Collab Collective Podcast

Jarell Alvarez is a UX Designer in Vancouver and the founder of Vancouver Design Checkin. VDC is a slack community that meets bi-weekly on Google meetup to "check in" with other designers and see how everyone is doing. He's a dear friend of the Collab Collective family and in this episode, Jarell shares his journey on how he started Vancouver Design Checkin and why he wants to create a more inclusive and engagement community. He also shares about networking and how he grew his community in a very fast rate. 

Join Vancouver Design Checkin here: vandesigncheckin.slack.com

If you have any question please contact us at [email protected] or send us a DM on instagram @collabcollective.ca.

Chris was the digital marketing instructor at RED Academy and one of the few who have taught at both locations in Vancouver and Toronto. In this episode we talk about the differences and similarities between the East Coast and West Coast locations and also talk a little about how he started his own podcast while at RED.

We also talk about the elements of what makes a strong community like having that shared experience in a cohort and discuss how remote learning can adapt to create that similar effect. This was a packed episode full of energy and juicy insights.

Office Parody Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7Fet8FtDUE

Leo was the UI/UX Instructor at RED Academy's Toronto location and is currently a UX Designer at Blue Cross Canada. Today we have Agnes Tseng, the former VP of HR at RED, returning to the podcast as the co-host and in this episode we talk about Leo's journey from being a secondary school teacher in London to a multi-disiplinary designer armed with some coding skills on the side.

Leo also shares about the close connections he made with his students as he summarized it in a 5-part article on Medium. If you also want to check out his fancy website, please see the links below. 

As always, please reach out to us if you have any questions or requests at [email protected] or DM us on instagram @collabcollective.ca

Leo's Medium Article | Leo's Website | Leo's Agency

Kirill Vechtomov is a UX Designer at Amazon and is a certified senior product designer and strategist with a background in business, web development and user research. He is also the founder of My SoulTeam, a platform where tech professionals can research companies and learn more about what it’s like to work there before applying.

In this episode, Kirill shares his journey on how he got started as a designer and navigated his way through various freelancing jobs, working at agencies, startups, and large corporations. Josh and Kirill discuss about the views on being a generalist vs a specialist when planning your career as a designer. If you want to know more about My SoulTeam, check out their website at https://mysoulteam.com/.

If you have any question please contact us at [email protected] or send us a DM on instagram @collabcollective.ca.

Grace Ling is the founder of Design Buddies community and currently an intern at Electronic Arts. She studied biomedical engineering and has a masters degree in computer science/engineering at Santa Clara University. 

In this episode, Grace shares how she grew her online community to 10,000 members in just 6 months with a can-do attitude and an inclusive spirit. If you'd like to get involved in Design Buddies, please check their website at https://designbuddies.community/.

If you have any question please contact us at [email protected] or send us a DM on instagram @collabcollective.ca.

Welcome to a special mini-series of the collab collective podcast called Aftermath: Life After RED, where we catch up with former RED Academy staff and students and follow up on their stories since their time at RED. For those who were negatively impacted by the sudden closure of our beloved tech bootcamp school in Vancouver, we hope that these series of interviews provide a sense of healing and healthy closure - Also, we want to reconnect you to some familiar voices in the community and hopefully encourage others to reach out and help each other out in these trying times.

In this episode, I am joined by Haidee Kongpreecha, the former global curriculum director at RED Academy as my co-host to catch up with Agnes Tseng. She was the VP of HR based in Toronto and she shares her story on what happened and what she's doing now. 

Agnes' career coaching: @thethriveparty on Instagram

If you'd like to share your story or have any questions regarding this segment, please reach out to us at [email protected] or hit us up on insta @collabcollective.ca

Haidee Kongpreecha has had extensive experience in digital marketing in the last 10 years and has taken on lead roles in companies such as Whole Foods, Steve Nash Fitness World, Later Media, and RED Academy. She has recently moved to Toronto where she has made a pivot into an experience design role to develop e-learning technologies with SwissVBS. 

In this episode, Haidee talks about the dark side of digital marketing and how accurate the recent Netflix documentary "The Social Dilemma" is in regards to how these platforms are influencing our behaviours. If you'd like to share your thoughts on this topic, please contact us at [email protected] or send us a DM on instagram @collabcollective.ca. 

In this episode, I speak with Whitmire Vo who is transitioning from her career as a mechanical engineer into digital design. We talk about Whitmire's unique experience working on drilling rigs and the resilience she had to develop to get to where she is. She also shares about the struggle to transition out of a financially secure job to pursue her passion in design and fashion. 

If you have any questions and want to reach us, please e-mail us at [email protected] or send us a DM on Instagram @collabcollective.ca.

In this episode, we talk about the challenges that come along with going through the job application process and discuss some of the flaws in the system. The collab collective crew talk about how there really isn't a formula to it but instead it's a balance between two main things: the system and the human-human interaction, aka networking and interviewing. 

If you have any questions or would like to suggest topics for us to talk about, reach us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.collabcollective.ca to find out more about our initiatives.

We've highlighted a few resources for those who want to find jobs, improving their skills, and growing their network:

https://mysoulteam.com/ - Local Vancouver Design Job Board

https://www.thehelplist.ca/ - Tech Job Board in Canada

https://www.thespaceishere.com/ - Talent Coaching, Resume & Interview Prep

https://iterateux.com/ - UX Design Community

https://designx.community/ - Global Design Community

https://productbc.ca/ - Community for Product managers, owners, operations, etc

Julie Blackburn is the talent acquisition lead at TCap Equity, hotelfurniture.com, and Neon and has vast experience in hiring talent for large corporations and startups companies such as Lululemon and Kit and Ace. In this episode, Julie talks about the importance of bringing a more human-centred approach when it comes to interviews and also gives insight on what companies are looking for from their point of view.

If you're looking to get clarity in your values and apply a more holistic way to sharpen up your resume and job application credentials, check out Julie's website at thespaceishere.com.

If you have any questions or would like to suggest topics for us to talk about, reach us at [email protected] or visit our website at www.collabcollective.ca to find out more about our initiatives.