Hired

Practical approaches to landing a career

Web designer since 1998

VDP, Web, Automation

Associate Dean, Interaction Design

Humber College, Canada

What You'll Get

A free pass to...

Seriously,

🤑 Solid approaches to landing the work you want

🧭 Tactics to move in the right direction

🏃‍♀️ How to move slow in order to move fast (or vice versa)

🧂 Spices for your resume + portfolio

🐥 A stronger inner canary

Why?

• Bitterness with the process
• I've been on both sides
• Human capacity is limited
• Online applications are easy...

The Law of Averages

• More applications = more chances
  • 0.5% response rate?
• Autonomous systems
  • Taxonomies (broad vs depth)
  • Reinforcement models
  • Training bias

Definition
of
insanity?

"Extreme foolishness or irrationality."
— Oxford Dictionary

Foot
in the
Door

Activity

Write Down...

3+ Job Titles

Write Down...

3+ Questions

Find...

People

1st & 2nd degree connections
with matching job titles

What do you think of my portfolio?

Preamble: I'm a recent graduate from ???

Could we grab a virtual coffee

Preamble: I'm a recent graduate from ???

Make Life Easy

• The UX of meetings
• Offer 2-3 ideal times to meet
• Provide a booking link 💡
• Follow up the morning of meeting to confirm
• Plan some conversation starters (ice breakers)
• Figure out what they enjoy (social engineering)
• Express some of the things you enjoy
• Maybe teach them something!

Most people aspire to be better

What can you contribute?

Adding Value

• What's challenging you?
• How do you measure success?
• What are you curious about?
• Tell me about ...
• I know someone ...
• Can I help you with something?

Open-ended questions are magical!

Don't close the deal!

No pressure, you're not a salesperson.

Your mandate is to genuinely want to help.

Sought After Skills

• Entrepreneurial
• Business insights
• Working with numbers = $$
• Interdisciplinary
• Empathy / Soft skills
• Culture fit / Conversational
• Following up + persistence
• Humble
• Show potential

They've been here for 10+ years, don't worry about them.

Other Signs

• Inefficient use of resources
• Employee don't care = company doesn't care
• Lack of diversity?
• Political alignment
• We don't want to nickle and dime you...
  vs. I want to pay you what you're worth.

What are your warning signs?

F this, I want to be the change I want to see.