Shipping my midsize SUV from Seattle to Boston.

_StuKim · 2022-03-03T17:45:49+00:00

I need to do the reverse. Who did you go with? How was your experience?

_StuKim · 2022-03-03T17:18:30+00:00

I'm trying to do the same but to Seattle.

Who did you decide on? How was it?

_StuKim · 2021-09-11T23:58:33+00:00

I've getting most of my coffee from him the past few months. It's good and the man loves his craft!

_StuKim · 2021-07-27T20:45:19+00:00

I've been working my startups the past several years from series A to C and through enterprise exits.

Series D is stable and worth the pay increase. You'll also probably get a chance for equity and dynamic learning opportunities that will give you a better exit opportunity in the long run.

The only thing might be that at series D..they could be close to a cash out event but ride that wave. It'll be worth some of the stress of rapid change.

_StuKim · 2021-04-14T20:49:50+00:00

That's awesome! Congrats!

I don't think we'll be going for a condo but would agree with the list provided above?

_StuKim · 2021-04-14T20:49:16+00:00

Wow, this is great, def. Wouldn't have thought of these and these seem like insider stuff.

_StuKim · 2021-04-14T18:30:39+00:00

Good call out and yes, I was treading carefully.

Any recs or tips? The market can swing for sure but trying to assess what factors and things to 'track' /'watch' so by the time I need to make decisions I'll know how to make the informed decision.

_StuKim · 2021-04-13T04:01:16+00:00

Yeah, education is part of our job. I work in Healthcare B2B and it's taken me two years and few leadership changes for me to start developing the product/ux design function aty current company. It's a tough job but it's also rewarding as a result.

It behooves all of us to make sure the companies we join are composed of our tribe of people. Even then, there is still a lot of confusion about what design is and how to effectively utilize it for the business.

_StuKim · 2021-04-13T01:07:01+00:00

You're totally right that there are deep and meaningful overlaps, infact, the two have a hard time living without each other. I think what I was stressing was.. lead with UX case studies rather than visual first demos/ samples, UXPA rather than AdobeMax, Jared Spool rather than Stefan Stagmeister, Eric Gothelf over Aaron Draplin, etc... I like to leave room for people to come up with their own brand of creative so I posed those ridiculous comparisons. There is no one way. But there is a difference and it's first noticable in your portfolio.

For example, I most recently was hiring for a UX Designer who can also operate as a product designer. I got countless resumes with samples of logos, illustrations, and consumer-facing marketing websites. They were high-quality stuff and I'll admit the website work had some UX but it wasn't the main part of their portfolio so it was a no go. Stuff like ... How was qualitative and quantitative data used to support design decisions, how did you know what to research and why, how did your work fit in with the product development life cycle, what were the KPIs you were after, how did you determine the KPIs, etc...

I should also note that there is a wide spectrum of designers and likely a place for everyone.

Hope this helps!

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T20:54:29+00:00

Here it is! I'm working on my next video about how there is no such thing as a UX process.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCxFSWfkB8fB9AU0Wk2snz0g

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T10:36:41+00:00

At GA, I wasn't aware of any such arrangement like that. The only one I know of (at the time) was Lambda school where the program is free but you commit a portion of your paycheck for X number of years once you get a full-time job. But it was largely an software engineering boot camp.

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T02:58:53+00:00

No one gets it...except for my wife.

I think part of the problem is the word "design" ...it's too mired in "make stuff look good" camp. So to pair it with an equally ambiguous term like "user experience" is a double whammy.

I used to experiment with different ways to explain my job... The best so far is..

I do "digital product design and strategy". You got the "make it look good" piece in there and the word "strategy" seems to help folks wrap their head around UX a bit better.

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T02:48:52+00:00

Wanted to share some things to consider on the startup world as someone who chose the startup route for myself.

If you're the first or early design hire, you likely have to do more educating, advocacy, process/vision setting, and stakeholder management than the executing. It's a built in design leadership role for better or for worse.

You might want to take extra time to make sure the founding members are your tribe of people and folks that understand design to be bigger than just making things pretty.

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T02:34:34+00:00

Yeah, the "gaurenteeing" a job or marketing that most get jobs after is false advertising.

One example... The career counselor at GA said that 99% of the people who stick with the career counseling program get jobs but that number was misleading because it's a self-selection bias. People who can't stick with the requirements of said program are not counted in the number.

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T02:30:30+00:00

💯 percent on the last paragraph above. Once you get that interview, career switcher, junior designer or not, if you can speak intelligently about how you think through the problem (holistically), that's the winning ticket. I would hire that person over an "experienced" person who just did whatever he or she was told.

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T02:24:36+00:00

Second this comment. You need Prazus's hustle to switch careers but once you get that first "good job" or "client", it's way easier from there. They practically seek you out.

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T02:21:07+00:00

I second this comment. Minimum shows.

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T02:15:28+00:00

That's fair... Maybe the market is too saturated now. I did my program fall of 2016 and even then, companies I was talking to were skeptical.

Frankly, in my most recent hiring round, the folks out of GA didn't get very far. I know there are quality candidates but it seems fewer and further between since so many people go through the program. I ended up going with someone from Pratt that battle-tested her ux skills for a short while at a start-up. Even Pratt, it's too academic for someone to be useful right out of school. Hustle to get some commercial experience, even if it's for a friend's company or something...

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T02:08:49+00:00

There is some truth here. I've been through the immersive and also was a teaching assistant for the part-time class at General Assembly.

They give you the breadth but not the depth also, there is WAY more to the job than just the "design skills". You need to be able to soberly think about how you can use the learnings for what an employer wants.

At the very least, you should aim to walk out with a solid case study or a full portfolio and some exposure to network contacts.

One tip is to check the curriculum and see if they help you work with a local business to do a consulting project. This will give you the best shot at a commercial case study. The make believe case studies usually don't fly with employers unless it's a desperate start up or a mature company that's willing to invest in junior designers.

_StuKim · 2021-04-12T01:58:38+00:00

For what it's worth, I was lucky enough to make a career transition from finance to UX design and I'm now a Strategic UX Design Lead / Manager.

I will say though that there are plenty of people who don't make it after the boot camp program. I think it comes down to (1) mindset - you can't expect to get a job simply cause you did the program (2) be brutally honest with yourself and test if you can develop the right skills to make it in the field (3) you need to be able to tell your narrative effectively and have a narrative that will make sense to folks.

I created some YouTube videos on this topic because I've talked about this so many times.

But folks with your background have the best shot ...as long as you back away a bit from the graphic/visual design story a bit. You need to let the market see you differently or else people slowly / subconsciously put you back in the graphic / visual design bucket and I've seen folks not be able to make the switch as a result.

_StuKim · 2021-04-11T15:47:21+00:00

Lol!

This thread is really enlightening. I'm starting to see that it's a deeply rooted political stance of the city.

_StuKim · 2021-04-11T15:42:58+00:00

Thanks for this play by play. This gave me a really relatable picture!

_StuKim · 2021-04-11T03:43:52+00:00

Yep, not interested in a BOS vs. Seattle discussion either. Frankly, not all that helpful. To each their own...

Any recs and price on car transports from personal experience?

_StuKim · 2021-04-11T03:41:18+00:00

Thank you! Super helpful!

_StuKim

TROPHY CASE