10% might be a good rule of thumb if the old adage that "9/10 startups fail" is somewhat accurate. Is $100M the average exit though? Anyone have that data?
I definitely don't want it to happen either. But from Facebook's standpoint it's not a bad space to start looking at. The reasons you listed above worry me as a consumer, but unfortunately the average user isn't as scrupulous. If FB made paying for things as easy and simple as "liking" something, I'd be very surprised if it wasn't successful.
I downloaded it for free only because I saw the link while sitting in bed and didn't feel like looking for my credit card. I appreciated that the followup email had info about paying for the book by buying another of raganwald's books.
It is absolutely still a thing. Since the current top comment (from cletus) mentions working at Google I'll relate a story from when I interviewed there. From what I understand, I made it pretty far in the process (to the "executive committee review") and that's when they asked me to explain a gap in my resume. They pressed me for a detailed breakdown of what I did during the gap and the reasons behind it, and said that they take it seriously. This was after 8 technical interviews and after I'd passed their hiring committee. I didn't get the job, although I suspect that this was not the reason. I'm sure experience varies here, and this would likely be less of an issue at a startup or other small company where a record of getting shit done is more important, but it's worth noting.
I would recommend that if you take time off for whatever reason, prepare for questions like these and be ready to provide a succinct and compelling explanation at the drop of a hat, because being blindsided isn't fun.
Jeez, good to know. As mfalcon mentioned, freelancing would be a good fallback, but you'd still have to talk about what kind of work you were doing etc.
Unfortunately, yes. Employers, and the non-technical gateways in particular, still have the mindset of "reject for anything, weeding people out means I'm doing my job!"
Make yourself look so valuable that they wouldn't dream of rejecting you for some invented reason. If front-line resume screeners are the issue, get an existing employee to submit your resume and vouch for you and get buy-in from their boss. That way HR can't reject you on a flimsy basis.
Since when are most designers against "true" spec work? Anytime I hear something like "the possibility of future payment and work", I run away as fast as I can. That's the kind of "spec" work the design community could do without.
Crowd-sourced spec work is another matter altogether. If a potential client points to those sites as a way of driving down your price, they're not the kind of clients you want to work with.
There's nothing wrong with taking on a high profile job for the exposure and doing it for free if you treat it like an extraneous circumstance and a business decision. But compared to people in other fields, designers are a little soft on what are acceptable payment terms, and are often taken advantage of as a result. Free = free and paid = paid, but "spec work" is a grey area that is on the whole bad for the community.
I use J/K to browse so much that I sometimes forget it's not built into all websites. "What do you mean I can't hit the letter "O" to open that link??"
I agree "Programmer" is a sufficient job title, but my favourite "alternate" title I've seen anyone use is "Technical Enabler". It says "I use technology to solve problems and create value", which I think is very apt most of the time. You might be programming or you might simply be sharing/applying knowledge about computers, software, the web etc. that most people don't have. At least that's what I feel it's like most days.
