[Sigia-l] Career Questions

[Kyle Pero]

Catherine,
I would advise you to attend lots of relevant seminars, meetings, workshops,
etc. I have found them to be invaluable when it comes to staying on top of
trends and learning new methods and techniques. Typically the information
gained is applicable to daily IA/Usability/UI duties. Also, I personally find
it much more valuable to learn from industry leaders rather than professors who
haven't stepped out of the classroom in quite awhile.

Here are just a few:
http://www.adaptivepath.com/events/
http://www.nngroup.com/events/
http://www.uie.com/events/ - none currently
http://louisrosenfeld.com/presentations/ - none currently
http://www.iasummit.org/2005/
http://www.humanfactors.com/training/default.asp
http://www.usability.gov/events/index.html

Hope this was helpful,
Kyle

Quoting Stewart Dean <stew8dean at hotmail.com>:

> Hi Cathrine,
>
> I can't really comment directly on the US situation but as an IA working in
> London things are boyant.
>
> I personaly have a degree in Interactive System Design (a very IA type
> cource) and I have been lucky that I left a .com focused company a month or
> so before the boat went down and stayed afloat working within an advertising
> company. From what I can gauge IA is increasingly understood and seen as a
> vital part of a project. I work on many international projects and there
> appears to be less and less demand for the 'what you do' type presentations
> I used to have to do to new clients.
>
> Alternative routes for those with IA skills include a role often described
> as 'producer' or alternatively if you are happy workng with clients there
> are always account handling roles. These tend to be for interactive
> agencies. On the flip side there are 'web manager' roles for most large
> companies with all major companies having teams to look after their online
> presence.
>
> If anything the future is brighter for IAs than technical people as offshore
> sourcing becomes increasingly popular for developement tasks.
>
> If you want to learn more about being an IA first port of call is 'the polar
> bear book' - 'information architecture for the world wide web' and also it's
> worth browsing the IAwiki site and listing to stuff on groups like this.
> Learn Visio as it's the defacto tool (as much as we don't like it) and take
> Jakob Neilsen with a very large pinch of salt. IA is only partly about
> usability and accessability - a lot of it is about marketing.
>
> Not sure if that helps but good luck with things - there's stuff out there.
>
> Cheers
>
> Stew Dean
>
> >From: C Wylie <cwylie1966 at yahoo.com>
> >To: Sigia-l at asis.org
> >Subject: [Sigia-l] Career Questions
> >Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 07:26:32 -0800 (PST)
> >
> >Hi -
> >
> >I  earned an MA in Digital Media Studies from the
> >University of Denver over four years ago. It  mostly
> >seemed focused on theory and playing around with
> >software rather than actual real world application. I
> >was hired from my internshiip as a multimedia
> >developer for a small marketing firm. When the dot.com
> >crash started to happen and the economy went downhill,
> >I was the first to be laid off. I then was in a bad
> >car wreck that rendered me pretty useless in the job
> >world.
> >
> >Now I am trying to see if there is any way I can make
> >use of my old degree. I will have to spend some time
> >getting the skills back that I either lost due to
> >injury and illness or was never taught in the first
> >place by my grad program.
> >
> >I am not sure anymore if becoming a web or media
> >specialist focused on design technology is a stable
> >career field anymore. I just keep hearing that if you
> >aren't a web programmer, jobs can be scarce.
> >
> >I have been looking into the IAKM graduate program at
> >Kent State Univeristy. It seems very concentrated and
> >well organzied as far as course content and rigorous
> >enough as far as theory and practical application.
> >
> >However, I am afraid of getting myself in more debt to
> >upgrade my skills.
> >
> >What I would like to know is if there are a lot of
> >opportunities out there for IA's and others related to
> >the field. Is it possible to try and learn some of
> >this on one's own or just take a couple of glasses. It
> >would be nice if I could get some exposure and
> >experience in this field without having to go back for
> >a full degree program.
> >
> >Thanks for any advice.
> >
> >Catherine
> >
> >
>