But as a part of our job, we are required to help others with their dependencies on you, and you must also push them in order to meet your deliverables as well.

My biggest problem when I first entered the industry was that I always felt bad asking my leads for things because sometimes we’d get so busy that we can hardly breathe, and once you lose focus, it can be hard to get back in. This was usually related to asking for advice and feedback and asking them to come over to my desk in person because you know, they’d have to completely stop what they were doing and walk all over to my desk. After managing others, I’ve learned that it’s better to ask for anything as soon as you need it, because your leads would probably be a lot happier if you asked for for anything earlier on, since your work reflects them as well. I’ve had experiences where a workflow could’ve been a lot faster if the designer just asked for feedback earlier, than spend days on wasted work. Not a good reflection on both of you! Now, whenever I need something from anyone (clients, engineers, other designers, etc), I’d do it right away with no hesitation because it’s my job on the line.

Simply an amazing office!

There is a software engineer I always work with, who probably always ask me for the most things ever— questions, changes to this and that, etcetera, etcetera, but I’ve never given him a second and always got him what he needed right away because: his emails and the way he talks is always polite, thankful and apologetic and usually begins with a, “Hi Katy, I’m sorry to bother you again but…” and always ends in a “thank you so much!” (and the fact that he is super nice)— how can you get irritated at that?

My point is, if you want things from other people, always ask nicely and never demand it. If you need something and feel bad for asking, just remember, if it’s going to affect your efficiency, the quality of your work or even your performance review, ASK FOR IT ASAP. Don’t hold off on it!

This entry came into mind after I walked to a colleague’s desk one day while he was eating his lunch and was frantically trying to swallow but hey, it was an urgent issue! I don’t even have second thoughts any more when colleagues interrupt my lunch because no one really does it unless it’s urgent.

If you know the industry, you would know how relaxed it is. We wear whatever we want, we have beer fridges, we attend fitness classes, play games, take our dogs for a walk, eat or simply grab a coffee whenever we want. Don’t get me wrong, it’s definitely not all fun and games here, but this atmosphere is designed to balance out our high-stress work environment.

Some days I’ll come to work all dressed up with my 4” heels, make up on and hair done while other days I’ll arrive looking like I just got out of bed. I’ll go to the gym in the middle of the day and come back to my desk with my hair still dripping wet and my face beet red— my colleague walked by once and asked, “is it raining outside?” I would rather look hideous for a while than fry my hair with the dryer, every single day, okay. With this being said, I swear I am going to try making an effort… at least 90% of the time.

What do you wear to work? Do you make an effort to dress up everyday?

Free 24-hour gym … with a tanning bed and towel service (you know how they always make you pay extra for that at other gyms). It’s definitely not one of those dinky community center-like gyms either.

The “Gourmet” Cafeteria. The caf has it’s hit-and-misses (like that day they decided to experiment with sushi with processed cheese) and I only eat there a couple times a week but the staff is nice, the sushi chef always makes me my specially ordered chopped-scallop nigiri (sooo good), the salad bar is always good, the breakfast wrap is muy awesome. They also have poutines (my favorite) at the grill station but the gravy sucks. Too bad for me.

From The Secret Society of List Addicts

He started out as a concept artist for a video game company, then him and his buddies started conceptart.org as a joint portfolio to increase traffic and it exploded into a web phenomom, turning into a major web community. Later on, they started a company called, Massive Black which does concept art, 3D-modeling, animation and a ton of other things for their clients and of course, it became a huge success as well. They also started doing artist workshops because they wanted to travel around Europe but didn’t want to pay for it! It’s funny how something so insignificant like that can blow up to something as big as it is today. Later on, he decided he wanted to do something new and different with his creativity so he started do live paintings for concerts and raves. All I can say is… WOW. I’m high on inspiration. I wish I had ambition like his then I could let my creativity go crazy. Unfortunately, I don’t… yet.

Anyway, their next workshop is in Seattle next year but it’s the same weekend we are going to Big White! I’m not a concept artist nor even an artist, but this is good inspiration and that’s all that matters.

Andrew Jones. Andrew Jones. ANDREW JONES. Don’t forget that name!

Anyway, when I was telling the Boyfriend today, he was like “OOOOH ANDREW JONES!” And I was like “oh, the baseball player?” (trying to sound like a smartass). Little does he know, I googled Andrew Jones earlier and saw him pop up in the results too. HAHA.

If you could travel through time, what era would you visit and why?

Ooh, I would totally travel back to the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt when Nefertiti lived or to Cleopatra’s Ptolemaic dynasty. Or I would go back to England in the 17th Century. Hmm. That’s hard. :S