Aastha Gaur’s Post

Is it the authentic you or is it childhood trauma? This is the extent to which I want to post about the topic today because I would rather have a back and forth conversation about it vs me writing a long post and then trying to pick up the conversation in comments. LI is just not the right platform for that. That plus the way I framed it above isn’t the kind of professional content people look for on here. So idk, Instagram is where that leaves me. Come catch the conversation there if you’re interested? @astahearts

Career hot tip: Be easy to work with This does not mean you are agreeable. It doesn’t mean you become a pushover. And it doesn’t mean you are ok with systemic biases. When push comes to shove, are you depleting your coworkers of energy or infusing more (positive) energy into the situation? To disagree without being disagreeable is a hard skill but one of the most important to learn. Don’t come at this with whataboutisms, you know exactly what I mean. Be easy to work with and you would have cleared a big hurdle many face when it comes to career growth.

Having a strong work ethic is the ultimate cheat code for a great career. However, it is also misunderstood what it means to have a strong work ethic. Because see while 'quiet quitting' is the opposite of having a strong work ethic, working long hours or weekends doesn't mean you do. It is easy to say what it is not, and it's one of those 'you know it when you see it' things. One of the narratives I have seen here that get it wrong. "Don't sacrifice your well being for an employer who will fire you without notice" I would say don't sacrifice your well being for any employer, even the one who promises to never fire you (where are those, slide into my DMs please!). Having boundaries is a good thing for well being and a great thing for long term career prospects, but those boundaries should be yours, not whatever the latest thing is on social media. For example, I did my first internship in the graphic design field back in the day without pay. This is before I received any education in graphic design. In India, where the people to opportunity ratio is way skewed, why would a small design firm hire someone without the knowledge they need for a paying job! They had no incentive to hire me, so I created one (free help around the office). At the end of the internship, I had a portfolio that allowed me to apply for an MFA degree, and skills that I could use for the rest of my life. It felt like a fair energy exchange to me. See, my personal boundaries is what I respected here, not someone else's idea of how things should work. To be clear, this in no way is me advocating for unpaid internships in all scenarios. Today, I work in a large tech company. The interns we hire are plenty skilled, they have gone through a portfolio review etc. So they are compensated for their time and effort. That is how it should be. This is the problem with trying to have nuanced conversations online, it is very easy to take examples of exploitation, and come up with black and white rules of shoulds, nevers, always etc. and apply them to all situations. Back to having a strong work ethic. I have much to say on this subject, but currently where I am is thinking about it as a combination of having found your purpose or at the very least what makes you light up, and proactively putting your best effort in the pursuit of that. YOUR best effort, on YOUR terms, with YOUR boundaries and what YOU think is fair and unfair. And if you can't find anyone who has the right opportunity that will align with your definition, creating your own opportunity and giving that your best shot.

Potential hot take: UX Researchers intuition > all other roles’ intuition Nothing magical about researchers except they are constantly refining their mental models because they are talking to users all the time, more than anyone else. Edited to add: You just need UXRs who will have conviction about a topic they haven’t actually talked to users about yet. Doable but obvious things about the discipline make many hesitate to do this.

Simple portfolio presentation tip for design leaders today: Include something about why this job. Why do you want it? What do you like about it? Don’t overcomplicate. I added one slide at the end when I applied for the Maps role. Idea is it helps you confirm what you think this role is going to be about. AND, it tells the interviewers you understand the challenges and the landscape.

Person posts a photo working poolside making a case for remote working. Commenters say working poolside is sending the wrong message about remote working. Person says they were actually on vacation in that photo, just chose to work for a bit because they wanted to. Commenters now say they don’t have good work life balance. This is what social media feels like sometimes: Doctor: Take a pill when you have a headache Patient: But I don’t have a headache right now Doctor: Then don’t take a pill right now Patient: 😭😫🤬🤯😡

Petition to allow a ‘Yikes’ post reaction on here

My top 3 project selection tips for design leaders doing portfolio presentations: 1. Pick projects that have a good mix of what you did directly plus what the team did. Very rarely is anyone looking for a pure people manager while hiring a design leader. Your personal contributions need to stand out in your work. It doesn’t have to be IC work (but if you do that, show it). It could be a doc you wrote, an insight you uncovered, a strategy you formulated etc. Differentiate between what you did yourself, what you directed the team to do, and things the team might have driven independently. Make this distinction clear as you present your portfolio. People want to see you can do smart stuff yourself, can direct a team well, but will also build a high functioning team that does good work. Also, if you would like I can do a separate post in these 3 modes of operation for any design leader. 2. Pick projects based on the role you’re applying for. It doesn’t have to be and most certainly won’t be a 100% match. But for example, if what the team needs is scaling a successful product, pick examples where you enabled scale. This needs to be deeper than “I’m applying for fintech so here’s another fintech project”. Your project selection should show you understand the challenges for the company and have transferrable skills. 3. Pick projects where you can show both macro and micro user insights. Scale the macro according to your seniority and level. For example, if you’re applying for a Director role, you better have projects that show you driving user insights at Director scale (for instance something that drove resourcing decisions). At the same time, the project should also show micro insights appropriate to role. For example, key interaction design flows redone by your team for the goal. Or even things like font/color selection and how that drove impact. Use these guidelines and apply the filter for what fits with your past experience and this new role. If you have the same portfolio presentation for completely different roles, something is off somewhere. You only need to present 2-3 projects in a presentation, pick the most appropriate ones. If this sounds complicated and like a lot of work, it is. Project selection is THE foundation for how your presentation will play out.

If the Speed / Cost / Quality trade-off is real, how do you explain In-N-Out? (The question is rhetorical all opinions are not welcome, only agreement. We will not tolerate any secret menu slander here)