Erietta Sapounakis“… It’s a pretty good test and I think this rule has served me well.” — Mark Zuckerberg
From a Q & A session at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, read more at: www.news.com.au/finance/work/facebook-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-reveals-the-secret-to-getting-hired-by-him/story-e6frfm9r-1227249395211
Should you be a UX designer, a UI designer, a visual designer, a front end coder, or a back end coder? Can you be all of them? Can you be a few of them?
At various points in my career I have made a decision to specialise. For a while I was a visual designer who could write HTML/CSS (please don’t ask me to write code now). Then Java Script came along and I knew I had to make a call. These early decisions of mine in part follow a timeline of how technology and the industry developed — something that Russ Weakley has articulated perfectly in his presentation Specialise or cross-skill?
I was quite amused when Russ refers to the unicorn — that rare person who can do it all. Here is something I dug out of my email archives, a LinkedIn request that assumed I was one such creature.
Erietta,
We’re seeking a UI/UX web designer at XXXXXX. Keen to connect.
Cheers,
XXXXX
So if you are wondering what design field to specialise in, or whether to specialise at all, or if you are about to write a job ad for a designer please read this first.
Speaking as a graduate of one, top schools teach you credentialing and ladder climbing. If you’re lucky, you might learn how to create a financial model or craft a solid argument. They don’t make you a great UX designer or programmer. Your passion for learning and gaining more and more experience are what make you great. The nights you stayed up until 5am coding make you great. Your love of building things makes you great.
I want to hire hungry creative kids that want to step up. The best programmers from shitty schools and wannabe designers who dropped out of film school. Network engineers who started off as college dropouts but figured it out from years of on-the-job experience learning to be the best. Dev Bootcamp grads without any experience but who have spent every day and night the last 6 months programming.
I don’t give a shit where you went to college as long as you’re talented.
About 10% of new recruits to call centres take Zappos up on the incentive to leave after completing the intensive induction program.