Apple and Pears (was Re: [Sigia-l] WOW! how annoying.. where do you find IA ia's

[christina wodtke]

I think stepping back form the original post (that was a pain-squawk) I can
now talk about the underlying (issue in a way that may help people on this
list.

A while back I had a head count for an Interaction designer. I looked at
interaction designer resumes, and some IA's with strong Interaction design,
and hired someone. Now, I've got a request for a headcount for an IA with
classification skills, and not wanted to post it until I got the approval, I
started surfing about to see if there were any likely candidate I could
approach at the moment.

Now, no matter what you say IA is, It is true that an IA can know a bunch
about interaction design, but not be able to make a controlled vocabulary.
It is also true a IA can make a controlled vocabulary, but have no chops in
personas/user flows/what have you (though this is a bit less common, I
suspect)

As an employer, I discover a set of skills missing at various times as I
look to shape my organization. Yet titles don't tell me that much because I
can't assume a set of skills of anyone calling themselves an IA. The real
problem is that many IA resumes don't tell me what the skills are, and once
I've dug in a bit, I discover they are sometimes the wrong kind.

IA and interaction design is not apples and oranges, but it is apples and
pears... if I want a senior skilled person, one cannot really be substituted
for the other.

So what is the solution? One thought would be to have a minimum skill level
that all with the IA title should know. The other is for all IA's who are
living with the fuzzy title have a nice clear skills area at the top of the
resume.

it's funny how different these questions look when you move from the side of
employee (who wants freedom to wiggle in the title) to employer (who needs
to guarantee that their employee has the necessary chops)

I hope this is far more useful than me squawking-- I'll try to hold that
down. I just get so excited sometimes!