Presented at FITC Toronto 2017
More info at http://fitc.ca/event/to17/
Dave Benton, metajive
Overview
With a life mission of creating great experiences one of the best ways Dave can help others is by providing guidance on careers. We spend about 1/3 of our lives working so we better get everything we can out of it. Designers are a fortunate group of people who can gain personal satisfaction through craft, and affect greater change in their environments. This talk takes a broad look at creating a “successful” career ranging from happiness and job satisfaction, to charting career trajectory and communicating business goals while navigating client feedback. With design, business and client management advice taken from great design thinkers (Paula Scher, Simon Sinek, Scott Belsky, David Baker and Stefan Sagmeister) Dave will provide an overview of how to be the best at every aspect of crafting your design career.
Target Audience
Any designer who works for a living
Five Things Audience Members Will Learn
Achieving the right job fit
Crafting your role in an organization
Maximizing your long term paycheck
How to control the design discussion to create great work
Understand how clients perceive value
14. MONDAY IS NOT THE DAY
TO BE BACK AT THE
GRINDSTONE. MONDAY IS
THE DAY TO BE BACK AT
YOUR PASSION. IF YOU'RE
WORKING FOR THE
WEEKEND, YOU'RE DOING
IT WRONG. KICK ASS.
EVERY DAY.
NICK CAMPBELL, FOUNDER, GREYSCALE GORILLA
“
16. PEOPLE WITH A CALLING
VIEW WORK AS AN END IN
ITSELF; THEIR WORK IS
FULFILLING… THESE ARE THE
PEOPLE WHO ARE
GENERALLY MORE LIKELY TO
GET AHEAD.SHAWN ACHOR, HARVARD POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
PROFESSOR
“
17. THERE ARE DOCTORS
WHO SEE THEIR WORK
ONLY AS A JOB, AND
JANITORS WHO SEE THEIR
WORK AS A CALLING.
NICK CAMPBELL, FOUNDER, GREYSCALE GORILLA
“
23. THIS SHOULD NOT BE LIMITED
TO YOUR WORK (AS IN BEING
HAPPY WITH YOUR JOB).
FINDING JOY IN LIFE MAKES
FOR MORE INTERESTING
PEOPLE AND MORE
INTERESTING PEOPLE MAKE
MORE INTERESTING WORK.TONY WEI, VICE PRESIDENT, SENIOR DIGITAL PRODUCER,
CRAMER-KRASSELT
“
26. SHANE MIELKE,
ALL AROUND BAD ASS
“Love what you do.
If you love what you do you will
never work a day in your life. But be
careful not to let what you love rule
your life. It’s easy to overwork when
you’re having fun being creative to
the point that you don’t have a real
life outside of work.
68. JOE STEWART,
PARTNER, DESIGN,
WORK & CO
“Some advice I wish I had when I was getting started is the idea that
this is a slow burn. Design careers are long. There is no hurry. You
can be 40 or 50 or 60 and still producing great design work. All my
favorite designers didn't get really great until late into their career, so,
relax a bit and try to make decisions based on a longer timeline. If
you can slow down and not worry so much about that next promotion
or title change, or next job. Don't take that job that pays 20% more
but you like 50% less. You have time, and the way to get everything
you want: good work, good position, good pay, is to build up a
consistent track record of putting out great things – and doing it in a
way where people like working with you. Three things should be your
focus: are you working on the kind of thing you want to be working
on, is your output high quality, are you able to do your job in a
friendly & ethical way. If you do those three things, in 20 years you'll
be solid fucking gold. I know, nobody wants to hear about some long
ass timeline like that, but that's what design careers look like, if
you're any good – and thats a gift. Vignelli was designing until the
day he died – we should all be so lucky. So – slow the fuck down.
The current fashion of "sell out as fast as possible, get VC and burn
yourself to death, fuck over anyone who gets in the way" is not
sustainable, or good for design, or a good life. Take your time. It's
much, much, much more valuable to have good experience than a
fancy title or a bigger paycheck. You will get those things 10 fold if
you take your time and do it right and focus on your craft, and your
process.