I keep hearing of people being laid off – Designers are losing their jobs in the current downturn. So what do they do. I have a few ideas for things you can do as you wait for the economy to turn around:
1. Go back to uni and do a Masters degree. So you get to skill up, retrain, have fun and wait out the downturn.
2. Start a social innovation venture. I have a few ideas for this and have been talking to colleagues about doing a series of workshops to help interested people to get a venture up and running.
3. Start a Blog and write in your free time. In this way you can develop a byline and an online portfolio of thoughts – which will be useful when you go looking for work in time.
4. Do blue sky projects and post them online.
5. Retrain as a Social Innovator, Interaction Designer or Service Designer.
6. Become A Green Loans Home Sustainability Assessor. Follow this link to see more.
Now if any of these ideas appeal to you do comment and we can start a conversation.
Economic Downturn Boosts Work at Home Opportunities – Web Design Melbourne
Work at home opportunities or home based businesses will soar over the next few years. This is not just because people will have to work from home because they have been laid off – had to retire- or feel uncertain about the future. It is because this is the economic trend.
8 Comments
January 16, 2009 at 10:31 am
When I was at the DIA Christmas party in early December last year I got talking to one of the DIA bigwigs about this very issue. We came to the conclusion that the best thing for designers to do is keep busy, don’t mope around, get out and do something. The list above is a good start.
Here are a couple of more extreme ideas!
6. Start your own company
7. Get out of Design and do something else!
January 16, 2009 at 12:49 pm
I am of course looking upon this downturn as a fantastic opportunity. A sort of opportunity – for sustainability and social innovation – that will not come easily in good times. For in good times we may all be too busy working and then going out and spending all that hard earned cash. So when cash is hard to come by – the soul can breathe. Let us see what we end up doing.
January 19, 2009 at 10:22 am
Today I made friends groups in Facebook – 140 RMIT alumnus. Need more on the list.
This is preliminary to organising ‘drinks’ evenings to get together and talk. I thought maybe this could be batch wise meets. Would design-droplets be interesting in partnering with faint-voice in this?
January 19, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I think we could partner up for something like that. Email some more details of what you had in mind.
January 23, 2009 at 9:05 am
[...] Design education and the …Back2Nature on Warning! Riding a Bicycle Can …Raph on The opportunities in an Econom…soumitri on [...]
January 24, 2009 at 6:39 pm
I have been thinking about trying to do a doctors without borders type thing, but in design of course. With an NGO somewhere. Get a group of ex RMIT’s together, try for funding to get there if there is still any around in this economic climate and go and do design with an NGO somewhere. China, India, Pakistan, Iraq???? Any thoughts?
January 24, 2009 at 7:28 pm
This is a splendid idea. Tell me more.
January 25, 2009 at 4:21 pm
I have only been thinking about it for a couple of days so haven’t got much figured out. But I was thinking more about it last night and thought…Hang on why do it overseas? I am sure there are opportunities to do something like it right here in Australia in Indigenous Communities in the NT.