#11 – My portfolio hell dot com

When was the last time we were inspired? How do we get inspired? What does it feel like to be inspired?  What kills inspiration?  Cool Basquiat video: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G9pnE0bnfE⁠

What is our design process? Do we even have one? What's the best "handoff" we've experienced? How do we both approach deadlines and time management? How do we handle tasks?

What do our portfolios look like? The importance of referrals and networking What about paid for projects? How do we feel about take-home assignments? Should we apply in the style of the company you are targeting?

Rapid fire questions and our reflections on 2023. What books have you read? What did you learn this year What was your favourite and least favourite thing this year? What are your New Year resolutions Our hopes for the podcastStupid ideas Free ideas for side projects See you all in the New Year!

A response to an industry existential crisis What does design mean to you/us? Are designers artists? The more senior you get the less you design Work is mundane, should we just accept that? And stop hoping it will solve all our (creative) problems? Are side projects actually the answer? How can you keep scratching the artistic itch in a work environment What we think is right isn’t necessarily what the business thinks is right Is this an ego problem? Is this FINE? More bullet points are available on request.

Tune in to learn how Au was once paid €600 to not design a logo, or how Luis paid £3000 for a business that failed before it even started. Or maybe how Au messed up her friend's travel blog, or when Luis accidentally emailed his CEO some particularly blunt feedback.

It turns out that we've both lost jobs, been promoted to managers without wanting to, and had to make career switches with our backs against the wall. Join us in this episode where we talk about our past experiences of bad career stuff happening and how we navigated it. Bonus points to Au for using a quote from Frozen in here.

What was your first conference? Did you enjoy it? Was it fun, scary? Did yo meet anyone that you're still in touch with? Conferences can be pretty overwhelming even for the more extroverted amongst us, but they are seemingly something we need to do in order to "climb the ladder". We're both unsure about how much weight is put on them, both for the privilege angle, but also because maybe we can just be happy with the work we do and enjoy that1

We met via networking! Despite it being something that we're all told to do in order to progress in our careers, it can feel a little gross. In this episode we talk about the different forms of networking, what you can do if you really don't want to engage in it, and admit that privilege plays an unfortunately large part in most of this.

Adult relationships are hard When you leave a job, you normally lose those relationships Should work / friendship go together? If all you talk about is the job, is that a friendship? What about active and passive friendships What about friends that aren’t from work? Are we always working?