Where I’m going.
Ever since I realised that science wasn’t the career for me, about ten years ago, I’ve been cruising through life trying to find a vocation that would really grab me.
Thankfully, today, I found it. It’s a job I’ve wanted to do for the better part of a decade, but the last time I looked at the industry seriously the role didn’t even exist. But, thanks to an article Harmony tossed me today, I’ve been doing a lot of reading.
I want to be an information architect. Information architecture is basically the non-visual portion of web design; it focuses on information management, structure and flow to create logical and useful (and usable) websites.
It’s my dream job, and I’ve always thought it didn’t exist. I am, to put it mildly, rather chuffed.
I’ve been through a lot of highs and lows today, trying to decide how to approach this. I know what I want to do; now I just have to work out
In other words, basically, how do I get the damn job?
If anyone has any relevant experience, or suggestions for where to look, I’d be muy appreciative. I have a lot of research to do, and personal input is always welcome.
Technorati Tags: ia, information+architecture, careers, education
June 16th, 2005 at 4:50 am
Let me answer your questions in order here
Lots of people do. Specifically web agencies that create web sites, but also larger corporations that create their own company sites. You may also find a need for IAs in smaller companies that deal with mountains of information and data. The small 4 person shops hire IAs, but often require their IAs to also be Project Managers, or programmers, designers, etc.
Depends on what sorta focus and role as an IA you want to take. I know IAs who just focus on search for example, others focus on the library science aspects of things. If you are going to do the hardcore detailed IA stuff you may want a degree in LIS or IA if you can find a place with a program for IA. Of course nothing beats real world experience. It may be good to know the nuts and bolts of IA such as wireframing, site mapping, diagramming, and such. If you want to specialize you may want to look into controlled vocabularies, taxonomies, folksonomies and the like.
I’d say real word experience, with a degree as a plus. I have had to go through the process of hiring an IA in the past and if they didn’t have real world experience doing IA they were passed over. So perhaps building a portfolio of your IA work is a good idea.
Feel free to ping me or anyone on the IAI members mailing list about these kinds of things, they may have some better ideas than I do. Also, IAI has a regular job posting list you can subscribe to as well.
June 17th, 2005 at 1:49 am
Thanks for the feedback – this is absolutely the kind of stuff I need to know. Your information about the various roles an IA can take is particularly interesting. I’m not sure I’m really capable of deciding what specialty I want to pursue until I’m actually making some headway in the industry; from outside, it’s all looking pretty good!
The trick is going to be getting the experience in the first place. I have no actual, concrete experience as an IA, although the core concepts and processes have been an interest of mine for a while. The eternal dilemma; can’t get a job without experience, can’t get experience without a job. :)
Thanks, though; I’d like to take you up on the opportunity to ping you with further questions – I’ll just do so at a more sensible hour, since I’m not at my most coherent at 2am.