We will examine interviewing skills and what interviewers are looking for, showing how to navigate the interview with your portfolio, and role-play different interview scenarios. Participants will gain a better understanding of the process and get guidance on building confidence for future interviews.
LEARNING GOALS
- How to get ready for an interview by researching the company, practicing interview questions by role playing, organizing your portfolio for a particular job description, understanding when and how to negotiate salary and compensation, and preparing questions for the interviewer.
- Find out how to start an interview, how to communicate your skills effectively when answering questions and how to follow-up afterwards.
EXERCISE
A. Discussion points
- How to prepare for an interview - become more confident and comfortable
- What interviewers are looking for
- Using your resume and portfolio to support your interview
- What to do and what not to do during interviews
B. Activities
- Interview role playing with teams
Materials provided to participants for use and takeway will include:
- Schedule/Agenda
- List of reference materials for further study
Speaker Details
Mario Bourque is a 13-year veteran of the software industry and is currently the Manager of Information Architecture and Content Management for a leading solutions and technology provider to the passenger transport industry.
His current focus is on enterprise information architecture, web development, and user experience on the Web. Outside of the office, he contributes his time as a mentor with the Information Architecture Institute, the IxDA group, and is involved in several non-profit initiatives. He currently lives in Guelph, Ontario.
Russ Unger has been working on websites since 1993—when there was only Notepad to code with and Mosaic was the only browser around. That was when he found his interest in User Experience Design and Information Architecture began to flourish.
Since then, he has worked with a number of major brands, including Gatorade, Propel, Quaker and Celebrity Cruise Lines, as well as on large scale Intranet and Extranet applications for such companies as Volkswagen Credit, Audi Financial Services, Information Resources, Inc. and Marsh. He has been involved in the Information Architecture for large scale public-facing sites for such companies as Metromix, Oprah.com, United Airlines and Hewlett-Packard. He has also worked off-line, creating unique biometric (fingerprint reader) applications and has worked as the Design Lead for Motorola’s Connectivity domain where he was responsible for creating user interfaces for mobile applications in Motorola’s Consumer Experience Design group. Russ worked closely with such major carriers as T-Mobile, Cingular/AT&T and Vodafone to design features for Bluetooth, WiFi and over-the-air updates. He has also taught courses in Web and Interactive/Flash Design.
In his spare time, he is an author and editor for Boxes and Arrows (www.boxesandarrows.com), a well-known online Information Architecture magazine. In addition to being a mentor for the Information Architecture Institute (www.iainstitute.org), Russ also serves on the 2200+ member organization’s Board of Directors as the Director of Events and Marketing. As if that is not enough, he tries to actively blog on topics in User Experience Design at UserGlue UserBlog (www.userglue.com/blog). He lives in West Chicago with his wife, Nicolle, and 2 daughters.
Russ is currently co-authoring the book “A Project Guide to User Experience Design” with Carolyn Chandler for Peachpit Press (Voices That Matter), with anticipated publication in February, 2009.