Kelci Henson-Forslund 27. January. 2017 1 reflection Module 03: PW Alumni Interview Kristin Byers provided an interesting outlook on what I could expect from my future. Kristin studied Professional Writing at Michigan State University, learned concepts of graphic design, and she currently works for Columbia University in New York City. I found all of the interview interesting; however, I learned a great deal when she described the difference between freelance and corporate work, how to network, and the importance of constructing a portfolio/portfolio. As a first semester Experience Architecture major, I find myself often wondering if I would prefer working for an agency or company, or as a freelance contractor. Interestingly, Kristin does both simultaneously. Specifically, she works for Columbia University s Epidemiology department during the weeks. In the evenings and weekends, however, she continues her freelance work. Working for a company, university, or something of the like, provides a very different experience than working as a freelance artist. For example, as a freelancer, there is less job security, more freedom, and no pressure from co-workers or superiors to work on projects. Kristin noted that there are definite benefits from both types of work, but she did seem to prefer freelance work. One major idea she stressed, was when trying to break into the field, building a portfolio with a company and then moving to freelance would be a smart approach. After graduation, I expect I will experiment with both types of work. I enjoy the idea of having original thought, and the creative freedom that freelance offers; however, I also am interested in working for a company whose culture I am passionate for. Further, I find great fulfillment from working with a team. In summary, I appreciate the perspective that Kristin had on this subject; however, I am aware that I will need to experience these two types of work myself before knowing which is better for my lifestyle. An interesting comment Kristin made was how she believed herself to be lacking in her networking skills. I generally assume that successful Professional Writing majors or Experience Architecture majors are skilled networkers. Kristin noted that with the internet, networking does not seem to be as important as previously. After that, she stated that she regularly meets with other MSU PW grads in her area. They discuss job openings, current projects/clients, and new ideas in the field. I understand the importance of keeping tabs with college connections, but I tend to think of networking as finding people who are in more powerful positions than oneself, too. I was pleased to hear how sustainable the PW community connections were for Kristin post-grad, and I am excited to be part of a community similar to PW. I plan to take Kristin s tips to heart: Meet people in your major, get to know them, and keep up with them. The final aspect of Kristin s interview that stood out to me was about building a portfolio. I often stress over building a respectable portfolio, and found comfort in Kristin s suggestion to begin with simple projects. Her first tip was to find small projects online, and attempt to recreate it. The second tip was, include your own projects on your portfolio. Specifically, the project does not necessarily need to be for a client. So long as it showcases your skills, include it! Further, she states that if you are unable to defend your project, then do not include it. Potential employers may ask you questions about a project; It is embarrassing if you cannot discuss it and why you made the decisions you did. The third tip is this: Have a favorite piece. Kristin described an interview in which a potential employer asked her what her favorite piece was, and why. She found herself akin to a deer in headlights. She suggested avoiding this by preparing a favorite, and reasons as to why it is a favorite before any kind of interview.
Interviewing alumni of MSU PW was interesting, inspiring, and quite motivational. As with all interviews with someone in my desired profession, I left able to picture myself in the field. I realize how much work I have to do, and how crucial it is I use my time in college to work towards my goals, build my portfolio, and expand my professional network. Excited for the future, and driven to work hard, I am grateful to have such a welcoming community of professionals in my field! transcript KRISTIN: Hi, I m Kristin byers, I graduated from the PW program in 2008 (not to date myself) but after graduating, I moved to CA. I actually found a nice home working in higher ed. there working at a small grad school as a new media specialist. I was the only one on campus who was doing anything with the web. I got my hands in huge website re-design and social media presence in the school that was up and coming at the time. I made posters, other technical needs that various colleagues across campus needed. I then moved to NYC (since my husband had new job). I had a job working with city government- very boring, lots of database work. Currently, I work for Columbia in NY, work for Epidemiology department. I was basically web person for the department. I do web and graphic design. I do a lot more print work than in my previous roles. I also keep websites up to date and make lots of promotional posters for various events. When speakers come, I make print and digital posters for that (we have tons of plasma screens on campus where we display them). I m currently taking care of department web presences. There s a big push to get everything under comlumbia.edu URL. I currently live in DC, but I still work with Columbia. I commute to NYC once a month (but use email and skype otherwise). KRISTINA: How did you incorporate your brand into the site? KRISTIN: I went with a minimalistic brand. I had a large body of work at this point, so I like to let pieces speak for themselves. Logo at the top (of website page) accompanies freelance work estimates or invoices that I send. The logo allows them to recognize the consistency. Brand on portfolio is pretty minimal. KELCI: On your site you have links to a lot of social media - is it more important for clients to get to know you or see more of your professional side? KRISTIN: Answer is sort of both. I used to not have so many social media presences (or linked other ones) when closer to being just out of school. Thought it might be better to hide interests from potential employers. But, it s up to you. I didn t want to be picky about first job and didn t want possible employers to discredit me for something they saw about me on the internet. At this point, I want them to get to know me a little personally and would fit in with their work culture. I ve have had a job before that wasn t a great fit. I think maybe that first job wouldn t have asked her for an interview if they had seen my interests first. It gives them an idea of my interests outside of work, but also what I am capable of inside of work too. ALAYNA: What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of working remotely? KRISTIN: I have an interesting advantage because I ve worked on site before working remotely. I used to be in an office next to them. It would have been different had I started remotely. When I made the switch, it was difficult to prioritize my time. There was no pressure of having coworkers around me all of the time. Another disadvantage is lack of communication (can t just walk next door and tell someone what she needs; can t bug someone in person if they re not getting me something by a deadline). I m limited by email and skype. There are many advantages: personal errands, can be here for my dog, can be here for packages, or if plumber needs to 2
come (or just silly things like that). It was nice because I had a significant commute before to NYC. I was about an hour and fifteen min each way. It was very stressful, and I m much happier to not have that now. 3 ANDERSON: Why did you choose to leave your resume off of your site? KRISTIN: I have a really good looking resume, and I talk to wonderful students like you all the time, and I don t want people to copy it. I don t put it out there. All the verbiage is on LinkedIn. I usually get complemented on it at interviews (they say it stood out). And I only let employers see it so I continue to stand out. KELCI: Who do you look up to and where do you draw your inspiration from? KRISTIN: Get inspiration from all sorts of places now. Easy w/ the internet. Follow things on Instagram. Really in to hand-lettering right now. Appreciate the art, always have been interested in typography. Interested in how it translates to fonts. Have an RSS reader that I find myself hitting mark as read on way too often. I try to keep up w/ big design blogs like Smashing Mag and other sources like that. No particular person to follow, really. SO much out there, so I encourage you to find what interests you so you keep up with it and read it. LEVI: What software should I be investing my time in to prepare me for design? KRISTIN: That s a loaded question. Some of it depends on what type of design you end up doing. Some depends on what employer you work for and what software they ware willing to by you. Work with adobe creative cloud a lot. Wished after school I had more formal training in InDesign since I landed in my current job with lots of print work. Only had one class (journalism) that introduced bare basics of InDesign. I didn t get a lot of background in that. Good thing to do is InDesign if anything related to print. Find myself in Photoshop often prepping graphics for websites or print often too. A lot of the stuff is on the web these days (making edits w/ things like WordPress). If doing a site that requires FTP, I really like using CODA. That s my code editor of choice since it lets me customize my code using colors that make sense to me. NAOMI: What should I put on my site to get my portfolio started? KRISTIN: You need to show off a little bit. Include projects you are working on or completed that excited you. Important that you re exited about and able to talk about/defend things in your portfolio. In interviews, sometimes even in 1 st round, employers will ask what your favorite piece is and why. Tripped me up the first time they asked that (so pick a favorite and only put things in you can talk about). Also, after all the showing off, give them a way to contact you. Putting resume up is up to you. Showing off your work and giving a method of contact. KELCI: How would you describe the differences between working freelance vs. an agency? How does freelance work? KRISTIN: I do a little of freelance on the side (very on the side). Clients know that I will be mostly working on their stuff in the nights and on weekends. So if you have an emergency, you might be SOL. They re all cool with that, and I am very upfront with them. To clarify, I don t freelance 24/7 since I have a prime gig w/ Columbia. I did work for an agency for a hot second in NY before I had that city job. Different since similar work, but less control. As a freelancer, I might be the only one on the project. I m the boss and I can decide when I want to send it to the client. At agency, I had someone between the client and myself. Could only ask follow up questions to boss, not client myself. I would produce something, and my boss would say, oh I think
they d like that, or oh, I think they d ask for these changes. There s more middle man at agency unless you re the boss. But then, maybe as the boss you re not the one producing the stuff. Freelance, you re the boss. 4 EMMA: How do you recommend breaking into the field of web development and user experience? KRISTIN: I can t speak to UX as much since I don t cross over in to that. I know that s a new field at MSU. I will say though if it had been a thing while I was there, I think I would have been interested in that. Look in to it if you re interested! As far as breaking in: I think it s important to get a little bit of work under your belt before breaking in. And that can totally be via coursework and things you put out there in your portfolio could be things you weren t paid to make. It could be something you saw on the internet, and you decide, hey I want to try making that too. And you do it, and you put it in your portfolio as a personal project. Or you could maybe start getting small freelance gigs (I started getting these tiny gigs because a family friend would be like I need a logo for my Etsy shop ). And they ll pay you $50 and it s not a ton of money, but it s a job and a portfolio piece. It gets your stuff out there. Important to sell yourself and the things you can do before you ve done that much for an employer. KELCI: What are your networking tips for the field? KRISTIN: That s a bad question for me. I m kind of bad at it (and it s easy to be bad at it because of the internet). There are PW groups everywhere that I ve lived. We have a regular meet-up in NYC and meet up to have beer. In DC, there s a group of 6 or 7 girls (I don t know why we re all girls) and we get together quarterly for dinner. I get to hear about what they re coding at work. It s easy since we have a lot more in common than just MSU and it just took hanging out on a regular basis. It s nice to know if I suddenly decided I was done with my current gig and wanted to work somewhere in DC, those ladies would probably be some of the first ones I d reach out to. They know me, what I do, what I m capable of. Definitely stay in touch w/ the PW community since it s close-knit and people will go out of their way for you. ANDERSON: How much time did you spend practicing your skills in coding and design aside from basic coursework? KRISTIN: I worked a bunch of jobs while at MSU that involved coding and design. That was helpful. I worked maybe 10 hrs./week for the Kresge art museum and I was the web designer there. I got to design miniwebsites for the art exhibitions that came through and that was a super cool gig. I got to design the graphics and design the mini-sites. I also was the web master for the neuroscience masters program that was a weird gig that I got, but was more 4-5 hours a week (minimal). It gave me a taste of what it s like to work in higher education doing different things. The work at the two different jobs was very different. One was more designheavy and the other was more code-heavy. If you re having trouble getting motivated on your own, I would definitely say getting a gig like that (a job you re paid for) is good. MATT: What is the most frustrating thing when working with a new client? KRISTIN: One of the nice things is that you can charge different people different rates depending on how annoying you think they ll be to work with. I think you can tell straight away if people are gonna be a great communicator. You can tell by how they reach out (sometimes people email, sometimes they reach out by calling me). You can tell how articulate they are, do they know a lot about what they want (or does it leave me w/ a ton of follow up questions, or does it leave me not really sure what they need me for?). So definitely clients who are bad at communicating are the worst because it will be hard to get info from them. Sometimes if I think someone is gonna be more trouble than its worth, I ll tell them, I m so sorry, I m totally booked right now.
5 Usually you can get a good sense of their communication skills by those first few interactions. The most annoying things are when I m banging my head against the desk saying, no, that s not what I wanted or that s not what I asked for or you didn t answer my question!. Sometimes it s just about learning what they re best at, that can be good. Some clients suck via email, but if you suggest calling, they can be much more clear on the phone. It s about figuring out what works best for each client. KELCI: How do you balance your ideas with the client s? Do you work with them to see their visions or help shape their vision to a more practical one? KRISTIN: Some come in w/ a bit of a vison, and I think I actually prefer that because it s easier to create something based on what they think they want than to create something out of nothing and have them say well, I hate that and I say well you didn t really say what you wanted, so I got to make it up. IT depends. Sometimes they come in w/ a very clear idea of what they want and they just need someone to get it on paper/ the web for them. Other times, they re looking for someone to help w/ the ideation and help them build something from nothing. NAOMI: Do you feel that computer science graduates will do better at web development than experience architecture graduates? KRISTIN: Maybe? I don t know the exact differences between those programs anymore. I think it depends. I think a lot of employers- if you re looking at a smaller org, people are often wearing multiple hats- so I know enough coding to get by, I know enough InDesign to get by, I know enough Photoshop and Illustrator to get by (not Jill of all trades) because I m better w/ the graphic and web design stuff than the hardcore coding, but I can fiddle around w/ PHP if the need calls for it. It depends, if you re looking to get super specific, there are super specific jobs out there (if you want to just work in JavaScript all day- I think that would be super boring). I like being able to bounce around and work on things. That way, the work doesn t feel so monotonous. I think it depends on what you make of it, really. NAOMI: Is a BA in XA enough or do we need to go to graduate school to succeed in web development? KRISTIN: I don t know if an ed. higher than a BA is necessary right now. Especially w/ designers and coding, it s more about your skills and jobs and what you can make for people then having an MS or MA or MFA on paper. If you re wanting to further your ed. past a BA, then by all means. I think a lot of people have been in recent years are looking at it in terms of how much will it cost and how much more will you get paid for it. After a masters, I did apply and get accepted to a couple master s programs (some in NY, actually). The cost was just so great, but I thought it wouldn t immediately turn around and I wouldn t make six figures a year (so it just wasn t worth it). It made more sense for me to say in my jobs and get more portfolio pieces. To be honest, I m continuing to get gigs. Another ting to think about is just to think about the pay scales for these tings and whether or not you ll see a return. If it s free though, of course go for it! MR. CASEY MCARDLE: Advice for them in terms of what you do in 210- how to prepare and be successful in 210 and professional spaces too? KRISTIN: CSS is so fun. It s the greatest thing ever. I ve been coding since before CSS, and when it came around, it was my favorite ever. Makes life so much easier. Coding used to be like walking uphill both wayseverything was all about re-inventing the wheel. I forced my husband, actually, to take 210 and now he s the web guru in his office (and all he took was 210). He was an agriculture major, and he works the government and he ll come home from work and be like, Oh, I helped someone fix this code because they didn t have a </h2> tag so
6 even if you don t want to be a coder, even the basic info is important for tons of careers and it can make you look super smart. That s my advice. Also, have fun with it! Think about if you re doing a project for this course, don t think of it like an assignment. Be mindful and spend some time on it.