It surprises most people when they find out that I am double majoring in Graphic Design and Marketing. They understand it is a great pairing, and that they can go hand in hand, but when they hear “marketing” they think my course is tailored to just marketing. It isn’t.

Being a business student, I had to take courses in all the other concentrations my university offered, such as accounting, management, and finance. While some of my fellow business students feel that learning about these subjects may not pertain to them and the field they plan to go into, I feel different. I have learned quite a few things in my business classes that I also use in my freelancing. What are some of those lessons?

Read the full article here! (via freelanceswitch.com)

Working from home is becoming more common, more accepted by managers and more sought-after by employees than ever before, according to a survey conducted by Skype, one of the bastions of telecommuting technology.

As someone who regularly works from home, I find this trend hardly surprising. But it’s not just bloggers, startup types and technophiles who are making pajamas the new “business casual.” Even seasoned executive types (like my own father, for example) are logging in remotely these days.

The proliferation of online collaboration tools is one indicator that “WFH” (that’s short for “working from home,” my dad tells me) culture is blossoming. In fact, Skype and tools like it have pretty much made the necessity of a 9-to-5 physical presence behind a cubicle-bound desk obsolete.

Read the full article here! (via mashable.com)

FORTUNE — With about five candidates for every job opening these days, some responsible for hiring decisions have resorted to desperate measures in their efforts to narrow the field. Researchers at career site Glassdoor.com culled through tens of thousands of queries reported by job seekers who had done their best to come up with answers on the spot, and selected the oddest interview questions of the past 15 months.

Read the full article here!

Job seekers, there is no doubt you are facing a very challenging time. Whether you have 20 years of experience or only a year, the pressure is on. But realize it is not impossible to find opportunities, despite our current economic standing.

Job seekers, you have to go the extra mile to show employers you are the right fit. A few years ago, employers could handle the risk of hiring the wrong fit, but today it is very different. The cost to let an employee go and hire another is very high. Employers want to pick the right fit the first time around.

Here are my tips to help you stand out:

Read the full article here! (via careerealism.com)

Being one’s own boss is a lucrative profession for budding freelancers, but it has its own set of challenges. Being the boss implies that you take all the responsibility for your business. One lapse and you could ruin your reputation, without any guarantee that you’d have an opportunity for redemption.

One of the major challenges for the client of a freelancer is getting them to meet deadlines. Both parties have undoubtedly been witness to the deadline demon. I have had firsthand experience with this, having been the culprit on more than one occasion. Lucky for me, I was dealing with clients who were patient enough to cooperate and didn’t let me go. I learned my lesson and offer the following list so that you do not have to experience the lesson the same way I did.

Read the full article here! (via instantshift.com)

While the U.S. economy recovers, the average worker seems to have lost a sense of meaning at work. They’re disengaged — and that disengagement is costing companies big money. According to a 2010 employee engagement study by Gallup, “disengaged employees erode an organization’s bottom line, while breaking the spirits of colleagues in the process. Within the U.S. workforce, Gallup estimates this cost to the bottom line to be more than $300 billion in lost productivity alone.” Ouch.

Read the full article here! (via management.fortune.cnn.com)

I hate the division represented in this title. It’s the major stumbling block in modern business. Power struggle is never constructive, and it at least doubles workforce effort at a time when streamlined is crucial for a positive ROI. You can spell “team” from the word “marketing,” but I’ve yet to see a sense of it in marketing. What can one spell from “creative”? “Reactive”? I’ve seen plenty of that, and for good reason.

Don’t get me wrong: I love marketing as a practice! Relatively speaking, marketing is a fairly new practice (marketing in the sense of “public”, broad mass marketing, applied to products in the modern age — ed.), and one that has to evolve each day to keep up with consumerism and technology. As a designer, coming up with marketing ideas is orgasmic. Guerilla, sabotage and viral marketing are the work of genius, which is why we don’t see them very often. But you are probably thinking horrid thoughts about marketing practitioners right now, so let’s rethink for a second.

Read the full article here! (via www.smashingmagazine.com)

Predicting the evolution of web design is like trying to milk a male goat. Despite ever-changing design trends and techniques, purists and idealists maintain that the principles of great design are timeless. This is true to an extent, but the recent rapid and consistent development of the Internet across many dimensions and in diverse ways has to be taken into account.

The Internet has provided us with such a huge platform to innovate and break design barriers; it allows the designer to apply variations and to slightly modify existing trends in order to make their mark. Global access to every kind of tool and technique is at the heart of this creative revolution, allowing designers from all over the world to explore new possibilities.

Read the full article here! (via instantshift.com)

How many times have you replied to a job ad via e-mail by shooting them a copy of your resume and cover letter? I’m going to venture a guess and say at least 20 (but more likely hundreds of times) if you’ve been searching for any significant length of time. Here are some of the most notorious cover letter mistakes we’ve seen—and what you can do to greatly improve your chances of being noticed.

Read the full article here! (via www.careerealism.com)

Our friends at Dumb Eyes, a fantastic Seattle graphic and interactive agency in Capital Hill, are looking for a new Business Developer! For info, or to apply please email Michael; info@dumbeyes.com.

3/31/11

6-8pm at Crocodile

Join AIGA board members and other Seattle designers (of all kinds) on the last Thursday of each month as we get together to swap ideas, vent about impossible deadlines, share inspiration, and have a laugh. No reservation needed, no cover charge. Everyone is welcome (including nonmembers)!

Most of us think that getting a raise is about asking at the right time or framing the question in a certain way. We worry about coming across as ungrateful or overbearing, and we don’t want to run the risk of creating a bad situation and upsetting our boss. However, the truth is that most raises are won long before we ever bring up the question.

Read more here! (via www.businessinsider.com)

IN early 2009, statisticians inside the Googleplex here embarked on a plan code-named Project Oxygen.

Their mission was to devise something far more important to the future of Google Inc. than its next search algorithm or app.

They wanted to build better bosses.

So, as only a data-mining giant like Google can do, it began analyzing performance reviews, feedback surveys and nominations for top-manager awards. They correlated phrases, words, praise and complaints.

Later that year, the “people analytics” teams at the company produced what might be called the Eight Habits of Highly Effective Google Managers.

Read the full article here! (via www.nytimes.com)

LinkedIn has announced that it has finally reached a major milestone: 100 million users and counting.

The company, founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, reached profitability fairly soon, and its growth has been accelerating over the past few years. It took LinkedIn six years to reach 50 million users, but it only took a year and a half for the business social network to double that number. LinkedIn hit 85 million members in October 2010 and revealed that it had more than 90 million users when it filed to go public earlier this year. LinkedIn is now adding one new member per second.

Read the full article here! (via mashable.com)

PARADE’s 2011 What People Earn survey reveals Americans’ salaries at hundreds of jobs — from teachers to app developers, chefs to park rangers. See how your income stacks up, check out careers that offer more money, and discover what your dream job pays.

See the full feature here! (via www.parade.com)

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The number of Americans filing either continuing or first-time claims for unemployment benefits fell last week, a sign that the job market continues to slowly improve.

The number of Americans filing for ongoing claims dropped 80,000 to 3,706,000 in the week ended March 5, the most recent week available. That was the lowest number of continuing claims since September 2008, and below economists’ forecast for 3,750,000 continuing claims.

Although the decline is a welcome sign, Moody’s Capital Markets Group chief economist John Lonski warned that the figure may be skewed by the expiration of benefits for those Americans who have been jobless for long periods of time and are no longer eligible for unemployment insurance.

Read the full article here!