I like hiring people right out of school.  For one thing it brings a great energy to a team to have someone young with new ideas.  For another, it’s a chance to shape someone who hasn’t picked up years of bad habits (and who may impart some good habits on me and my team).  I also think it’s my duty to give others the same breaks that were afforded me early in my career.

You’ve finished up your classes, you’ve read a bunch of stuff on your own (including Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think, Dan Cederholm’s Bulletproof Web Design, Andy Budd’s CSS Mastery) and you’ve been networking, you’ve been twittering, you’ve met some people, got a couple of leads, and now you’ve sent out your resumes.  You’re well on your way to getting your first job in web design.

Now you’re ready for your first job interview, so here’s some tips for you to make sure that first interview goes really well.

Be prepared – I need to see what you’re capable of.  I’m looking for some stuff you’ve done before, I might spring a quick question like “if I gave you x and y, how would you do z”?  I don’t care if your solution is right…what I want to see is how you think.

Have a portfolio – The most essential thing, even if you’re coming right out of school, you need to have web pages to show me.  They need to knock my socks off because I’m hiring you, but I don’t want to be babysitting you, so I need to see that you’ve got the fundamentals.

Keep your portfolio on the internet – I knew this one back in 1996 when I first started building web pages.  I built a local copy of every site and kept it on one Geocities site…yeah, Geocities.  Laugh about it if you want, but I got my first job at TSN because when I went in to the interview I gave my prospective boss the URL and walked him through the half dozen sites I had built.  Back then buying web space was something only jedi masters could do, but today thanks to places like DreamHost you can host unlimited web domains for less than $100.00 a year (visit DreamHost today and use the promo code “RADICALHIVEYEAR” to get one year hosting for $79.99, that’s crazy cheap).

Remember your URL is your leave behind – I don’t need a CD, I don’t need a flash key, I don’t really need a fancy resume printed on 20lb paper (I’m a web guy, not  a print guy), it’s cool that you can do all of that…but what I really want is a website URL that I can go back to when you’re not with me.

Keep it clean – I know that “Butthole Surfers” is an alternative band, but it’s probably not appropriate to have a fan page dedicated to them on your  portfolio.

Tell me a story – Part of what I want to know is what skills you posess, but part of what I want to know is who you are.  Tell me something that’s a little bit funny, a little bit serious, and shows some of your skill while also showing off your personality.  A story about something you screwed up really badly and how you learned from it is perfect.

Don’t think you’re busier than I am – I get so offended by this one.  I know I’m super busy, but I don’t use that as an excuse.  I figure out ways around it.  I think it’s ridiculous when someone says “Oh, I’ve been too busy to put together a portfolio.”, no you just didn’t think it ranked high enough on your priorities, that’s fine…but it means you’re not ready to do job interviews, so why did you just waste both of our time?  Don’t tell me that you’ve got a ton of family committments and you won’t be able to work overtime.  Don’t tell me that you’re burnt out from 4 years of school.  Sorry to say, but you don’t know burn out yet.

Leave on a good note – Here’s what you want to get across.  You’re a hard worker, you’re willing to put in the extra time to become great, and you understand that you’re starting at the bottom so that means you’re going to have to earn your stripes. You are hungry to learn, and you can’t wait for the opportunity.

Do all of that, and I’ll be happy to give you the gig.

A usable website is a good website. The more usable your website, the more better a user’s experience will be with it, and the more successful it will be in the long run.

What’s interesting is that in my previous life I rarely got challenged about stuff. I said that we needed to do something one way, and people very rarely said “Why?”, so we just went in whatever direction that looked the most sensible. At InfoTech I’m constantly being challenged and asked to defend my position. It makes me really think about usability things, and figure out what barrier I’m trying to break down.

All of these barriers are ultimately web usability, which is a fancy word that really boils down to three main points.

1: Don’t make me think

2: Eliminate needless steps

3: Always provide an answer to a user’s question

1: Don’t make me think

This one’s so good that Steve Krugg wrote a whole book about it. Read this book. Carry it around with you. Sleep on it. Make it your bible.

A lot of people get clever. They think that by naming their search “Searchology” or something clever that relates to the “branding” of their site, they will be tying the concept into their site. The truth is people frantically scan a page looking for things to do, when they see something labeled “Search”, they know that that’s how they use a search.

There are other similar conventions, a link to “home” should always go to the top level of your site, your logo should always go to the top level of your site.

Some conventions are created due to repeated use by popular sites. Both shopping cart and login information tends to be in the upper right hand corner. Play INTO conventions, don’t shy away from them.

2: Eliminate needless steps.

My old boss Wayne Carrigan (who inspired me with the sage words of wisdom “Never take a job that doesn’t initially terrify you.”) had a great concept. “Click 3″, no content should ever be more than 3 clicks away from where you are at any given time.

That’s slightly muddied these days by the concept of a “click”. With web 2.0 stuff, and the proliferation of alternative user navigation systems, how do you define what’s a click? Is it the act of clicking the mouse button, or is it an entire screen refresh? To me the act of clicking a mouse is pretty mindless, it’s the resultant wait as the next page loads that really creates a “click”. So for now I will define a “click” as an action that requires a post back to the server (even if it’s just to redraw a section of the screen).

3: Always provide an answer to a user’s question.

If you can’t get someone to their destination in three clicks, provide clear methods of getting in touch with someone who can answer their question. “Contact Us” information should be clear and visible. Barriers to getting through to someone should be eliminated as much as possible, and while having a knowledge base that someone can use to answer basic questions is good, the simple truth is people needing help do not read these pages, if they couldn’t figure out how to find your “reset password” link, what makes you think they’re going to read the paragraphs of text devoted to step by step instructions on how to do it?

That’s not to say eliminate these pages, but make sure that you’ve got alternative pathways directly to another destination which will give them guided answers. Paypal, I’m looking at you, a phone number would be nice!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

Words.