Career Development Category Archives - General Assembly Blog | Page 23

General Assembly is Best for NYC

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General Assembly is Best for NYC

Earlier this spring, the New York City Economic Development Corporation (EDC) launched the Best for NYC campaign, “designed to inspire and equip New York City businesses to measure and improve practices that help create well-paying jobs and improve the quality of life in all five boroughs, while also strengthening their bottom-line.”  

Earlier this week, General Assembly was recognized as “Best for NYC” along with businesses from multiple sectors across the five boroughs. We scored in the top 10 in the Community category for metrics including “charitable giving, diversity and inclusion, worker ownership, and social impact through products and services.”

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What UX Designers and Web Developers Make in Major U.S. Markets

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UX designers and web developers salaries

You did it! You nailed your interview and you’re feeling great. But then, right when you least expect it, the recruiter finishes up the conversation with the dreaded questions, “So how much are you looking for?”

This question is awkward and even worrisome for a job seeker, particularly if you haven’t done your homework. However, here’s the good news! When you do take the time to do the research and know your worth, it can help you answer this question with ease.

In this article, we’ll take a look at average UX designers’ and web developers’ salaries in major job markets and at varying career levels. Please use this article to further your own research and help you better understand the market but know that this by no means a definitive or all-encompassing list.

The ranges and averages throughout the article were determined based on a compilation of information from Payscale.com, Glassdoor.com, Salary.com, Simplyhired.com and information from current practitioners.

Now, let’s take a comprehensive look at average salaries and the varying salary ranges of UX practitioners and web developers in some of the hottest tech markets in the United States. We’ll take a look at each tech hub and then break down the numbers from there.

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How to Afford Leveling Up: Your Funding Options at General Assembly

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levelup

We want our students to be able to focus on class, not costs. Whether you want to level up or start a brand-new career, we offer a range of student financing and payment options to make your path to education easy. Once you’ve been accepted to a GA program, you may be eligible for one of the following programs to help pay for your education.

Apply for a course today and a member of our Admissions team will reach out to answer your questions and help start your journey!

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6 Tips For Negotiating Your Salary

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Essential-Negotiating-Strategies

If you were offered $2 million right now, no strings attached, would you take it? Of course, you would! But did you know that you may have already inadvertently said no thank you to this offer? Author Linda Babcock writes about salary negotiation in her book Women Don’t Ask: The High Cost of Avoiding Negotiation—and Positive Strategies for Change. She states that when an employee fails to negotiate salary early in her career, it could add up to as much as $2 million in lost wages over the course of a lifetime.

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How to (Successfully) Ask For a Raise

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women in tech discuss a salary raise

Photo: WOC in Tech

We all could use a little extra in our paychecks, but asking for a raise is anxiety-inducing, even when you have a strong case to make. Asking for a raise without preparation can be awkward at best, and unsuccessful at worst.

A veteran hiring manager, Josh Doody, author of “Fearless Salary Negotiation: A Step-by-Step Guide to Getting Paid What You’re Worth,” walks us through how to ask for a raise — and what to do if you’re turned down.

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The Top 5 Podcasts for Aspiring Product Managers

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podcast for PMs

You are a product manager. Or you want to be. As the fearless leader for your product, you need to be the best-informed and most up-to-date member of your team. From market trends to failed startups, your knowledge of the product ecosystem is critical if you’re going to succeed. Which you will. Ready?

Don’t waste your precious time reinventing the wheel. While each product has its own unique set of challenges, plenty of product folks have been in your shoes before. Learn from their mistakes and accomplishments, then iterate and innovate your own path. We rounded up five of the best podcasts for product managers so you can make big decisions, build your team, and make products people love. And do it better than before. Next time you reach for headphones tune into one of these shows.

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The 6 Essential Tools for Every UX Designer

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UX

It can be extremely intimidating to any UX designer, particularly someone just starting out, to navigate the overcrowded world of design tools. There seems to be a tool for everything from user research to wireframing to prototyping.

So how do you know which tools to learn or least familiarize yourself with? Fear not! Below we’ve broken down some of the top industry tools for a variety of contexts and workflows. While this is not a comprehensive list, it will give newbies a sense of some industry musts, while providing some further suggestions for the more seasoned designers among us.

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Crafting the Perfect Elevator Pitch as a Career Changer

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career change

As the founder of a career mentorship platform for women, I spend my days speaking with people who want to change careers but aren’t interested in starting over. They’re terrified that taking risks might mean losing everything they’ve achieved. They agonize about explaining “gaps” on their resume during an interview or at networking events.

Lucky for them (and you), I have good news: changing careers doesn’t mean sacrificing your past. It means building from the experience you have and leveraging that in a strategic way.

What’s more? There’s a simple (seriously, it’s four steps) way to incorporate both your career change and past experience into your elevator pitch. It’s the perfect solution to that dreaded question: “So, what do you do?” for those of us who, frankly, have done a whole lot.

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11 Tips for Freelancers from Twyla Tharp’s the Creative Habit

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Photo credit: Christine Bougie.

Photo credit: Christine Bougie.

“The white-hot pitch of creativity is only useful to those who know what to do with it,” says Twyla Tharp in her best-selling book, The Creative Habit. In it, she shares skills learned as a lifelong accomplished choreographer that help make creativity work better for you. It’s filled with ideas and exercises made to enhance your craft, whatever that may be, with better tools—both mental and physical. While it does focus on those involved in “the arts,” there is plenty of wisdom for the modern multi-tasking creative. Here, some of her best pieces of advice put through the lens of a freelancer who must constantly juggle craft with commerce.

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Full-Stack Deconstructed

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Full-Stack-Web-Development

Not long after I changed careers to become a full-stack web developer, I received an odd Facebook message from a family friend. “I visited your website,” he wrote, “and I’m still trying to figure out what pancakes have to do with websites.”

Clever…or clueless? I’m still unsure. But one thing is certain: IHOP needs to move over; the term “full stack” isn’t about pancakes anymore.

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