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Key Points to Remember On the Job

Lesson 15 from: Get The Design Job You Want

Ram Castillo

Key Points to Remember On the Job

Lesson 15 from: Get The Design Job You Want

Ram Castillo

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Lesson Info

15. Key Points to Remember On the Job

Lesson Info

Key Points to Remember On the Job

All right, now we've bean master negotiators and we've got in the deal we want there are some points to remember when you're on the job, so the most important thing to remember is continuous learning because if you're not continually learning and are being for field ok and it's a frame of mind again that's going to see you through and allow you to be proactive and all these things but I'm going to cover now so the first point is it's not about you what do I mean by that? Well, what I've come to realise working in the industry is that you need a bit of a thick skin, okay, there they are going to be moments when it becomes highly stressful, highly stressful and everyone feels it ok? So it's not about you if you get told teo you know, f off whatever it is and you will I don't have time for this or this and that take a deep breath, it's not about you then mission for the day when they woke up wasn't I'm going to make your life miserable? It's not that people that you're working with especi...

ally the very senior level directors and executives have a lot on this shoulders they have a lot of ah targets to meet, so when you're on the job with interactions, if someone are she usually says hi to me but she didn't today don't let that affect you because it's not about you there are other things going on find the party when you go to a party are you attracted to the people that laughing and having a good time and just you know they're obviously ah happy I think there are people in the party that just on their phones in the corner hiding under the table um there are there are different types of people as we know when we go to party, so I use that analogy just in the way that often it's easy to get to work, especially when you've been there for years and years and years and go back to the old shed same desk, same thing for lunch same route that I'm walking same times I but if you find the party, I can guarantee you that you're gonna have a good time it could be that there's someone new that started from brazil this has happened to me and I walk past its doesn't like that is cool man what you working on? That was the party for may oh my gosh it from brazil how long you been here? We've been here for two weeks that's french that's french debit I can't do the brazilian accent I try guys give me a break um so find the party has helped me enjoy a lot of things in work that I thought when I was going to make it feel like throwing in the towel this has helped me a lot be proactive of course don't wait for new learning to happen don't wait for a project to hit your desk it's probably not gonna happen unless you chase it down so if you have some down time that's a perfect opportunity when you're on the job twiddling of farms it's just you know, people on annual leave it's the you know it's coming into christmas and new year's I'm saving my annual leave and I'm not taking any holidays it's a bit dead but the crowd of directors here amazing utilize that be proactive and say, hey, I've got this proactive idea for one of our clients it's been thinking about it but what do you think I've done it before and we've presented ideas to the clients that they never briefed us on and they bought it go above and beyond be patient er patients but we want everything now like the speed of the tweet um what can I say about patients so many things basically patients ah is going to get you is going to get you to an area that may be I think a lot of us are used to fast pacing our lives and fast pacing and accelerating our progress that we forget that almost patients the creative director knows that you are um worthy of that job but a lot of time with itching were like give me that promotion or give me that project I can do it I can do it uh because you might actually jeopardize an opportunity by being that annoying kid tugging on your you know that now I want I want more and more about this and that the thing is they're going to realize your value and it's important to utilize this on the job many creative directors have told me that in a very jet I like form patients and it's funny you know what if you work with crave directors, you find this common trait it's like you have so much responsibility how are you so calm? I'll show you a story I did a job within wingrove one of my mentors he gets off the phone ten thirty in the morning hangs up there's three of us designing and he says so guys are if you could just gather round we're like ok what's up so that was the shell in federal police that was one of our clients out of time don't worry, nothing bad happened on, he says, so I kind of forgot that I've got a presentation to present the way I thought it was next week I got confused, but I've got to present to them the twenty twenty conference ideas for the upcoming showing federal place branding and he goes so we haven't actually come up with anything and they're expecting it in half an hour he said it so calmly and basically hey was he slept most patient calm guy and I'm like, how you doing this? This is crazy um and essentially goes so don't panic but I want you all to design three things of a similar of the same style so if you do a style ram you do a style dave if you do a style jimmy of a poster and direct mailing by top of thing just really rough half an hour condensed the pdf so centered over they loved it and I was like, how you just so calm back then I was like, panicking like coming up with any idea I could these people they're the same every crave director or leader mom has this sense of charisma and a big part of that is patients and finally behind be kind I did an interview with matt eastwood you can watch that you so you can read that interview on giant thinkers dot com at the time he was the chief creative officer off ddb in new york now he's uh and it's been a good seven months if I'm not mistaken he's now been she's taken on another job as the uh as the worldwide chief creative officer off j w t huge in this interview that I had with him, I asked him a question that alluded to there's something about what is one thing that you that you look for when you're hiring someone and then he said this be kind yeah he said you can be the most talented, the most fantastic the most are competent person of course we want to be all those things but he said if you are not kind there's no way you're getting through these doors what's the opposite of kindness, being rude and disrespectful and and, you know, probably being a bit cocky in a bit um, you know, close minded and just how can you work with people like that? He said, we have to be kind and then he went and decide and talented and awesome and all the six right? So why you need a cream mental and how to get one? So we had a blast through this a career mental is a person that access an adviser, a motivator, a counselor and a guiding force in your career. They have relevant industry experience to you d leave when we're specifically talking about a curry mental, you could have a life mental or you can have any type of mental but let's try and get some career mentors and you're able to talk openly and receive unbiased advice with these people traditionally, mentoring would not require any monetary exchange because the relationship between both of you is far higher than what money can buy. There is definitely value in what they're getting from you as well, which I'll touch on we need a cream mental because they have achieved what we ultimately want that's the bottom line of pave that path and here's unproven statistics within companies and and how people work in terms of retention seventy seven percent of companies report that mentoring programs were effective in increasing retention turnover reductions of twenty percent when mentoring basically means less people quitting thirty five percent of employees who do not receive regular mentoring look for another job within twelve months how that promotion seventy five percent of execs point to mentoring as playing a key role in their careers. Those men toward were promoted five times more often than those not in a mentoring program. And did you know that seventy one percent or fortune five hundred companies have a mentoring program funny that productivity managerial productivity increased by eighty eight percent when mentoring was involved versus a twenty four increase with just training alone ninety five percent all that mentoring participants said the experience motivated them to do their very best you can picture that kanye when you have a mental that you look up to and that is doing what you ultimately become want to become let's say creative director in this instance you're always wanting to show them your workers, how can I improve this? And you know that they're not going toe crush you and shut you down and say, oh, that's rubbish, they're going to say, well, this is actually what I would tio improve it, or this is how I think that, uh, that I would go about it. Have you thought about this that's going to motivate? May I want to come to work the next day? Personal and professional development, more than sixty percent of college and graduate students listed mentoring as a criteria on for selecting an employer after graduation, and professionals who have had mental zone between over five thousand and between their two twenty two thousand roughly mohr annually than those who haven't. Why? Well, let's say, ted was your mental? You'll probably learn a lot of stuff to negotiate and write things like that. How to find the right mental ok, number one you have to define the attributes, values and characteristics of the designer that you want to pay. You need to match that with with experts who are doing what you want ultimately want to become the closer that you can match those values with people that are already doing it, the better that you can filter out, who you want to reach out to look local and global. It could be a businessman father or his friends or someone in his office or someone that he knows or it could be a creative director off your favorite design studio look every where and how you're asking do you find one o use whatever means necessary twitter email cool visit them, knock on their door throw petals on their doorstep um whatever you need to do do it and when any fish all your mental czar halfway across the world tweet him, start their email them hit him up on lincoln maybe start the conversation and then you can move that onto skype calls the world is shrunk you can talk to anyone and any any time anywhere I mean ted and I met through my blood believe it or not I had not met ted before and he wrote me this lovely little note when he are released his book and he had guessed posted and we've done some collaborative work on advice how now going on here it's amazing here in the flesh so use whatever means necessary then show your potential through your work, your achievements and how you spend your time mentors will choose to invest their time if they feel you are optimistic, humble, enthusiastic, hungry to learn and take action they will not want to work with people who are ungrateful and really you know they feel that you know from you that learning is a troll they don't want to work with you they want working people that of those things once you've made contact, explain your objectives if they are interested, discuss what arrangement would work best it might only be by phone call that they can do it might not even be that it might be an email like, you know hey, just once a month email I wanted tio update you is that cool for you to expect that? Oh, you know, touch base I'd love to just keep that communication with you. I know that your time is precious so once a month would be amazing face to face will be ideal, but again it's not a hindrance. I mentioned that ah point there could be once a week over the phone or over skype email anything like that don't limit yourself to one mental rather have as many as you want if you want twenty have twenty it's also worth noting that there are types of mental ls that, uh are only for one particular skill or one particular moment in your life they might only serve as a great mentor for a period of time, then you made that connection and you can stop bugging them, start moving on, find some new net new are mentors what's the mental is get out of it well he might be mentors as well already well you might want to mentor others and I'm sure you can resonate with these the satisfaction of helping a shoot it reached their academic and professional goals that's why I love what I'm doing up here if I can be a part of your success I feel like I've helped and contributed and it takes off and matches with my values you know I'm sure you guys I have helped someone in the past how good does that do a pretty good feeling a chance to be inspired and engaged by fresh talent with a passionate personality you know a lot of these guys have been in the biz for ages having you don't have to be young in age by the way it's just the enthusiasm of wanting to learn something they're going along that from you okay so there's an exchange there and then there's a recognition off are at work for them for volunteering in a career development program that's going to help them too they were like oh actually you know is an easy na is mentoring one of the younger younger guys who stepping up wilson and expanded network for yourself now you've just opened up a whole pool of other people goes both ways recognition for service to the community and increased self esteem, self confidence and affirmation of professional competence it's like ok, I've gone through the roads and I want to share this well how this guy got off that of mentors he's actually making a huge difference so that's just a personal sort of reward isn't that's huge so you wouldn't go swimming along with sharks don't do it in the workforce we've all watched shark tank there shocks they're vicious on that but it's the same thing you what do you do if you're going swimming with sharks you're gonna research you're gonna want to work with the best people you're gonna wanna know want to work with experts that's what you got to be doing when you into the workforce so this is why uh this is why you're you're ah your achievements and skill khun b are thrown off because if your attitudes not in line it includes the kindness actually, but attitude is more important than skill skill is something an employee can teach and you can master a skill quickly through repetition anyone can be the master of adobe photoshopped in design aiken going tio if you work at that craft and learned every part of that program, you can get really good at it. But what about the attitude? It stems from your values, belief systems and personal rules I can't teach you that only you can yes that's your choice and it's funny because they're not gonna put that as a prerequisite on the job description are they must be kind it's unspoken but that is huge part of your likability your appeal factor you're I can work with you year you'd fit right into our culture that attitude you know and it's about a person's concrete way of thinking or feeling and it's reflected in your behavior ok so ask yourself is a part of your character are you open minded do you try and see the bigger picture when times get tough with stressful or when you met with a half an hour to do a job a small shift in perspective will have employees drawn to you and you will begin to love challenges so a characteristic aa number one he just tio move forward quite quickly and attitude of gratitude have you ever been to a third world country that might be something if you're struggling with with that portion go traveling you know see the world a little bit third or countries great to feel gratitude uh my mom told me this she always told me this when I was a kid your absolute worst nightmare is someone else's greatest dream then it expand on that no matter how bad you got a whole lot of people out there have it much worse if you think about us quite comforting you like rather than I was thinking what don't I have what I know I have this nothing I think oh my gosh I've got my five ten fingers got my eyes got my health I can't breathe I got access to water oh my gosh! So many things characteristic number two hunger for continuous learning I mentioned this but there's nothing more appealing to foreign employees than someone who is willing to learn huge attraction attractive quality you'll be more approachable and will add to the dynamic culture and morale of the company or in that is value again more of that spot on right there you're valuable in the end our characters and that number three's take initiative if you don't know what to do our finest off stuck then find a way there's so many reasons resources out there we don't have to go into the details of that but the next thing is is asked the question to someone who can give you the right answer or hunted down somehow through other channels you know I never knew how to write a book or release a book how did I do it? Well, I just researched as much as I could I spoke to people that did it ask for their advice because there is an abundance of free information available if only we look characteristic for be actively passionate it's wanting to love what you do it's another thing to follow through it's not enough to feel passionate nothing moves unless you do so say what you mean and do what you say, which I've been reaffirming quite a lot through this workshop because if you think about it, everything in your life at this moment all began with nothing but a thought, it was just thought then you took massive action towards reaching those goals. This comes to the end, but I want to leave you with this. I see our lives like a painting, the tools that you choose, the brush strokes you make and the colors you pick are very much like the things that we create family, friendships, relationships, uh, wealth, money, moments and this painting, just like our life story is a work of art, and when I started seeing life this way, it had a very profound impact on the way that I lived my life, the way that I approached my life, I found that I started living more consciously and more deliberately so on your journey of creating and changing remember that although it may seem like it's all been done before, it hasn't been done by you, let's, stay connected. If I haven't bombarded you with my details, here it is one last time, please, like my facebook dot com slash giant think his page, I'm active on that and at the giant thinker, twitter and instagram what a delightful bunch of people thank you so much that comes to the end, yeah!

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

How to answer any interview question
Key interaction tips to remember during interviews
The anatomy of a perfect introduction email
The most important step to getting the design job you want
The number one tool that gets me jobs consistently
Sample resume templates
14 quotes to empower you at any moment
A checklist of morning rituals modelled from successful people

Ratings and Reviews

a Creativelive Student
 

Ram’s class was the focused, creative energy shot I needed to engage with design clients in this fast-paced, digital world. Back in my art student days, no one teacher or school gave such energy towards the ‘big picture’. This accomplished youngster generously shared plain-faced truths in the day-to-day world of successful design, complete with real-life examples, templates and suggestions. His A-game guest speakers and role-playing added further credibility. And then, things got even more real when he made mention of the physiological aspects of approaching life as a designer and working with clients: breathing, diet, (water!) personal energy, response and engagement styles. Ram, this ‘Zen designer’, sets the stage for his students to achieve success. Giving back as he does to the industry, speaks to his own integrity. He walks the walk and talks the talk. Thank you for your poignant Creative Live workshops Ram. I’m so looking forward to the onward journey!

Kasia K.
 

Really great class! Encouraging, and inspiring. Ram covered all the most important issues in huge detail, giving a lot of helpful advice. Even being an experienced designer, I found so many great suggestions and tips for myself. Awesome job Ram! Thank you!

a Creativelive Student
 

So glad I purchased this course. Finding the job you really want can seem like a very daunting task. Luckily, Ram is here! It doesn't matter what your profession is, or career level, the knowledge you will gain applies to everyone. Not only will Ram teach you a lot of valuable info, but he also brings in brilliant guest speakers with great insights as well. So much of this course was extremely valuable to me, and I've been in the creative field for awhile. Thank you Ram and CreativeLive! If you are looking for ways to improve your career, you can't go wrong with this course.

Student Work

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