The networking event that I joined was hosted by AIGA: The Professional Association for Design. This week AIGA was having a career festival that was free for many designers to join. The event was held for two days and held seven workshops throughout the day. The last event of the day was called, “Design Career Mixer.” This one was my favorite. The event took place from 6:15 PM – 7:00 PM EST. This was a great networking event. Everyone who connected had such good energy and gave great advice when they were allowed to speak. Paul Mendoza was the host along with Carmelina Piedra ( a certified career coach.) A total of 57 people joined and after five minutes into the networking event, everyone was divided into a breakout room to network with each other.
I was in breakout room 18. My breakout room had only one other person and lasted for a total of five minutes. Here I met freelance designer Dave Drage. Drage and I talked a little bit about ourselves and exchanged our info and connected on Linkedin. Dave works in Los Angles, California but is currently home in Colorado. Drage has a great portfolio with several different works such as photography, motion design, and storyboarding. Drage is a senior motion designer and uses the programs After Effects and Cinema 4D. He has created title sequences for some movies and worked with some well-known agencies. One thing I liked that Drage said was that he’s always learning and doing his research. Being a designer is kind of like being a doctor except for the blood part and probably other things. However, they’re similar because you have to always be up to date with what’s going on. Especially the programs that are used. No matter what your role is you are going to always learn and inform yourself.
After networking, we spoke about a very important subject, “The Interview Process.” For example, what to expect when interviewing for a design job, what are the right things to say, the tell me about yourself question, and transitioning roles. Another important subject we talked about was, “Personal Storytelling.” As a person and designer, it’s important to figure out how do we start our story, how much do we share, freelancing, life after the pandemic, how much of our portfolio can be non-traditional. Some viewers commented in the chat and answered each other questions. Others raised their hands to respond and speak. It was only forty-five minutes long but it went by so quickly. I had so much fun at this event and got to learn a lot from many people. I wouldn’t think twice about doing this again.
