[Sigia-l] What happened to the good IAs

[Laurie Gray]

Yep. This was my last in-house position. They knew they needed an IA and had
had an IA before but didn't know enough about the breadth of the
work/position to feel that they could lead a mid-level or junior. Hence,
they advertised for a "Senior IA", thinking that whoever they hired would
know enough to produce the deliverables needed. It was all great for awhile
while I got systems in place for work process, but eventually, it became
obvious that they were totally disinterested in the other "senior" stuff
that I brought to the table (most notably translating business strategy into
design). When it got to the point that I was simply a wireframe jockey,
making no headway on expanding the strategic value I could offer to the
company, it was time for me to go. It may or may not be significant that
this company had about 125 employees and at the time was about 6 years old.

Laurie

On 6/20/07, Juan Ruiz <juan.ruiz at ceo.syd.catholic.edu.au> wrote:
>
> We also have to educate businesses on IA/UX and other related fields.
> Many companies never had an IA on their team, so when they decide to
> hire one, they look for a 'Senior IA' (You don't want to have a junior
> starting on a brand new position). The problem is that these new
> companies don't have a real benchmark of the responsibilities and
> knowledge between a junior and a senior IA. So, a candidate who knows
> wireframes, basic UX concepts could easily get the job described for a
> Senior IA. From then on, he will be always looking for Senior positions.
>
> Large organizations, that have experience on the IA field, can benchmark
> the differences between juniors and seniors, but, how can we then, tell
> a brand new 'senior' IA, that the work they were doing at a previous
> company was at the 'junior' level when their job title said 'Senior'?
>
> -Juan
>
>
>
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