Designers need to watch out for each other.

In a world where good companies fail and bad companies seek the bottom line irrespective of its effects on their employees, we need to watch out for each other. As designers we are rarely members of the power elite and therefore we do not make the big calls that sometimes result in getting us laid off. But we can nonetheless influence those in power when the time comes to hire new staff.

Even in this internet age almost all new job connections are made through the recommendations of colleagues. Unlike claims from mailed-in resumes, the word of someone who knows you is far more effective at answering the key questions employers want answered the most -- Is this person okay? Can he or she really do the work? Or am I taking a risk by hiring this designer instead of someone else?

Many times we know we can handle the proposed job, but we may not have the strongest credentials. And so, in the absence of a credible recommendation, an employer will almost always flush the "weaker" candidate... and that might mean no job for you, even though you could have done the work.

As designers we are not employment agents, and obviously there is only just so much that we can do to help our colleagues. But when the phone rings and we hear the voice of a colleague in need of work, we must do more than give an off-the-cuff suggestion. We need to call around to see if someone we know might be needing some help... not just because it is the right thing to do, but also because it may be us someday on the other end of the line looking for a job.

That's how we take care of each other as designers in a world where nobody seems to watch out for anybody anymore.

Ken Ramsley