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If you're at Internet Week today and haven't stopped by to see the friendly Aquent folks at our booth, consider this your Last Chance to Dance. Or, see us at our booth. But you get the relevance, right?

I imagine there might be a few of the folks there still in recovery mode from our sold out Not-So-Secret Location MIXER.

Everyone except Susie, of course. (When you see her, you'll understand.)

Feel free to stop by, say hello, pick up some swag, and bust out with some favorite dance moves.

Why not? It's not like you'll see any of those people Monday at work...

Just look for us at the Playground.

So you're a Designer working for a corporation that makes other Designers drool when you mention their name. Or are a successful freelance Designer with a handful of good, well-paying clients.

But you keep saying to yourself, "Is this all there is?"

That thought was exactly what was simmering in Interactive Designer and Design Instructor Jon Kolko's brain when he saw former students who had great careers, but craved more meaning in their work.

So Kolko is opening Austin Center for Design, which "will focus solely on solving social problems while making a career path in humanitarian design financially viable", according to Design Observer.

The school is loosely based on Denmark's KAOSPilot program (an interesting site to look at in an of itself).

The Center's site touts that students will be focused on problems related to:

* Homelessness and transient housing solutions
* Healthcare access, affordability, and comprehension
* Nutrition, personal wellness, and consumption
* Education and job placement
* Poverty, as a general state of being
* Sustainability and environmental impact 

The one-year program is based out of Austin, TX and is, according to the site, "ideal for designers, artists and technologists with 2-5 years experience doing professional work, or for more seasoned professionals looking to change the trajectory of their careers."

If you're interested - they're accepting application for 2010-2011 academic year.

And if you go, let me know if they're picky about what you bring to eat in the lunchroom. Because I was wondering.

I once worked at an office where part of my job was shredding their old documents. I can't tell you how high the stack was, but I can tell you how old. Some of those papers were drafted before I entered middle school.

This story would be much more funny (and less tragic) if I hadn't just gone through my own stacks of tax-related paperwork at home. And my wife's personal tax docs. And my wife's business' tax docs. 

To solve the giant stacks of paper issue, I put my kids to work at the shredder while they were watching DVDs. I also put in a couple late nights watching movies and shredding with the TV volume cranked extra high.

That is, until we broke the shredder. (Which means anyone who wants to watch a DVD has to step over the boxes of to-be-shredded documents.)

If you're prepping for your tax return (and if you live in the US, you probably should be), the sight in the picture above probably looks pretty familiar. If you've been a freelancer for any time last year, it may look like a really small pile in comparison.

I did my homework before I started shredding my old tax stuff willy nilly and I think Consumer Reports had one of the best articles on what to toss and what to keep in terms of documentation.

Consumer Reports interviewed a few professional organizers for the article, who ought to be pretty good people to ask, right? Stephanie Denton, author of "The Organized Life: Secrets of an Expert Organizer" had this to say about shredding:

"Tax season is the perfect time to start tackling the paper piles, says Denton. The act of filing (or gathering your information for a tax preparer) forces you to become reacquainted with your finances. You can divide nearly all of your financial records into four categories: papers that you need to keep for the calendar year or less; ones that can be destroyed when you no longer own the items they cover; tax records, which you should save for seven years; and papers to keep indefinitely.

Of course, before you start obliterating your documents, you should probably take a look at what the IRS has to say about keeping documents. (And yes, it's as interesting as reading much of the IRS paperwork.)

But I've got a long way to go before I go back to Staples to buy a replacement for my broken paper shredder. I'm starting to get the sense that the April 15 deadline, like so many objects in your side view mirror, is much closer than it appears.


(Photo by blmurch)

Over here at Aquent we value the amazing Talent we represent and we also recognize that they in fact are the true experts in their fields (SME, if you must) and are far more connected than we can ever hope to be.

So during the past few months we've been developing a referral system that "pays it forward" and hopefully gets everyone more jobs and some extra money to boot!

A couple weeks ago we started offering cash to Aquent Talent based on a point system. We have two different avenues for folks, one is to refer other awesome Talent to us and the other is to refer potential job openings to us. (This last one pays big and fast!)
 
I was excited about this new referral program (we call it Aquent Rewards) and started shouting about it from the rooftops. But I started to notice a trend: People often responded to enthusiastic pitch with a,  "Yeah, that's nice and all, but I really just want a job of my own. I'm not really in the mood to send you names or job openings."

Fair enough. And I do get it. As a company, we want to find an exciting job for every one of our Talent as well!

All this got me thinking about how the referral program impacts people in a way other than the cash that they get. Then I started thinking about karma.

Wikipedia tells me that Karma means a "deed" or "act", or more broadly, names the universal principle of cause and effect, action and reaction that governs all life. If Karma can make things right and good for people like Earl J. Hickey, why can't it work for other folks?

Let me lay it out for you:
 
How exactly would this good job karma thing work?

Case study #1 (talent referral)
You have a friend/acquaintance that is an incredible Online Marketer
You login to your My Aquent  account and submit your friend/aquaintence to us
We call* your referral
 If we place that person, you start accruing good job karma points (and Aquent referral points = $)
 
Case study #2 (business referral)
You are sitting at work, working.
You overhear that the online marketing team (or interactive, marketing, graphic design,) needs someone and they are thinking of hiring.
You login to you're My Aquent  account and submit any information you know about the job and hiring manager's name.
We call* that hiring manager and help them fill that job.
If we fill that job you rack up FAT good job karma points (and Aquent business referral points =$$$)
 
Karma Bonus:
If you send us a business referral and the talent referral that can fill that job, you go straight to nirvana and collect a large sum of Aquent referral bonus points = $$$$$$$$$
 


So let's go back to the initial problem; "Yeah, but I just want a job of my own"

By you building your good job karma and others building up their good job karma, there's a good chance that you will get to work at that job of your dreams - the job someone else recommended.

And heck, the fact that you get points (and cash) for recommending people doesn't hurt, does it?

God do I hate resumes.

Distilling your entire career into one page? 
Maybe two pages if you have over 5 years experience? 
12++ pages if you're a C++ Developer?
Creating a first impression on paper?
Engaging an audience of one from a sea of other resumes?

You have a 30 second window to convince the reader to spend another 30 seconds reading more.  And don't get me started on cover letters.

The problem is there are no silver bullets, golden rules or magic tricks.  Anyone that tells you they exist is selling you something.  Your resume is ultimately only as good as the pair of eyes reading it.

The biggest favor you can do for yourself is abandon the old rules, start fresh and create a document you're proud of.  That way you're at least assured to please your most important critic, yourself.

Let's tackle this practically speaking.  You're more likely re-writing an existing resume than you are writing a resume for the first time, right?  Wrong.  

Every time you think it's worth your time to write a new resume, WRITE A NEW RESUME.  Don't slap a bandage on the old one.  If you add a new paragraph every time you complete a new position your resume is going to sound iterative.  Like a collection of snapshots.  Unrelated, unstrategic, where's that next resume again...?

If it's time to update your resume, it's time to re-evaluate your goals, reflect on how you've evolved and apply all of that to your resume.  BTW, if you haven't grown in your last role? 

That might explain why you're looking for a new job.*

From there, redefine the purpose of your resume.

Your resume is NOT about the work you've done.  
It's about the work you want someone to hire you TO DO.

Your resume is a marketing piece; your annual report, your homepage, an iPhone app all about you.

You need to aim this tool at the right audience and orient it to meet their needs.  You know what this means?  You're not just writing a resume.  You're writing multiple resumes.

Most job searches include a variety of roles.  If yours does not, see above.*

Do you want to create a blanket resume that encompasses all of your experience or do you want to create a line of sight right through your career that leads the reader to the conclusion, This person solves my problem!  If you carpet bomb with your resume you're going to get the sloppy results that follow.

One final thought.  Tie everything to revenue that you possibly can.  In this economy, more than ever, you want to help the employer see how you've enabled your previous employers to either generate or save money whenever possible.  These numbers are often available to you; most folks just don't think to collect the data.  

If you're a designer and you brought projects in ahead of a deadline with fewer revisions, how much money did that save your client?  
If you're a copywriter, how did enrollments increase after your brochure was shipped?  
If you're a project manager, how did your procedural adroitness impact the bottom line?

If you can insulate your already impressive experience and skills with some impressive numbers you make a critical double impression.  First, look at the money you saved/generated for your last employer, wow!  Second, this candidate was savvy enough to think to include this information, now that's impressive...

Lastly:

I assume you have references available upon request, if not.*

No one cares what you did in high school, no one cares about your hobbies and interests, no one wants to see a picture of you on your resume.

That's why they have Facebook.  

That's a whole other story.

I was planning on blogging about our annual AIGA | Aquent Survey of Design Salaries (which is a bit of a misnomer, as it includes Web Developers and Copywriters), but I don't know if I'm late already.

See that's the problem with Twitter, I'm doing a million other things and getting ready to write about the survey and I see that's it's already been tweeted a hundred times. Now I know how those document copying monks must have felt about Gutenberg.

But maybe I'm just being stubborn. The point is to make sure everyone knows about it, right? Not to be the first person to tell everyone about it.

A warning before you try to print this whole doc up from the AIGA site: it's 48 pages long.

Might want to read it as a PDF.

Be the first to tell your friends!

Aquent partnered with Monster to uncover the key to "attracting, keeping and developing Web talent in an uncertain economy" and we presented our findings in an AMA webcast today (I've embedded the slides below for your viewing convenience).

It would seem that, while others in the creative class may be struggling, the web folk are feeling fairly confident. 72% of our respondents said they would rate their current position as moderately to highly secure. 52% feel that they would have a good or excellent chance of finding another web position were they to look (a belief that is semi-bolstered by the fact that 37% of our client respondents said they plan on hiring web talent in 2009). And 51% saw their compensation increase over the last twelve months.

This level of confidence amongst the web-enabled is understandable. From the standpoint of companies looking for web talent, it also makes these folks "available." Indeed, 43% percent of the people we asked said that they will actively seek another position within the next 12 months, while an additional 35% said they would make a move if the right opportunity presented itself. In other words, 78% of working web talent are "out there."

I'm not a math guy, but all signs point to this being a good time to be looking for web talent (and a good time to actually be a talented web professional). If you are in the hiring game, you might want to consider the following to lure the interactive moths to your particular flame: web folk are looking for stable positions, flexible schedules, and access to professional development. If you've got that on offer, then get busy offering!

As mentioned, the slides:

As the scope of the current economic downturn expands and evolves, marketers are responding with pragmatism rather than panic. The pragmatic view, as revealed by research conducted by The Dihedral Group (TDG) on behalf of Aquent and the American Marketing Association, is driven by three factors: new technologies; the availability of highly-skilled contractors; and the understanding that organizations must plan for the recession's inevitable end.

Last spring, Aquent and the AMA enlisted TDG to conduct a survey asking marketers about salaries, hiring plans, and their outlook on the future. We turned the results of that survey into a marketing salaries calculator. Since the initial survey asked a lot about plans for 2008, we sponsored a follow up survey to find out what had happened in the intervening six months. Of course, we found that some plans had changed (only about a third of anticipated interactive marketing hires had been completed, for example), but we also found that, despite the severity of the current economic crisis, marketers seem to responding with a forward-looking level-headedness.

1. Guess what? Technology has changed marketing!

Everybody knows that email, the web, and the rise of social media have changed and are continuing to change the practice of marketing, so naturally these are changing the way marketers respond to a downturn in the economy. Specifically, whether companies are faring well or are struggling right now, online marketing plays a key role in their plans to weather the current storm.

They are, however, using the technology for different reasons and to different ends. On the one hand, those companies that experienced growth in 2008 are concentrating on using online capabilities to deepen customer insight, analyze their behavior, and continually improve the effectiveness of their digital marketing efforts. On the other hand, the strugglers are increasing their reliance on interactive marketing for increased efficiency and cost-savings.

This is the age-old question ...

You are super keen to find a new job and you decide to register with a recruitment agency. The recruiter you meet with asks you not to register with any other staffing agency, saying something along the lines of "leave it to us ... we'll find you the perfect role".

You feel caught between a rock and a hard place since you really do trust the agent you have met with, but the thought of him or her not finding you a new job is niggling at the back of your mind. You assume that if you would register with several agencies then your chances of finding that new role would increase exponentially.

Believe it or not this is not necessarily the case.

If a recruiter knows that you have sent your résumé all over town, then they are less likely to focus on your job search, and instead will be more proactive finding a role for a candidate who has given them at least a period of exclusivity.

Just food for thought ...

Image courtesy of: allen shore

A record rise in unemployment in the United Kingdom in recent months has been a cause for concern for not only the permanent but also the freelance market with talk of businesses 'tightening their belts' and the cost of contractors coming under the proverbial spotlight.

With this in mind it's time for freelancers working in any market (not just the UK) to really shine and step up.

I recently asked some of my key clients and talent what their top tips are on standing out from the crowd in what is now becoming a highly competitive freelance market.

"It's all about having a good attitude and being professional. Boring I know but it's back to basics," says Joe, Head of Resource Management for an award-winning global digital marketing agency.

"The freelancers that have come in and wowed us have a proactive approach, passion about what they do and how they can help us. They want to work with us and enjoy it and want to come back, even when it's tough for a few weeks, so they work hard for us and we recognise that."

Highly sought after lifestyle and fashion copywriter, Lucy, elaborates on Joe's sentiments ...

"It may sound obvious but I think it's really important to give your absolute all to the client. Dedicate yourself completely to the task at hand when you're on a job. Personal e-mails and phone calls are for lunchtimes or after work".

Lucy continues with some good advice ... "Keep in with your contacts, ask how their children are or how a certain project went. Remembering, and asking, about specific details will get you noticed and you can never go wrong with the personal touch."

With more than ten years experience as a senior freelance copywriter, Aran prides himself on his ability to become absorbed in the assignment and pick things up quickly ...

"You have to become an instant expert. You can ask me anything you like about becoming a McDonald's franchisee, EMC's storage area networks or a local energy-from-waste power station! Get my drift? You need to force yourself to be interested in every brief and its subject."

And Aran's proven ability to secure ongoing freelance work is backed up by his advice that "if you're invited out to lunch or for after-work drinks, go. Cancel your plans and go and bond!."

Mary, a freelance content producer of five years who made herself so in-disposable that she was offered a permanent opportunity says explains that "a sense of humour and a willingness to join in with office banter goes a long way".

Like most clients, Head of Resource Management, Jo, predicts tough times ahead and is adamant it'll be as much about a candidate's attitude and approach as their skill-set to secure contract work.

She concludes: "I think we will start to see a change in the next few months and next year it will be all about being as good as your day rate and being able to prove your value to an agency. It will be more important to have that edge."

In conclusion Jo says, "We spend a lot of time making sure all our freelancers are on-boarded in the best way to get them settled and briefed in. So it's a two way relationship especially when the market is tough."

Whilst it's getting tough out there, as a professional freelancer this is your perfect opportunity to step up to the mark. But in order to do so if you are a freelancer and you want some additional tips on how to really stand out from the crowd, feel free to ask the Aquent Oracle

Image courtesy of: CAGZ

Illustration courtesy of: Steve Dixon