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Online & Offline: How to Interact

Lesson 3 from: Get The Design Job You Want

Ram Castillo

Online & Offline: How to Interact

Lesson 3 from: Get The Design Job You Want

Ram Castillo

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Lesson Info

3. Online & Offline: How to Interact

Expand your professional network and grow your online community of like-minded professionals.

Lesson Info

Online & Offline: How to Interact

Now constant interaction I just have a small rule and it's the three paise basically its participation that will lead you tow to presence and that's going to lead you to having some power alright participation is really about contributing and learning it's a really simple you know if you think of any any offline community you're contributing let's say it could be a local cleanup or a golladay or a community church get together whatever it is your community uh contributing but you're also learning from others that's where you go to do online in terms of the design field because the more you do that you start to form a presence and then when you have a presence you have authenticity that's why I love yelp and trip advisor and any where if I'm booking something or purchasing something where there's reviews because I think that they're so helpful for me that these people have actually used that product or service and I believe them especially when it says on yelp they've reviewed three hun...

dred restaurants that's all that's commuted tio riding with with some authenticity that person has presence and then when you have that you have a bit of power under your belt because you're an expert in that field you know I can't say I have reviewed three hundred restaurants you know I could say that I love food that's about it um how would I prove that? Well he comes back so that when you do enough of the participation in the presence you then become an expert to some degree and you've got great responsibility people are now going to look up to you and question hey how do I start a business what do I really need in terms of design it all begins so are there any questions about networking online before we move on to networking offline thank you yes answer your name yeah go ahead when it comes to asking a creative director question over linked in um what will be a proper manner of axing that question without glad you asked that yeah uh so I think there's even a step before that so on and so actually asked er how do we write how do we ask a question to an employer but I think in order to ask on linked in there's a step before that you need to link with them you need you can't message them without them accepting your request so there's a couple things here the first is when you are requesting a linked in uh connection so you find someone and he's a crave director and you want to send that person your resume first of all he's not gonna be surprised he'll get requests up the ying yang every day ok the standard I think that many people forget is the default and I know some of you know the sense already but the default uh box where it says hi, I'd like to add you on my linked in that that's default it's for you to delay that and you have to write down why you are writing to them, okay, like it's a simple thing, but I can't like I actually held back, because since yesterday I got a couple requests from online team like actually probably about fifty requests on thinking, ok, uh many of you annabelle smiling, she was one of them, many of them did the right thing and wrote and introduce themselves. Ok there's no wrong answer there's no magical answer like I'm going toe macho myself up and make sure that he knows I've got presence and power. No say it how it is high I I ran into your work ah, online or I saw the branding that you did for this year's news event loved it high just thought I'd connect to the because I love what you guys are doing at x y z company off course. Yesterday I was getting some e mails on dh linked in requests hey, so you're creative love workshop really loved I love to talk more about this he's my portfolio, if you have anything, you know you can pull out and help me out with et cetera just be really how did you stumble across me? Why do you want to get in touch with me so that's the start? Because what many people don't know that request is an email in the in the linkedin inbox so that's already the start of the thread he's going to reply back tio potentially if you have a question or a concern or things like that, so I had that answer the question essentially you need to be riel and we're going tio diving a bit more detail on that. Not a bit a lot more. I'm going to reveal the anatomy of the perfect email on my second segment, ok? So that's classes an email essentially that's the first point of contact that they're going to get with you the other thing is also sorry are one other thing don't be afraid shoot it out there the least I can do is decline your request give it a go give it a go bee personal right and introduce yourself like a human would there's no there's, no shame in that, but please do not leave that default message in there. Yes, chris a lot of questions coming in online right now and this one was originally posted by craig chap we had seven other people vote on it. A lot of people in the chat were curious but as you describe all these, a lot of people get overwhelmed and the question is, well, how do you balance all of these timewise I quickly get over overwhelmed trying to maintain all of the different profiles, any suggestions for these people? Ah, focus all your energy on lincoln, okay, that's good e mean, you can only do what you can, uh, linked in, and I mentioned this in my other workshop that linked in is the very channel that gets me all my jobs, and I mentioned that before all of it, not some of it, all of it I get hit up by people through linked in to say if I'm available for work, if I could come on for a contract, uh, things like that. So if it's, if you're thinking ok, I want to get a job linking the place to be, you're not going to get anywhere near is quick and fast response on twitter, on instagram, on any other platform in terms ofthe getting a job directly with an employer, you're going to get that on facebook, none of that you're going to get it on linked in it's huge, usually powerful that's why I've fleshed it out here and also in terms of managing, you don't have to jump on a ll the group, I think I would like thirty five groups I'm not active in all of them also there's settings in there that allow you to subscribe what notifications you get you don't want to get an email every time someone posts and I've turned all mine off so when I have the time I won't go and visit those groups that I feel would be necessary for me to check out from time to time don't be overwhelmed about doing too much update your profile it your online resume we're going to get to the region my creation in the next segment but uh do what you can in terms of making your portfolio so your your profile rather uh polished I had people um, you know, requesting from all around the world like often without a profile pic come on guys, I'm so sorry if you are one of these people but it's it's just something that's really important for me to tell you so that you can get jobs quicker. It's, it's, it's just a simple thing uh feel out the parts that you need to I think it says like, you know, eighty percent complete will finish it off if you can that's the most important thing you don't get to hear you mentioned using using linked in to get freelance work as well as permanent work we had some questions on that oliver vest said, or any of these solutions better if you're freelance or looking for short term work and then we had five people who wanted to know what is your opinion on sites like elance? Oh desk or or opportunities for designers to get short term work about that are that that's opened up a can of worms that I'm I'm glad you asked that the first question you had was about freelance freelance work versus permanent work through things like this? Is this an opportunity for people to get short term freelance gigs or more permanent employment everything and anything? Yeah, it's so varied I often see posts on my fade saying we just need someone for one day we need someone to be hateful one year I've gotten it all it happens far like fast and quick and short long term, long term I've gotten people directly emailing me saying, hey, I'm just going to ask you, I've got to start up and I want to know if you're interested in helping me build my brand all of these they're free. Let a freelance question yeah, it's not limiting at all to one area off employment or or work opportunity you can use it for anything again who are you connecting with? Are you connecting with more freelances because they're going to share and go hey, I couldn't take this other contract is anyone interested? Starts next week could be as quick is that uh the other question about a lance desk? Um they have a place for sure okay uh otherwise they wouldn't have been as successful as they are ok, if those of you that don't know what he'll anti is on your desk it's essentially outsourcing uh design and other areas such as coding riding even virtual assistance pull that stuff what do I think of it? Uh I personally don't play in that in that pond I play in a different ocean and that's simply because uh it depends on your circumstance you know, a lot of these people in aa mohr third world countries right it's sze truth they have uh not the same opportunities and it's such a biggest scale I mean, how many people are in the philippines? I said one hundred million how many people are in india china you know, like hundreds of millions and they have to make a living teo and the conditions for for those people they can survive with a dollar a day two dollars a day living in sydney she's good locked living on two dollars that it's it's it's you know there's there's that part of it so it has a place but I encourage you to build greater value if you can I want you to flourish and always wanted to flemish finish that's not even a word flourish uh financially and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't here uh, you know, wishing that for myself as well and wishing that for all of you I believe that there is value in what you love there is incredible value in what you love and I'm talking all levels hopefully that answers my great question great well, I'll mention one more here, but this may be something that you get into as we go throughout the rest of the segment, but a number of people want to know this it was originally posted by my thigh who wants to know how would someone in an entirely different industry go about getting a job in design? For example, I've been a nurse all of my life and I've only done some design work on the side room looking to get into it full time how would these things apply to someone like that? All right, well, it's in my book funnily enough, there are chapters in my book that I have not covered here and that I won't cover here and then I went I had not covered in the other workshop simply put, uh, that really lewis to education and my simple answer to that is to you have you have to learn design thinking, design principles and design in some way or another how that fits into your last all convey ari if you're an established nurse in this case you could be also a mother of three or you might be single and living on your own you're you have different capacities, different limitations, different financial responsibilities to other aspects of your life and you might choose to go inland pot time online not everyone can work within a ninety five and study between a nine to five rather framework, so there are many different education options essentially you have to start learning if at the very least to self start start learning this plenty of tutorials online you know this is one of them buried alive to calm this plenty of hands on stuff as well start in design photoshopped illustrator whatever it is uh start learning immediately cackle still need to move on thank you so much for your questions we're going to dive into where and how to network offline and it's going to be very, very simple because I'm divide into two parts industry events and non industry events when I say offline, I just mean the real world face to face to check out a r g I don't all get here in america and australia there's magda g d a that come today if you're in the uk there was so many so I didn't list them all down if you're in europe in general there so many cool design organizations and each organization will give you upcoming events go to them attend to them are there talks are their workshops, seminars, design conferences and workshops you know are you going through ah block and you see one that's that's coming to your local area go to them, check him out be active in the real world I guarantee you're gonna network with so many people created mornings dot com is great as well that in many cities now around the world essentially breakfast lecture siri's talks yeah, so they're awesome uh you can even watch them online as well. So then there's made up don't come for all types of activities even one of my majors like extreme frisbee throw up there are people in groups that do that you might find a new client there in your frisbee throwing made up who knows elsewhere anywhere you hang out but generally I found that they used to be having incredibly uh I guess worth my time and talking introducing myself in cafes, social gatherings, parties wherever you hang out james I want to tell you quick story uh I was training and I would say you'd see the same usual people right at the jean whether you d'oh weight training or pallotti's or yoga whatever you see the regulars you know who are serious enough to to maintain at least two or three times a week so I saw this guy and ah he was, um average build guy he was very friendly vibe he would have been probably these are mid forty s to late forties and he and I would always just, you know, give each other can I make you know I do a bit of a nod but I'd never it formally introduced myself uh he saw me struggling with one of the the weights is like, god, you need a hand and I'm like yeah, not on my my game today and ah so we introduced ourselves super easy and he said that oh, I'm the man and managing director of shell in australia like like the managing director are all like just like a regional one he's like that the entire country and then I just kind of yes yeah that's cool I mean designer you know, I've done stuff so that was cool and he has been one of my mentors and he's helped me a lot ah, great guy and it's funny these people of that high performing levels they know other people have high performing level was like surprise he's just like I'll ask my one of my mates he owns he owns five mrs fields franchises I'm like right I cannot come to your dinner parties um and sure enough, I made a lot of people like that really simple uh and you can initiate that you can say how you going all right? And this is I'm not going to show you actual lines to say are you ready for them? I'm giving away all my secrets now this is how much I believe that you guys want to work as a designer or in that creative career path and I believe that you deserve to do that so what's the first step in meeting someone face to face what do you say when someone quickly tell me thank you? The first step is saying hello, how many of us just don't say hello heaps of us, you know, s someone at the back is like, yeah, total time is that we're so you've got to say hello here, he's a line that I use often, right? Hi there, I don't usually speak to strangers, but you don't look too strange my name's ran it's usually gets them cracking up and they're like smooth borrow it, share it, do whatever you want this line works in any situation um, whether you're in a nighttime scenario dinner party, your you know, your literally partying with people or you or you could just be a a r j event and exurban or a local event anyway created morning session, you know you can lead up and say, hey, I don't usually speak to strangers, but you know, I look too strange it usually gets him cracking up and you side with a small and if ice don't look like you're gonna you know you like freddy krueger like I don't know what is freddy krueger having italian accent that's we had um his one I just noticed your feeling the blank ah hey I just noticed you're sure I've got that exact same one would get yours from you know and I said that teo this guy that had ah ah beetle shit and I said I call you could say, hey, I just noticed your teddy I'm actually designing a teddy for a friend of mine what does yours main I don't have any tattoos personally, but get the conversation going there is so many ways that you can start a conversation because the thing is people don't know how right we're not we're not taught that in school how what do you say to people? You know? So these are the things you know we're going to get another coffee. Oh, hey sorry, I just noticed on your screen there you're designing is as anap that you're designing. I'm a designer that's really cool under that hey, I just noticed you're reading for our work week by tim ferriss high school how you finding it you like it using any of the advice whatever the book is, um so you know you might be in line hey, I just ordered I just noticed you order the uh the caramel latte is any good I'm just traveling here so I don't I don't know what the good cafe spots are there's so many ways to just talk to a person hopefully they don't look crazy of course if you feel like it's on site do not open that conversation and I know you guys got a knife you like no, no encouraging that type of engagement I'm just talking about you know, events or social gatherings or I'm not even if you're out and about and you feel that there's an opportunity there um but start small please talk to whoever you're ordering food from um that's a start you know I was that I was getting a sandwich other day and the guy was on his phone and then he was just like pointing to the to the robin is just like and then when he's on he's fine and he's just like I didn't even talk to the person she was asking him what do you what do you what would you like, sir? And he was just like pointing this nice and like congress so these are ways we can just engage in the real world? Yes see I was actually watching today as as on the part of almost the entire train I was on their phone right like the heads aerbin like nobody has their head up when he's my next line but that one e what do you d'oh after this line? Actually, uh, this is one line before I get to that one high, I mean to pry, but that looks really interesting when you working on okay, that's a good one. Here you go. Hi, there. I'm ram trying this new thing right when I speak to people in real life and not through my smartphone that works for me all the time if I'm if someone's on their their phone like you were next to me were waiting for order and like, hey, a bit of a news resolution I trying to say anything right where I'm trying to make people in real life, not through my smartphone how high are miners ran? So what do you do? Whatever that one? Yeah, but it all starts with hello, doesn't it? You're not going to go and whack the phone out of their hands and go just stopped just you know that like you got to find a way to be polite and say hi there, could you could you could say that this high that I don't mean tio two private I just noticed, uh, you know, you're using those bows head finds I've got the old version how's the sound called it is any good you can use anything you get the idea yeah yeah just just keep it within context of the situation um oh go that there is a way gus I've spoken to many people traveling I've traveled across our over thirty countries and over one hundred cities of spoken it a whole bunch of people so these are the ones that the ones that I showed you other ones that work now how do you accelerate your professional relationships? Well, we need to match your goal so when you've done your personal analysis match that with people that you will open those doors for you so remember the most specific your goal is hopefully it's measurable don't say I want to be eternally happy how does that happiness look like? Remember right down um like let's be honestly could be a simple as I want to learn spanish within six months ok who's, that person that I can engage and talks to spanish with as I'm learning spanish online whatever it is there's you get what I'm saying right? I want you to activate it your goals and you need to match it with people that have really done it also known as mentors lead with generosity and follow with care that's a huge one that will accelerate all your engagements a lot of times we may people there's something about him that we just don't like you know, sometimes we and I'm not saying to like everyone you know um it's not about liking everyone it's more about seeing through these eyes if that makes sense you know levi generosity and follow with care if you're telling me aa lot of things about you rather than me thinking culture of it up yourself idea you know rather than me thinking that you're really you know, very highbrow you know you think the world of yourself if you switched around ing and go that's really cool I wonder what else I can learn from you what what what other qualities from you that I can that I can, um progress in that I can improve on that's going to change your whole notion of meeting people really is selebi generosity and follow with care and pinging staying on their radar like I said with the human growth once a year I'd send one email surely we can send that all right but that also means are pinging in all forms send people that you've met a text once a month send them a merry christmas ah handwritten letter you know send them they are ah ah box of chocolates or something during easter or all of these things keeps you that and he could even be a simple is sending them a tweet use your social media channels to ping stay and be in their radius of off thoughts right? So here's the concluding points before we bring on jacob casts we on we have realised hopefully today that networking is critical to your life are you the kind of individual that creates an environment within yourself that invites people in it's just something for you to think about how can you improve that if you are not then what are the reasons why you can't let people in let's think about all the good reasons tio tip that balance and go ok, well I should probably be more open because people allow me greater opportunities it will allow me to he stories from people that I've never experienced myself it'll allow me to learn we got to think about how we can open up that's going now the vulnerability side of things okay because everyone's vulnerable so it leads to detection yourself from yourself yeah yeah it's a simply about ego and pride and fee the faster that you do that the more your relationships will flourish in the working world and in my opinion you know my friendships, my family you know all of those have have helped and when I talk about design I don't talk about design just as sitting and five thirty clocking off I'm talking about living in enriching life in all facets so let's replace ego, pride, fear and replace that with curiosity and care networking is a mindset that requires practice. It's not gonna happen. I didn't get to this point. Trust me. I was. Did you know, guys that I actually was the smallest kid in school growing up, I was the shortest and all this pretty shy in high school. Biggest scale. So I would have been about the third shortest out of hundreds in my grade. It's true. And I didn't. You know, I was never the most popular. I was never the most intelligent. I was never the most athletic, but I decided to change those things slowly. I realized these learnings that I have now shared with you that have led me here has taken time. Okay, you've got plenty of tools now to start and sustained quality networking relationships. We're feeling good. Good. All right. So lessons from this segment why you need to network where and how to network online. You know that now where and how to network offline. I'm even given you what to say, that you're excited to try that out. Tried out go not it's it's. You know it's good stuff and how to accelerate your professional relationships. We have time to address some of these that people have been voting on this one I think a lot of people have been in this position before sarah posted the question a couple of people voted on it but she says more often than not when someone's looking for a job they don't have much money to spend they're really keeping their money for rent and food most people wouldn't have the money to attend a conference for instance or to pay for accommodation on top of that how could someone who's unemployed go about expanding our knowledge in our network by attending workshops or conferences when they've been limited monetarily if you don't have the money to spend on these things what would you recommend as cheap or no cost ways to kind of build that knowledge in that network well first of all the internet um yeah honestly the internet um and secondly start on the dis avoid the offline for now participate in groups forums discussions link with people yes that's that's what I would suggest wonderful ok because that is the same interaction that he's replicated online. Yes, I have suggested to that if there is anything happening locally in your area contact the organizer's sometimes they need volunteers that's a good point they you know yeah yeah I did that for you next week and you have people that same thing that have backed me up and chipped in help me get to certain events. When I was standing out on about created life smells bad.

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

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
 

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!

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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