Intro to the SF Design Community.

Huge

Tonight

Breaking In.

Take control of your career.

Ask yourself: What am I passionate about?

Goal: In X years I want to…

Goal: In X years I want to…

- Design at a digital agency

- Be a visual designer

- Launch my own startup

Portfolio. First impressions:

Design your portfolio. Design your portfolio. Design your portfolio.

Treat it as it’s own project.

If you must use a template.

semplicelabs.com squarespace.com cargocollective.com

Give it some love.

Your portfolio represents you.

But you’re not always there to talk about the work…

Your designs should be relevant.

vs.

Only show the kind of work you want to be hired to do.

Your designs should be timely.

Design is more than just about making things beautiful.

It’s about storytelling.

- Background.

- Users.

- Hurdles.

- Goals.

- Design & Thought Process

- Conclusions.

Talk about these things when you presenting your design.

Don’t have enough experience? Get it any way you can.

Make an improvement to something out there.

update

Help someone out.

Friends. Family. Acquaintances.

Think blue sky.

What if…

Use social media to your advantage.

designernews.co

Find the right design job.

Job boards.

Linked In Coroflot Indeed

Employer insight.

Glass Door Linked In Friends

Salary guides.

Coroflot Glassdoor AIGA

Always ask for

more. ;)

Interviewing.

Be prepared:

Bring your work, and be ready to talk about it.

Be honest:

Acknowledge your strengths and where you want to grow.

Be direct:

Be clear about what you’re looking for.

Show some fucking enthusiasm.

“Do you have any questions you’d like to ask me?”

Always research the company before you go in.

And don’t be afraid to reach out to someone you look up to.

Resources.

Email Newsletters. Sidebar – 5 interesting design links, daily http://sidebar.io

Openbeta – Betaworks’ newsletter, great updates on new products

https://betaworks.com/openbeta/

MediaREDEF - curated mix of media+tech+pop content

http://mediaredefined.com

LaunchTicker - Tech + Startup news and announcements (paid)

http://launchticker.com

Quartz – World news (daily)

Product Hunt– New Products/startups http://producthunt.com

Groups and events. General Assembly – Lots of great events and workshops

AIGA - Professional association for design, San Francisco chapter

SF Design Week – Weeklong collection of great Bay Area design events every year

IxDA - SF Chapter - Local and global events

Designers & Geeks – 8,500+ members, regular events

Creative Mornings - A great monthly event series to stay inspired

with events in San Francisco and Oakland

Parisoma – Coworking space that hosts design events

Meetups – There are lots of great local design focused meetups that host regular

events including Lean UX SF, Designers Who Code, Cascade SF, and more!

Education.

General Assembly - Classes like Intro to UX, 12 week courses on UX

The D School, Institute for Design at Stanford - Virtual Crash Course, no degrees

Huge School - Paid apprenticeship program in NYC

Blogs. PSFK - Your daily dose of interesting and creative uses of new technology http://www.psfk.com/ Julie Zhuo on Medium – Insightful design articles from Facebook Design Director https://medium.com/@joulee Boxes and Arrows - High quality articles and podcast interviews http://www.boxesandarrows.com/ Smashing Magazine – Deep-dive into more advanced UX topics http://www.smashingmagazine.com/ FastCo Design – Articles & news on the hottest design & technology offerings http://www.fastcodesign.com/ A List Apart - Articles on everything from the industry to design to coding http://www.alistapart.com/ Signal vs. Noise - Thoughts from the guys at 37 Signals http://37signals.com/svn/ Information Aesthetics - A blog focusing on interesting information design and visualization http://infosthetics.com/

Questions?