Apprentice Program - Week of June 17, 2024 (WK25)

Apprentice Program - Week of June 17, 2024 (WK25)
Photo by Clark Tibbs / Unsplash

What’s on Julia’s mind these days?

Goals. Both setting and accomplishing them. A goal is to go after something you want, hopefully something you are passionate about. How are you setting yourself up for success? How do you know when you have reached that goal? How are you measuring your progress and success? 

It’s important to word your goals in positive terms as well as have a clear definition of done. Goals can be your own little roadmap and you are the primary project manager. 

Make sure to celebrate your wins!

#1: Apprentice Program Specific News

2024 cohort 

Each apprentice mentor-pair has a shared Google Drive folder. Use this to take notes, share work, or anything else. There is a skill mapping spreadsheet in everyone’s folder to talk to their mentor about the skills they want to build during their apprenticeship. If you don’t have access to your folder, please reach out to Julia. 

Continuing apprentices

More than half of the apprentices every year continue with DIA. Some of you are leading projects with our partner organizations (e.g. World IA Association, IAC, and EuroIA). Others are getting involved with client projects. 

Don't be a stranger; there are plenty of ways to get involved. If you want to work on something with other apprentices, don't be afraid to share via Discord or email Julia to include something in the next biweekly update.

#2: Apprentice Wins and Celebrations 

  • Miguel joins SAP Ariba as a UX Research Intern. Read more on LinkedIn!
  • Nehar is about to start an amazing paid apprenticeship at 1947 Archives in Berkeley, CA! She just needs to move across the country first. :) 

Let’s congratulate both of them on Discord!

Share: Have any good news, life lessons, or need project help? Reply and let us know. We can share it in the next biweekly update.

#3: Events

3A - DIA Read Aloud Book Club

Book club is going on hiatus for the summer due to lack of sign ups and attendees. We’ll finish the book Storytelling for You starting in September. 

3B - Game Club

The DIA Game Club is taking a break for June! We intend to use this time to rest and catch up on any jam entries we didn’t finish yet. Things are rough right now but we hope everyone is hanging on out there. 

In the meantime, come hang out with us! 

https://discord.gg/yp7UeWzVwf 

3C - Monthly AMA

June’s Monthly Topic is on Information Architecture and IA Research, presented by our very own Grace Lau! We encourage questions! Some examples could be how to specialize in IA, how IA relates to UX, or how to do IA research. Can’t wait to see you!

Based in Greater Los Angeles, Grace Lau is an information architect and designer with 15+ years experience working in the industry. She supports the information architecture community through events and mentoring.

With her specialty in information architecture, content strategy, and taxonomy, she has provided digital experience designs and strategies for high-impact brands and organizations such as Cedar-Sinai Medical Center, Disney, Dignity Health, PatientPop, and many others. She's currently a content designer at Blue Shield of California.

June 21st at 3 pm Eastern / 12 pm Pacific.

3D - Monthly Office/Social Hour

Our monthly social hour had two people show up. It was nice to have some deep conversations. 

Just an FYI, these are not recorded and no virtual transcription services are allowed in either for privacy reasons.

Next month’s Social Hour will be the second week in July. 

July Events

AMA About Content Design (Google Meet) -
Friday, July 12th, 12 pm Pacific / 3 pm Eastern

Monthly Apprentice Social Hour (Google Meet) -
Friday, July 19th, 12 pm Pacific / 3 pm Eastern

Webinar Topic: Designing Multimodal Experiences (Google Meet) - Friday, July 26th, 12 pm Pacific / 3 pm Eastern

#4: Project Opportunities

👉
May First Website Redesign - We’re a little heavy on the research side, so we’re looking for 1 or 2 design volunteers to join the project team.
For details, email Grace grace@diadesign.io
👉
World IA Cafe Social Media – We're looking for volunteers to help World Information Architecture Cafe develop a library of video clips -- creating short highlight clips from past event recordings.
For details, email Grace grace.lau@worldiaday.org or Nehar nehar.sultana@worldiaday.org
👉
World IA Monthly Newsletter - Looking for one apprentice to do some content development for the newsletter.
For details, email Grace grace.lau@worldiaday.org
💡
Note: Paid client projects help sustain our DIA Design Guild operations. If you’re interested in leading or contributing to any of these projects, please email Grace at grace@diadesign.io
or Julia at julia@diadesign.io.

#5: Job Opportunities

We’re always on the lookout for relevant entry-level roles to share with our apprentices. They’re usually shared on Discord under Discussion > #jobsearch-opps. If you come across any, let us know! We'll be sure to share them here for everyone else.

#6: Volunteer

Need to find a project? Check out these volunteering resources and find your next gig! We’ll highlight a few organizations in every newsletter where you can look through and find something that interests you.

#7: Learning Resources

Did you know? Julia manages the Design Education Resources database. We’ve been managing this since 2022 and Julia keeps this updated. See the full list

#8: Feedback wanted

Open rates are great, click through rates are alright. But how helpful is this newsletter really? Share with us why yet another newsletter was a good idea. 

If you’re interested in past updates, you can login on the website and check them out. Login to comment or read past issues. Login is a magic link, no password needed!

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As always, we’re around to chat. DM us on Discord, reply to this email/post or schedule some time on our calendars: 

That's all for now!