Welcome Aboard!

Happy first day of the Creative Careers Fellowship! We’ll use our first day as an introduction to the program meant to put you in the correct mindset, and get you accustomed to this type of online learning environment.

Today we really want to get the point across that, for the next 8 weeks, we’re all on a mission to get everyone in the cohort an awesome job or internship.

This program isn't going to be easy - Andy, Allison, and all of our coaches are going to work super hard and we expect equal effort from you all. We’re going to need everyone’s help to make this a successful mission 🚀

Every day for the next 8 weeks, you'll have a few to-dos.

The to-dos will fall into a few main categories:

• Skill development
• Relevant work experience
• Career development
• Personal portfolio development

Skill development: This curriculum will include learning relevant tools and software used in your track's industry. Once you understand the basics of these skills, we're going to start a Skill Challenge. The Skill Challenge is a 15-day event which focuses on daily practice. Just as athletes need to exercise to improve their game - so do designers, product managers, ux designers, and marketers. You'll be hearing more about this later.

Relevant work experience: After you've strengthened your skills, we'll put you in a 3-week mini-experience. You'll get a taste for what professionals in your track do on a day-to-day basis and how they operate within a team.

Career Development: Throughout the whole program, you'll be working with Radify coaches to perfect your resume, optimize your LinkedIn profile, and practice interviewing.

Personal Portfolio Development: During the last two weeks, we'll help you launch your own personal website with a portfolio of the best work that you completed during our program.

FAQ:

Can I do the work on my own time?

You can do your daily assignments at anytime during the day! You'll be able to work with your two coaches to confirm a time that works with you each week but you are required to attend each of those sessions at the scheduled times.

Can I just wait until the weekend to complete everything?

No! While we do realize some days can be busier than others, we ask that you try as hard to stay on track with the daily assignments and never get more than 3 days behind schedule.

Can I work ahead?

Every Monday we will release the content for that week. You are free to work ahead through that week's curriculum as much as you would like to.

Let's get started!!

We realize that you may still have questions but we want to get into the curriculum as soon as possible. If you have questions right now, write them down and ask us during your first checkin with your career coach.

The first goal of our skill development curriculum is to make you more knowledgeable of the industry and current trends. To do that, it's important that you start subscribing to design related newsletters, start reading design related blogs, and begin to browse design resources around the web.

Your first task is to look through these resources. Subscribe to the newsletters, bookmark the blogs, and download the ebooks. Surrounding yourself with relevant and educational content is important. If you ever find yourself bored or have a few spare minutes, there will always be productive things within close reach to pass the time.

Useful design resources

• DesignBetter.co - link
• Design for Startups - link
• Inside Design - link
• UI Daily - link
• Dribbble - link
• Muzli Magazine - link
• Prototypr Blog - link
• The Design Team - link
• Airbnb Design blog - link
• Dear Design Student - link
• A Designer's Guide to Working in Tech - link
• Better Web Type - link
• Typewolf - link
• Behance - link

Today we are going to get into a very important topic - personal branding.

Personal branding can help you sell yourself better to employers, but most importantly, it can provide you with a place to express yourself. Build a great portfolio and people who agree with your ideas, your missions, and your interests will start to reach out to you with opportunities, rather than the other way around.

We'll cover this in more detail this week, but for today, we want everyone to craft your personal mission statement.

This sounds grandiose but it's actually really simple if you follow this format.

I'm [name] and I am passionate [something you love] by/through/with [some means of doing that thing].

Here are a few examples!

I'm Andy and I am passionate about expanding access to education through technology and local government.

I'm Allison and I am passionate about improving student outcomes through the design of educational curricula.

Here are a few tips to writing your personal mission statement:

• Be specific, but don't limit yourself. This is more art than science but you'll start to see what I mean. For example, "I am passionate about improving the world" could be anything. And, "I am passionate about making more dovetail joints" is a little too specific. Find a middle ground between those.
• You don't have to follow the formula exactly! The formula is set to help you, feel free to add your own words.

A quick video tutorial

Last thing!

This is super important so please make sure you don't forget! Fill out this form - we'll use the information you submit to get you matched with your mentors!

Daily Submission 101