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Apprentice Program - Week of May 6, 2024 (WK19)

DIA Design Guild Staff

DIA Design Guild Staff

— 5 min read
Apprentice Program - Week of May 6, 2024 (WK19)
Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann / Unsplash

What’s on Julia’s mind these days?

Ugh, the job search. It is not fun and it can be a full-time job. This is definitely the hardest market I have seen in the 25 years of my career. So remember, it is not a rejection of you personally. So many factors need to match up. As Grace says, “No means next.” Ghosting is the recruiter’s fault. Nothing to do with you at all. But despite these hard times, we can all have some grace and support our fellow human beings with empathy and compassion. 

“Modern Americans suffer from a fear of judging. Passing judgment on the behavior of fellow human beings is considered an act of medieval, undemocratic intolerance.”

– Lewis B. Smedes (author, ethicist, and theologian)

#1: Apprentice Program Specific News

2024 cohort 

By now you should have had at least two meetings with your mentor, discussed goals, skills, and challenges. I have heard some great feedback from some apprentices about their mentors. Go 2024 cohort!!

If you missed the Discord invite, grab it here. https://discord.gg/RpuYjHa88X 

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 

Some apprentices are getting interviews. We don’t want to jinx anything so we’ll be keeping the details under wraps for now. 😀

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. 

Join Us

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

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 Hours

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. 

Join us here on Friday, May 17th at 3 pm Eastern / 12 pm Pacific.

#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 Day 2025 Global Executive Producer – We’re looking for 1-2 additional apprentices to support the event coordination for the annual World IA Day. You’ll be paired with Jenny Ear, advised by Grace. This will include event planning, communication management, social media strategy, and more. 

  • For details, email Grace grace.lau@worldiaday.org. If you’re curious, you could also email Jenny jenny.ear@worldiaday.org about the type of stuff she’s been working on to support this. 
  • Subject: World IA Day 2025 GEP
  • Timeline: March 2024 - April 2025, about 2-3 hours a week

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

💡
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 Sites

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 Your 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!