Apprentice Program - Week of May 20, 2024 (WK21)

DIA Design Guild Staff -

What’s on Julia’s mind these days?

I hope everyone’s mentor mentee relationship is going well and you are making progress. I’ve been thinking a lot about balance lately. Balancing work and personal life. I’ve never been good at it. One thing is always proportionately taking up more of my time. I know I am not the only one who has this struggle. I shut my laptop down at 5 pm and do not open it on the weekends. I will make exceptions on a case by case basis. Having specific times for each part of life is helpful. Also, knowing that there is always more to do and not struggling against the need to finish everything can be a helpful mindset. Check out the book Slow Productivity by Cal Newport for more ideas. 

What are some tricks you use to help balance your life?

#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 

  • 2024 Apprentice Shaunté Thompson scored a six month apprenticeship as a Design Program Manager at ServiceNow. Way to go! We are all proud of you!
  • A few other apprentices are interviewing. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for them!

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

Note that all events should be shown on the DIA Apprentice Calendar. 

3A - DIA Read Aloud Book Club

No need to buy or read ahead of time. We will be reading and discussing together. It is a Kindle book and unfortunately I was not able to find a PDF. So I am not able to offer the book outside of the book club. 

The DIA Read Aloud Book Club had its second meeting last week. We read the second chapter of Storytelling with You: Plan, Create, and Deliver a Stellar Presentation by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic. The book has 12 chapters, so we will be meeting a total of twelve times. Ten more to go. Come and join us for a live audio reading and discussion. 

Sign up here: https://lu.ma/diabookclub

3B - Game Club

The DIA Game Club’s second jam of the year has begun! This month’s theme is “mystery” in celebration of National Mystery Month. 

So what are you waiting for? Come hang out with us! For more details on the jam, check out the \#announcements channel in the DIA Game Club server. 

https://discord.gg/yp7UeWzVwf 

3C - Monthly AMA/Topic Talk

May’s Topic Talk is hosted by mentor Julia DeBari. Julia will be talking about the History of UX with a discussion on how the industry has evolved and grown over the past fifty years. 

She’ll be open for questions on Friday, May 31st at 3 pm Eastern / 12 pm Pacific.

Join here on the day via Google Meet.

3D - Monthly Office/Social Hour

Monthly Office Hours are starting up this month. This is a time to hang out, get questions answered about anything and everything related to the industry and in general just have a nice time getting to know fellow apprentices. If people are interested we can offer this twice a month. Just message Julia or reply to this newsletter.

#4: Project Opportunities

A couple of projects have come up. You might know that projects are exclusive to apprentices who have shown interest or have been proactive with their mentors about doing more. Current year apprentices (2024) won’t be able to join as an individual contributor until they’ve been with DIA at least 3 months. But you’re welcome to shadow. Just reply and let us know. 

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.

World IA Monthly Newsletter - Looking for one apprentice to do some content development for the newsletter.

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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. 

#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!

Share Feedback

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!