Archives for "Work"
What I’d like to put on my resume
So I’ve got a big career-related meeting coming up tomorrow and, as a result, I”ve been thinking a lot about my resume. And how even though it’s been polished until it’s shiny, it doesn’t really come through and say everything like I’d want it to say.
Objective: To find a job that I totally rock at. Where I can use my brain and make projects that are awesome and that I can really be proud of. Where I get to have some say in what I do. Also, a job where I can respect, have fun, and laugh with my coworkers. Also, to find something that doesn’t entirely overtake my life–I don’t mind overtime, but I’d like it to be the exception rather than the rule.
Skills:
- Word: Native. Period. (You try using it as your main design platform for three years and see what you learn!)
- Photoshop: Completely fluent, though I still speak with an accent.
- Dreamweaver: With enough study and preparation, I can say pretty much whatever I want.
- InDesign: College-level skills, enough to impress those who don’t know any better
- Illustrator: Can hold a basic conversation and imitate fairly convincingly
- Flash: I know enough to find a bathroom and correctly pronounce menu items
- Other skills: Corny as it may sound, I am willing to learn anything that anyone wants to teach me. I really do like learning new stuff and pick things up pretty quickly. I’m also pretty good at tinkering with a program until I figure out how to make it do what I want it to do. Also I’m usually nice and happy at work.
Experience:
- Current job: This job has been really good to me, on the whole. It was a great entry-level position–they’ve been very flexible with me and have allowed me to learn a lot on the job. I think the most frustrating part about it is that my role was never really well defined. Lately, I think that I’ve reached a limit of where I can progress–there’s more that I can do there, but the company as a whole isn’t yet ready to make those advances.
- Current freelance editing job: I love, love, love this job. I love editing, love words, love the variety, love the hours, love the people I work with. I’m not sure I could do it full-time, though. I’ve realized I really enjoy the design component of my current job and I think I’d really miss it if I went full-time. Also, I think I’d really miss interacting with people.
- College editing job: This job was fantastic. It had all of the perks mentioned above (since it was for the same place) and it allowed me to combine my editing skills with a layout perspective as I got to design journals, magazines, books, etc. This is the closest I’ve come to an ideal job.
Hobbies: Reading, football, following politics in a non-contentious manner.
References: If you want a real breakdown of what I’m like–complete with positives, negatives, insecurities, and nerosis–you should talk to my husband. Or my friends.
So how’s work going?
The holidays have come and gone and with it—I thought—the question I never knew how to answer: “So how’s work going for you, Jenn?”
I’ll be honest. I don’t love my job. Most days, I don’t even like my job. Some days, in fact, I even hate it. But what can I do? It’s a recession? I should just be happy to avoid the ranks of the unemployed, right?
Well, two weeks ago, they “asked” me to move upstairs to save my boss from drowning in the work requests they had been giving her. They also “asked” me to continue my regular design/editing duties as well as add some property & casualty insurance duties. A move that I had resisted for the past two years. But I couldn’t refuse them because it’s a recession, right? So I moved. And, once again, everyone was asking me how I liked my job.
I lied through my teeth.
Fast forward to today when I find out that they just created a new communications department—and I’m not in it. What’s more, they’ve moved over a former client service representative to head this new department. And, the kicker, the new department gets to help revamp everything and may even get to take classes—the very things I requested at my yearly review in November.
Nope. Instead, I’m making labels.
I was livid. Suddenly, I was fighting back tears to the point where my head was exploding, and I was just fine walking around outside without a coat. I couldn’t breathe and when I’d try and talk, only the first third of the sentence would actually come out.
And, driving home from work, it hit me. This feels exactly like getting dumped.
I need a new job.
The Ups and Downs of Going Up
As part of my always-random design job, earlier this year I was asked to design a small flag. While the flag itself wasn’t anything too exciting (just my company’s logo on a black background), the flag’s intended destination was. That’s right, everybody, I now have a connection (in a very small, “I’m not that adventurous” way) to…wait for it…Mt. Everest.
That’s right, if all goes well in the summit attempt, eventually I might have access to some pictures of my flag on top of the world. That basically makes me one step away from being on top of the world, right? The flag is being carried to the summit by Kevin, climber extraordinaire, author of KC Summits’ Everest Blog, and friend to the poo-bahs in my company who requested the flag (hence my involvement).
Honestly, I’ve adored the Everest Blog. Not only are the traditions fascinating, but the entire reading experience is tinged with a feeling of urgency—you’re really pulling for the guy, really hoping he’ll make it up the mountain.
He still hasn’t summited yet (mainly due to weather problems), so you’ve got time to catch up and enjoy the rest of the ride (and root for my flag). Enjoy!
A Visionary on Revisions
The last few days at work have been…well…suffice it to say I’ve needed to vent a lot. One of my clients has requested revisions on a design I am particularly proud of. Worse, the requested revisions, in my opinion, make the overall product much less compelling than it was in my original. Now, normally I consider myself a fairly flexible person. I don’t mind making revisions as long as they improve the overall presentation. In fact, I really enjoy a synergistic collaborative process where the whole is significantly better than the ideas of its parts.
However, whenever I’m asked to introduce errors or “ugliness” into a document, I find myself in a foul mood. A really foul mood. An “if I were a cartoon I’d have a huge black rain cloud above my head” foul mood.
So fast forward to today, where in unrelated webdesign work, I came across this post by the brilliant designer Jeffrey Zeldman. In it, he discusses how—in the original draft of the Declaration of Independence—Thomas Jefferson had included passages that abolished slavery. However, in order to get the Declaration approved by congress, he had been forced to delete these passages. Zeldman then draws the following conclusion:
The next time a client requests changes that make your work less beautiful, less usable, or less smart, remember that greater people than you have lost bigger battles over far more important matters.
What did I tell you? The man’s brilliant. And the funny thing is that even as I was “put in my place,” I felt comforted to know that there are other designers who have perhaps experienced similar foul moods while accepting similarly frustrating, inane changes to documents that, overall, really won’t make any difference.
And the next time I’m in D.C., I’m getting a copy of the declaration and tacking it to the wall next to my monitor.
