One thing I love about the field of User Experience is that it’s full of passionate, curious and talented people with a wide variety of professional backgrounds. In addition to the more traditional UX disciplines of human-computer interaction (HCI), human factors, information architecture (IA), psychology, web design and user-centered design (UCD), the social sciences, arts,…
Since finishing grad school in 2011, I’ve been unemployed (or underemployed) and looking for a job on four separate occasions, including after graduating, moving, quitting, and my latest job being a casualty of budget cuts. I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened again in the next couple years, either to me or to others, especially…
Three months ago, I started a new job as user experience researcher at SpendWell Health, a start-up here in Portland, OR. SpendWell is building an online marketplace where people can purchase routine health care services directly from providers with upfront prices. Individuals with access to SpendWell as a benefit of their insurance plan can search…
photo: thedailyenglishshow.com Back in July 2013, I posted an extensive list of design/user experience research job interview questions I had been asked during interviews for junior-level design/UX research positions. My original intent was to share these questions with people who were starting job searches in design/UX research and who may not be as familiar with…
Red Flag by Ben Sutherland Understanding your personal and professional values can be a really useful tool for making career decisions and figuring out the suitability of a job, team, boss or workplace. You can use values as a framework for thinking about questions such as, “What kind of company culture will I thrive in?”…
Back in October 2012 I created a word cloud out of my resume to visualize the essence of my professional skills and experiences. Now that it’s been almost 2 years since I did this, I thought it might be cool to create a new word cloud from an updated resume and see how they compare.…
One Person’s Journey in Practicing Anthropology These are the slides I used in a February 2014 talk for Dr. Jeremy Spoon’s undergraduate Applied Anthropology class at Portland State University. Talking points included my educational history, career path, experience in UX research, and the evolution of my perspective on practicing anthropology, particularly in business settings. I…
Rummaging through some old folders recently, I came across an artifact from my last job that gave me a good laugh. It’s a “business card” that a colleague made for me one afternoon during what was apparently a really boring meeting. I recall having number of conversations with this colleague about what exactly I, an…
Please see the revised and updated version of this post here. I’ve had a busy past couple months in my search for a job in design research. I’m excited to announce that my freelancing days are over, as I recently accepted a full-time position at a product design consultancy here in Portland (details TBA). With…
