Thoughts on Digital Life

A few weeks ago me and my employer decided it was best to split. Because I am the sole income for my family (mortgage, car, 2 kids...) I need to find a new job and prefer to find one soon. I decided I'd like to find out how and if social media could help me out on this one. I needed to get noticed and wondered if social media could help me do just that. LinkedIn. I've taken LinkedIn as the basis for my experiment. LinkedIn is the business network where you place your résumé online. Just like you "Google" your possible new employer, that employer Googles you. Most often your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn account will be found. LinkedIn keeps a ranking. It gives you feedback on how you rank amongst the people you know. On LinkedIn I've got about 475 connections. At the beginning of this experiment I ranked at 128. That's not bad, but it isn't brilliant. It meant that my profile was viewed an average 1,5 times a week. And there was my challenge....

Recently I've seen a lot of posts by people advocating designers to do what makes them happy. That's quite a statement, because very often you'll have to do work you don't find challenging. Here's a few thoughts on keeping your motivation and building ambitions. Taking on shit work First rule of the book. When you're working for an employer, expect them to accept shit work. Don't blame your boss too much, you have to understand his position. He needs money to flow through the company in order to pay you and your colleagues at the end of the month. That automatically implies taking on work he'd rather not - but pays well. No space for improvement The biggest challenge of every designer is time. Everybody expects your best work for the lowest price. I am not a big Steve Jobs fan, but the one thing you have to give him credit for: he knew why design matters. Design makes your product unique. Not investing in design means y...