The impending end to my days at Carnegie Mellon and the need to find myself a job have left me with little time to develop my recent thoughts into writing. This past week has been particularly exhausting, as I found myself first traveling to New York and then just three days later heading to Palo Alto.

Both trips were good. Though the two organizations and types of work are very different. One largely works on web and mobile applications, while the other plays a more strategic design role, acting as a design SWAT team and design advocates within a largely engineering company. That such different organizations are interesting in me and that I am interested in them perhaps speaks to what I consider to be one of my strengths as a designer: having a design approach to discovering and solving problems that transcends subject matter, allowing me to move fluidly between very different types of projects.

Needless to say, the job search is very time consuming and exhausting, exciting and scary. It is an endeavor full of much ambiguity, but also much promise. Like any good story, there have been successes and failures, and an unpredictable twist. When it is all through, I will share it. For now, I will remain somewhat ambiguous, as my thoughts on the job hunt are fleeting and the field changes by the day.

If you follow this blog regularly, you will have noticed that I have not been regularly updating as of late. Time has been very limited, and the brain power needed for blogging has been diverted to other tasks, like thesis, thesis, teaching, coursework, and, of course, finding a job.There are six more weeks left of my grad school life. Hard to believe.Here’s a quick synopsis of what I’ve been up to instead of blogging…

Thesis Paper

During spring break, I completed an entirely new draft of my thesis paper. The previous version had too many structural issues. So I threw it out and didn’t look back, not using one word of the 8,000+ I had written. The end result was much better. I just got feedback from my advisor, Jodi Forlizzi, who says, “It’s almost there!”

Thesis Project

My thesis project, now called MetaMe, a mobile application that helps college freshmen project, explore, and understand their identity, is starting to take shape after months of formlessness. This week I’m creating scenarios and wireframes that I will then share with some fellow grad students to get some feedback. After some refinement, I plan to validate with freshmen next week.

Teaching

My Basic Interaction class is going well. My students just completed their first big project, a communication device/service for various user groups. They chose to prototype their solutions on the iPhone, though some also made web interfaces and physical prototypes. The next project is to design an ebook reader with a focus on gestural interaction.

Job Hunting

Talking to potential employers has kept me quite busy, especially over the last week. I’m looking at both New York and San Francisco, but I’m also in talks with a firm in Sydney, Australia. I just got back from San Francisco for interviews with Adaptive Path and Nectarine, and next week I’m headed to New York to talk to Moment. After that, I’m back in silicon valley to meet with SAP. Frog Design also expressed interest, and I’m trying to set something up with their New York office. Also, I’m talking to 2nd Road in Sydney. As you can see, there are some very different companies in different locations. I’m keeping an open mind to ensure I make the best decision. Overall, I’m thrilled with the opportunities and interest I have received. But I can’t wait to have it all figured out.

On Thursday and Friday of last week, about 50 companies attended the School of Design’s job fair. Friday was the big day, with all interviews taking place then.

Each interview was 30 minutes. Some of my peers had up to 13 interviews scheduled. I had fewer, targeting only companies I might have serious interest in. The six companies I interviewed with were Moment, Siegel + Gale, IDEO, Sonic Rim, SAP, and Cooper.

The day itself was exhausting, and I’m not sure how those with more interviews kept their heads. I found myself struggling for words by the third round.

While it’s a bit maddening to have so many brief interviews crammed into a day, it’s also rather interesting and useful, for you get to see a range of interview styles and learn how different companies view interaction design. Some companies just wanted to see work, and didn’t talk about themselves much. Others didn’t ask to see work at all and spent the interview just getting a sense of my personality and passion. Many companies were excited by the work I showed, but admitted that they mostly worked on software. No products. No services.

Thirty minutes definitely isn’t enough time to show work and also get a sense of personalities and culture, at least not more than at a superficial level. For me, it seemed there was either a focus on one or the other.

Overall, I felt I faired well. Although, if I had to do it over again, I would perhaps put my work together differently, or maybe show more final presentations from projects. However, with each company asking for different elements, it’s hard to know ahead of time what to include.

Now, I follow up and wait, and continue with efforts outside of the job fair. In addition to the companies mentioned, I am interviewing at Adaptive Path, and got my resume in the hands of several Hong Kong design firms through acquaintances from the Hong Kong Design Centre. We’ll see.