Artifact 3 Evaluation

Email To Employers within the Design Industry:

        I emailed various different employers within the design industry to get their opinions on my research topic. I wanted to find out what kind of online presence they look for when hiring somebody and what were their thoughts on the use of blogs and more socials sites such as Twitter.

Many seemed genuinely interested in this topic and made some interesting points towards my research. It seems that the general consensus is that it depends on the kind of job that is to be undertaken as to what kind of online presence a person would require. However it was clear in the replies that an online presence of any kind is very much to be expected. The overall response was that a mixture of both personal website and blog would be looked at when in the process of hiring a person. As one person said “These are not different mediums, but shades in the same palette of online presence.” Some employers place emphases on having a personal website, especially if the job is web design related, the employer would use the website as a live example of their working capabilities. Others expressed emphasis on the use of blogs to demonstrate their knowledge and interest in their occupation. “We look for a knowledge and understanding rather than a physical example of a web site.”  

Twitter was also claimed to be very popular with the majority of the employers, “It's simply about being a part of an arts community”, twitter gives the employer a better insight into the person they are hiring, it also grants a great opportunity to acquire people through recommendations from others, “I always like to see people doing a Website Portfolio backed up with a Blog & a Twitter account.”