Apprentice Program - Week of October 6th, 2024 (WK41)
What’s on our minds these days?
Sharing your work is a large part of working in a design team. Whether you are a researcher, writer, designer or some other title, you’ll frequently be asked to show what you are working on and talk about it. Share early and often to bring people along on your journey.
Share something small with at least one person every day (work related). This will get you more comfortable sharing your work when it is time to present. Telling someone about a small thing lets you practice for the larger stories later. Get comfortable being a little bit uncomfortable everyday. Until one day, it doesn’t feel uncomfortable at all. Take pictures of your work, both before and after. This will help you see where you started and how far you have come. This helps you record your progress. Starta little work journal. Just a few sentences everyday about what you did and thought.
Every little thing you do helps you practice to become a better UX person.
#1: Apprentice Program Specific News
2024 cohort
Nothing new to report this week! Share what you are working on. It can be a project or a personal goal.
We’d love to hear about it and share it with the community!
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.
#2: Apprentice Wins, Celebrations and Projects
The research team on the May First website redesign has their final presentation to the client on Thursday. Let’s wish them all good luck!
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
Due to lack of interest, the book club is on hiatus for the rest of the year.
3B - Game Club
The DIA Game Club has been on hiatus for the summer. 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 on Discord!
3C - Monthly Webinar
Webinars are topic specific and usually led by a mentor, but mentees are free to host s topic as well.
None scheduled. Is there a topic you would be interested in talking about? Let us know!
3D - Monthly AMA
The monthly Ask-Me-Anything events usually feature one of our mentors or apprentices and you’re free to flood them with 20 questions. Previously, we’ve heard from Courtney T. and Elizabeth A., among a few. None scheduled for this month. Is there someone or a topic you would be interested in chatting about? Reach out and let us know!
#4: Project Opportunities
- What is it: Social Media Marketing Plan for IAC25.
- Apprentice Roles: We need two apprentices. You will be working closely with the Social Media Marketing Manager developing design templates, content strategy, and accessing accessibility standards for social media content. The position is not paid, but will include free admission to a professional UX and IA conference - it is a fantastic opportunity to gain professional experience and network with professionals in your field.
- Apprentice Availability: This is a remote position and you can be located anywhere in the world.
- Time Commitment: Roles will start in October 2024 and go until May 2025. Time commitment is flexible, will vary from 2 hours a week to 15 closer to the conference, but is flexible depending on your schedule.
- Contact: Caroline Craner (either Discord or email, caroline@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.
- Associate Product Manager at SeatGeek (New York, New York)
- Junior UX Designer at Canonical (EMEA - Remote)
- UX Product Designer 2 at Epsilon (Boston, MA)
- User Experience Design Coordinator at Alliance of Professionals & Consultants, Inc. (APC) (Remote)
- UX Designer at AAA Gaming (Remote)
- UX Writer at New Public (PT, remote)
#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.
- Project Drawdown - https://drawdown.org/get-involved
- Climate Designers - https://www.climatedesigners.org/volunteer
- DemocracyLab needs UX, UI Designers, UX Writers, and UX Researchers
#7: Learning Resources
Did you know? Julia has been keeping the Design Education Resources database updated since 2022. See the full list.
- Voice User Interface Design Course at CareerFoundry ($1900 USD) - https://careerfoundry.com/en/courses/voice-user-interface-design-with-amazon-alexa/
- Causal Diagrams: Draw Your Assumptions Before Your Conclusions (Free) - https://www.edx.org/es/learn/data-analysis/harvard-university-causal-diagrams-draw-your-assumptions-before-your-conclusions
#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!
—--
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!
