What Am I Doing? (Dec 2008)

I’ve done enough anniversary/milestone posts for the time being, so I’m not going to dwell on the anniversary of the “What Am I Doing?” series. Besides, I have something interesting/productive to talk about this month.

Freelance Gig

Mid-last month, a college friend of mine contacted me about a freelance gig that I might be interested in. His friends from high school have created a startup, doing viral videos for clients, and they need a designer doing the site and create a logo and all that jazz.

I don’t know how much liberty I have with talking about this gig, since it’s still in progress, so I’m going to be conservative in the details. But what I would like to say is that I am excited for this project, and I am excited to see this company grow and succeed. I see real potential with the guys who created this company, and it’ll be interesting to see where it will stand six months or one year from now.

Last night, I spent two or three hours watching all the videos that these guys have created for their old project, Huge In Asia. You might have heard of it, and I think I have, too, back when I was still in college two years ago. To be honest, back then, I probably thought it was really cheesy and silly. But it’s so cheesy and silly, that it’s also entertaining and good! These guys seem free to let their creativity lead their journey, something I wish I have a lot more often.

Luckily, I am now a teeny part of their next project, and I am not going to screw up, not that that happens often anyway. I just have to balance this with my job at Peet’s. So whenever I’m not making lattes, I’m working on this project. Sorry to those who tried to contact me and I haven’t responded. It’s going to be pretty crazy for the next few weeks, especially when you add on the holiday season madness.

Last Month at Peet’s

Speaking of Peet’s, I will be leaving this job sometime next month, after the holiday rush. It really hasn’t hit me yet. But no matter how I feel, I think this needs to happen. The time for change has come.

Flush.

What Have I Done? (Anniversary Review 2008)

Today marks the first anniversary of Flush. A year ago, I “soft opened” this blog, and believe it or not, I still haven’t “grand opened” it, although I’m not sure if I really need to anyway.

Flash Review

The past year has been a bumpy ride. I finished my last undergrad class, got sucked into the world of Sim City 3000 and Sims 2 as I prepped for my job search, started my beta site, got a job at Peet’s, went to see Sagmeister speak, skipped out on Alumni Day (I’m sorry!), worked on a freelance project for my aunt’s business, bought a new printer, watched the impressive production of the Beijing Olympics, resumed working on my portfolio and site, and rekindled my passion for web developing.

My attitude on design has changed, and that has helped me narrow down the types of careers that I would like to pursue. And every day, I’m getting closer to that job and that career. Working on my site almost every day excites me and motivates me because 1) I’ve grown to enjoy coding and designing, and 2) I can’t wait to share with the world what I’ve done.

Prediction for the Next Twelve Months

I don’t know.

Nobody does, and I’ve been wrong enough times about where I would be right now to not make any more general predictions. But I will always have hope, I will always have my expectations, and I will always believe in the future.

A year from now, I may or may not be a designer, and I may or may not enjoy coding still/anymore, and I may completely change my mind about this site and start a brand new one, or career. And that’s perfectly okay, as long as I am okay with it and it’s for the better. I may not reach my current desired destination, but that may or may not be as important as the journey to get there. I mean, I totally wish I were rich already and not have to work but become a philanthropist and help starving children in Africa or save the rain forest in South America, but it would probably mean more to me if I actually pay my dues, work my way up, meet interesting people, and learn about the issues to get there.

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Oct 2008)

Web Languages

As I had posted in the past few entries, I’m teaching myself the relatively basic web programming languages by working on my site, mostly the portfolio section. I’ve conducted a couple experiments to get a better understanding and grip of these languages. Learning Cookies, Ajax, and PHP has been very exciting and has stirred up project ideas.

Every day I wish I would have enough energy after work to work a little bit on my site or an experiment. I could see myself doing this as a career, although I haven’t been with the big kids yet, so troubleshooting one line in the haystack of hundreds that others have written might make me think otherwise. Still, it’s exciting when things work the way you want it to, and that might make it all worth it.

Economy and Job

So the economy’s not doing so well. Just when you think you’re at the bottom, you’re wrong. This isn’t really affecting me as directly as other Americans, since I don’t intend to buy a house or borrow large sums of money in the near future.

But when others suffer, we might, too. I’m talking specifically about companies’ ability (or inability) to keep their finances in the black, which may require them to lay off some employees, employees who might now compete with me in the job market, or employees whose positions that I desire but seize to exist because they’re laid off.

So that makes me reconsider the length of my employment at Peet’s. But then again, if I worry too much, which I probably already have, I won’t get anywhere.

Flush.

Career Routes: Web Developing and “Green” Companies

In the past few weeks, as I have been working on my portfolio site and learning PHP and Ajax, I re-found my excitement and fascination in coding, and I could imagine myself working on it as a full-time gig, despite the hairsplitting troubleshooting (but when it works, it works beautifully!) At the same time, my interest in environmentalism and sustainability still exists. Not so much, though, is visual design, at least as a career. Therefore, I now have narrowed my choices down to two: web developing and “green” jobs.

I don’t know which is more correct, web “developing” or web “programming,” but I know what I want to do. The problem is that a quick job search online shows that most of those jobs require multiple years of experience, which I don’t have professionally.

And with green jobs, I still don’t know where to start, because I don’t know what my education in (mostly visual) design can contribute to the organizations. But I’m sure there is a future and potential for growth for the entire industry, so I’m not too worried; there’s something to do for everyone.

Therefore, the perfect job right now would be to combine both: to code the website or whatever for a “green” company, letting me contribute to my passion of changing/saving the world by doing what I enjoy doing.

This is not too far-fetched of a dream, compared to my other ones. If I have to pay more dues by working for a year or two somewhere to get there, I just might do it.

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Apr 2008)

Peet’s

A month flies by so fast sometimes, especially when you’re working almost every day. Working at Peet’s has been “learningful.” Not only did I learn about coffee and tea in general, I also experienced firsthand the corporate branding trickling all the way down to the sales floor, both in visual design and business management.

Other than the freelance route, I believe that organizational hierarchy and communication are essential to success and growth in any job out there. I am fortunate to work with a group of knowledgeable and experienced people who aren’t afraid to teach others and newbies like me their tricks and provide really useful advice. It’s not as if they were competitive and afraid that I would take their jobs somehow, especially when almost all of us have the same positions. And as “upper management” has shown us, my coworkers and I are a team; we all work together, and we are only as strong as our weakest link and all that good stuff.

I don’t think I’m revealing any company insider secrets here, but I really like the fact that Peet’s places great emphasis on two main things: quality service and quality products. Customers and fresh coffee pretty much sit next to each other at the top of Peet’s list of importance, as they should be. While it’s not possible to guarantee 100% quality on everything all the time, I still do my best everyday to make sure those two goals are achieved, and I feel proud to associate myself with an organization whose ideals are such.

Peet’s and Design Business

That sense of pride is partly due to my background in design (I say “background” like I’ve had decades of experience, haha). The way I see it, from the perspective of a baby designer with little or no “professional” design business experience, the design business is about the client and what you produce for that client. Design is about listening to what the audience and client want, but at the same time, it’s also about what you make to meet their needs and wants.

In the month that I’ve been at Peet’s, I’ve begun to develop relationships with the regulars. Every regular has his/her own unique personality and quirks, and I had to readjust to address each of them differently. Some are real cool, and some are… not so much. I feel that (and I know that) I’m going to encounter clients like that when I do design full-time. Some clients are gonna micromanage, just like some of the Peet’s customers who watch everything you do in preparing their coffee. And some are more carefree and trust you and your knowledge about coffee/design so that they get the best darn product that your skills could produce for them.

Design

Since my last monthly update, I had worked on my home page some more, continuing with the transparency concept. I know that in a real project, I really shouldn’t work on the home page until the end (nor should I take this long to build a web site). But I feel that since this is a beta site, it’s the most seen page, so the design should reflect my concept for the site so that new visitors can immediately get a sense of what’s happening and will come back if they like what they see.

So in short, I’m not going to do much else until this home page is done, as much as it pains me to not have enough time to do anything else in the mean time. But the good news is that I think I’m almost done with the design. The remaining issues are 1) how to place the slideshow “screen” on a faux-transparency while sticking to that grid I had, and 2) a more interesting background, possibly changing based on the time of day.

I believe I will resolve these in the new few weeks, and hopefully, it’ll be sooner than later.

Design Opportunities

Two weeks ago, I saw on HOW’s design blog a fellowship opportunity at Chronicle Books. It seems like a really cool gig and I really want to do this, but seeing how the deadline is at the end of this month, I don’t think I have the time to put together a solid portfolio and application. It’s a six-month fellowship from July to December, and it pays $15,000 total, which converts to a $30,000/yr salary, which is not too bad. Unlike that teamwork mentality that I was talking about earlier, I was being a little competitive here by withholding informing people about this, especially to my graduating design friends who may be interested in this. But seeing how I probably won’t apply, I figure I should share the wealth and hopefully a Davis graduates gets in.

A few days ago, a good good design friend forwarded me about an immediate job opening within her company, and other than the 2–3 years professional experience and QuarkXPress requirement, my commitment at Peet’s is preventing me from doing anything else any time soon. And that made me think about what I will be doing in the next few months.

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Mar 08)

A slight, temporary change of direction this past month. I had been working on my web site still, though at a slower rate than before. I took on a small, short freelance project recoding a website that is easier to manage and a lot more standards-compliant. But mainly, my time has been split into two parts: one for my website, and one for a part-time job.

Long story short, and in a way that I’ve been describing to my friends and such, I am now working part-time at Peet’s Coffee and Tea as a barista while I’m finishing my portfolio and web site.

I’m still training at Peet’s, so I don’t really considered myself a barista, yet. Nonetheless, this move was a result of a readjustment of priorities, the most urgent of which is financially based.

The Strategy

But I didn’t take this job just because it’s available. I’ve thought about this for a long time and have developed a flexible strategy that will work to my advantage in my career as a designer. By working here, I will be able to, first and foremost, have a front-row look at a retail environment and corporate branding strategies, which will give me some background in retail customer experience.

I’m sure a lot of established designers today had part-time retail jobs in high school and college or in the early years of their career, and that experience most likely gave them a slight edge at understanding how it all works.

Because sometimes, I feel that a lot of designers produce things based on what they think looks cool and lack sufficient research in what the client and customers need and want, or that they receive the research from the marketing department and base their designs on words on paper and not direct, personal experience.

For example, I had only worked at Peet’s for a couple shifts, but I’ve already noticed the amount of branding that the company implements onto the sales floor, ranging from the packaging to the interior design to the employee dress code. The company also has a few service-based qualities that are consistently reasserted, especially in the training material.

Room for Improvement

At the same time, I constantly think about the certain methods and ways of saying something that can be improved to increase productivity as well as customer satisfaction and enthusiasm. Occasionally, I tried to picture how and why Peet’s design team chooses a particular approach in their branding and promotion strategies and thought about little things from a retail employee point of view that they could change or add to make both the employees and customers happier.

There are also other reasons for working at Peet’s that will help me in my career in design, but I won’t list them here. But all in all, I am enjoying the experience and will take as many lessons as I could from this and apply them to my future design jobs.

Sayings of the Moment

• “Just do it.” (no affiliation with any athletic company)
• “You fail if you don’t try.” –“Get Up,” Superch!ck (from my high school days)
• “Having guts always works out for me.” –Stefan Sagmeister

Flush.

The Job Search Campaign

Does anyone else feel that looking for a job is a lot like being in a presidential campaign (not that I’ve been in a presidential campaign)? I mean, technically, they both have the same goal: to get the job. But they’re really different in terms of the number of employers you’re dealing with (the entire nation, or at least the voters).

However, one thing that I’ve noticed in looking for a regular job is that you have to sort of provide a platform from which you derive your answers at the job interview: what you believe in, what you think one should do in certain situations, etc.

While I’m talking about job interviews, I also want to make the connection that campaign speeches are like job interviews, except that you have a lot more interviews in a presidential campaign. And you need to know what words to use, and more importantly, what words to never mention.

Finally, but not final, calling people for references is like asking for endorsements. While you don’t need too much convincing when asking for references, it’s basically the same idea. You want, or actually you need people backing you up and saying that you can do the job.

Needless to say, being in the career that I plan to live my life on, I’m currently in a state of constantly thinking about job search. And with this year being an election year, I couldn’t help but take a few strategies from the candidates and personalize them for my job search. So we’ll see how that goes.

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Feb 2008)

The Sims 2 obsession has faded (fortunately), and the words “portfolio,” “site,” and “job” have become the three most used terms in my daily mental query.

Live Site

The most significant thing that I’ve worked on this past month, I believe, was my site. On January 28 or 29, I suddenly had the motivation to start my web site with a “just do it” attitude, constructing it in public and requesting feedback. This process is moving along, and I’m glad I got started, not only because I’ve moved onto the next step, but also because it makes me realize how much work (and time) I need to put in to have a fully functional, content-rich, informative web site about me and my work. Therefore, I’ve decided to not wait anymore for this site to complete and move ahead to search for a side job.

Job and Sagmeister

Yesterday, I ordered a ticket to attend a now soldout lecture featuring Stefan Sagmeister in San Francisco on March 6. For those who don’t know (although I might have mentioned it here on Flush), Sagmeister has sort of been my hero ever since I’ve heard of him last year, when I was researching for my “Why Don’t We Care?” project. In any case, I made my first not-directly-related-to-portfolio,-site,-or-job purchase in a long time, under the condition that I get a job/side job before I go to the lecture. We’ll see how that will turn out.

Portfolio Review and Helvetica

Last Friday, a couple of my design friends and I met up to present and review our portfolios (By the way, Y.I. and T.P., the address to my main site has always been in the About sidebar). It was a very helpful experience for all of us, and I’m glad we did it. Somewhat sticking to the promise to myself, I unwrapped and watched Helvetica with my friends. Maybe it was the mentally highered expectation, but 1) I thought it was supposed to be longer, and 2) it was a different experience watching it with friends. I think caring about what others think of the film (which none of them had seen) distracted me from paying attention to the film. I shall watch it by myself next time, including the bonus material and take names and ideas for future reference.

Words Pondered

Here are a few things that I’ve been thinking about in the past month:

• “Safe is Risky.” —Seth Godin
• “Trying to look good limits my life.”—Stefan Sagmeister, from his Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far Series
• “Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.” —William Shakespeare, from the wrapper of some chocolates my cousin-friend gave me for Christmas.
• “Hope”
• “Change”
• “Honesty”
• “Dreams”

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Jan 2008)

Taking a step back, I noticed that I made a lot of progress in the past month, relatively speaking. Not having school anymore freed up my time to work on my portfolio. Since I last posted a progress update, I have completed the “redos” that I wanted for my portfolio and I am now in the process of branching my attention to put together a “general interview” portfolio, a leave-behind, a portfolio site, a PDF version (for those who ask for it), a CD/DVD version (just in case), and a general portal-like website, which will connect my portfolio, this blog, and another section that I really want to have on my site.

As always, I have a lot of ideas and very little time to execute them well. And time is definitely becoming a larger factor as my dependencies on others for survival have begun to tire me out. So the focus of my life right now can pretty much be summarized into one phrase: job searching.

A Note on the Redo

During the past month, I spent most of my time working on project redos. I was surprised as to how long each project took. I had to find the files, figure out what to fix, work on the changes, prep the files for portfolio and for general purposes, and then package and archive the entire project so I don’t have a harder time finding it the next time. Even the smaller projects that were only one page (flyers, posters, etc.) took at least a day each.

I think what happened was I had to organized I lot of my old files that were just in their own little organization system. I basically took the time to rearrange everything into a more standardized organization system, which has been working pretty well for almost a year now. So from now on, I can work more on the design and less on the organizing.

Holiday Season

With December being the heart of the Holiday Season, I encountered a conflict between having to work on my portfolio as much as and as timely as I could against celebrating the season by not wanting to work at all. Debates went on daily in my head, trying to find a good reason to let me off the hook for the day by promising myself to do more work the next day. It was a lose-lose situation, especially when a rediscovery of an old hobby emerged.

Sim City 3000/Sims 2—A Little Sidetrack (Skip to the next heading if you wish)

At a family gathering for the holidays this winter, I noticed that my cousins brought their laptop to play games and kill time. Usually they play role-playing games and go around shooting things. This time they brought The Sims, and I found myself unable to resist watching them play. They offered to let me play, and I, being the kind of person I am, took a hour or so creating two new people and building a house before actually playing the game.

That got me going. I spent the ride home that night thinking about playing the Sim City 3000 that I got in high school: “And now with a faster computer and larger screen, it’s going to be so much better!” I thought. So I started playing it at home, but the problem was that this is not the type of game where there are stop points. It’s like a casino, where there are no windows to tell you what time it is; you just keep going.

I knew I had to control myself, but my mind couldn’t stop zoning land and expanding city limits. So for the whole week or two, I periodically thought about special building strategies, and even dreamed in squares.

At another family gathering, my cousins brought Sims 2. I was even more drawn to it than Sims 1 because of the graphics, the functions, and the new playing experience. Again, I spent an hour or two creating people and building a house. I think I enjoy that a lot more than actually playing the game; something about making things.

When I got home, I knew I had to ask my sister for her copy of Sims 2. But this time, I had more self-discipline (at least in the beginning). I had one short session of just checking out the neighborhoods and the interface, and another one creating the people, and then one more to build a super fancy house just for fun. Last night was when I started playing, but that’s not enough.

Long story short (too late), I need a vacation.

“But Ivan,” you may ask, “you don’t have a job. Aren’t you on vacation?”

“Well, you,” I respond, “have you ever heard of the saying, ‘Finding a job is a full-time job’?”

“No, I haven’t, Ivan,” you replied, “why don’t you extrapol…

Well, it is. I’m sure a lot of people work wish they weren’t working. But for those who aren’t working, like me, getting a job is almost all they think about.

I’ve been so into this project called Get-My-Portfolio-Ready-So-I-Can-Find-A-Good-Job that I think I’ve put in more than forty hours a week, since I “work” on the weekends, too.

But according to Neil Fiore in The Now Habit: A Strategic Program for Overcoming Procrastination and Enjoying Guilt-Free Play (which I read this past month for somewhat obvious reasons), I should allow myself time to play so I can be more productive in my work.

And I realized this as I was playing Sims 1 on my cousins’ laptop. My “Bachelor,” who was living alone, was basically working, eating, cleaning, sleeping, every day. Eventually, he started crying because his “Social” and “Fun” levels had gone red.

Funnily in a not funny way, I played Bachelor like I would with my life, always chasing that extra dollar and not thinking that social interactions matter that much. In the game, they tell you so and you suffer the consequences. In real life, it’s less black and white, and you don’t know it until your leprechaun friend tells you.

So, I want a vacation, but I still feel guilty for playing before finishing my portfolio. And I know that once I get a job, I’ll be head-on into my work, although I love working anyway. Still, it might be years before I get a decent vacation. Maybe I will make a more appropriate use of my weekends then.

Recruiter

This past week, I was contacted by a recruiter, who heard about me from one of my friends to whom I mentioned more than a month ago that I was looking for a job.

It was a very surprising email, and I really freaked out, because I wasn’t done with my portfolio and all that stuff. Nonetheless, I contacted the recruiter, and it turned out that the job opening was for someone with a lot more experience. Still, she let me send her a résumé to keep on file in case something else comes up.

Our discussion of the job opening and its responsibilities actually made me realize what kind of job I wanted, and where I stand in the field: gumshoe bottom. I actually don’t mind that, as long as I don't stay there my whole life. I know where I stand, and I am ready to move on up.

Also, this surprise recruiter episode allowed me to see what I’ve done so far with my portfolio and how much more I have left to do. I’m excited that slowly but surely, I am getting there.

I’m going to end this apparently monthly post with lyrics to a song to stick in your head. I heard my favorite radio morning show mentioning and singing this song this morning as they said that Obama’s using this song for his campaign. I had to look it up on YouTube for the song and the classic TV show that went with it.

Well, we’re movin’ on up, (movin’ on up)
To the East Side, (movin’ on up)
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin’ on up, (movin’ on up)
To the East Side, (movin’ on up)
We finally got a piece of the pie!

Fish don’t fry in the kitchen;
Beans don’t burn on the grill.
Take a whole lotta tryin’,
Just to get up that hill.
Now we’re up in the big leagues,
Getting’ our turn at bat.
As long as we live, it’s you and me baby,
There ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.

Well, we’re movin’ on up, (movin’ on up)
To the East Side, (movin’ on up)
To a deluxe apartment in the sky.
Movin’ on up, (movin’ on up)
To the East Side, (movin’ on up)
We finally got a piece of the pie!

—“Movin’ on Up,” Ja’net DuBois

Flush.

“Power Words” in Job Search

How powerful are “power words” in résumés and cover letters if even job seekers who are half as prepared as the best candidate use the same words to describe themselves and their accomplishments?

Flush.

Reward: Helvetica

I think that when I’m done with all this portfolio/web site prepping stage and ready to do the job search thing, I’m going to reward myself by watching Helvetica, which has yet to come out of its wrapper.

Flush.

What Am I Doing? (Dec 2007)

Last night was officially the last exam of my undergraduate days. And no, it doesn’t feel good to say it the second time. Either way, I have no real, long-term commitments scheduled, which means that I don’t have any reason for not looking for a job.

It wasn’t like I haven’t done anything to prepare for my job search, though. I have been looking at listings and taking notes about the whole application and interview process. I’ve done a lot of that soul searching stuff and figuring out what I really want to do right now and in the future.

Here’s a summary list of what I’ve done for my career and my life: I took on the GTD method to begin to organize my life, read a lot of design blogs daily to keep myself updated on what’s out there today and what design is like as a career, read/reread a few books on design, started this blog and worked on my entire web site, and listened to and watched a lot of design podcasts, some related to technical skills (Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast, Photoshop Killer Tips, and PixelPerfect with Bert Monroy), and others related to design in “real life” (Be A Design Cast and Design Matters with Debbie Millman).

The Attitude on Blogs and Podcasts

I don’t know what the professional attitude among employers and business people out there is on blogs and podcasts, but 1) this is the current trend in our culture so businesses should pay attention to it, and 2) I definitely learned a lot from reading these blogs and listening and watching these podcasts about how to and how not to be a designer in the business world.

The Lesson

One thing I heard repeatedly is to not act like you know everything, because you don’t. That’s great because I don’t know everything, and I admit it! I know that there is a lot of stuff that I need to learn that I didn’t get to in school, and I am ready to learn. Just give it to me, baby. I want to be a sponge and absorb as much knowledge as I can.

So hopefully, potential employers won’t scoff at me when I say that I like to listen to podcasts and read blogs, because while I understand that it sounds so teenage and unprofessional, you learn a lot more than you would think.

Task One

But back to what I’m doing now. Since I’m done with that class with no more studying to get in my way, I am currently putting my portfolio and my web site together. I’m going to rework some of my pieces, and then I’m considering making different versions of the portfolio (not just one print and one web) that suit different needs and different situations. That is my number one task to do.

That leads to my number one-point-five task to do, which is my web site. I’m tired of constantly changing the entire site just because I’m past that style or that layout. I want to create a more permanent but flexible site that is accessible and user-friendly using what I know now, which is simply XHTML, CSS, and a little of JavaScript (and, when appropriate, a little Flash/ActionScript).

I plan on developing a structure where I would keep around for a much longer time than any of the personal sites I’ve done in the past, while still allow it to change as I please and as I know more about different web development languages. CSS is going to be my love-hate friend.

I think that once I’ve gotten my portfolio system and web site under control, I will be ready to just design and experiment and grow and learn.

Flush.

P.S. I don’t know if I should make this a monthly or a bimonthly update. We’ll see.