Is becoming a manager the next step in your career? How can you figure out if being a manager will be a good fit for you? In today’s episode we discuss why a move into management isn't the best course of action for every designer and what to consider before making the leap.

There are many benefits to working in public but sometimes it can be difficult for designers to share their work. This week on Design Life we talk about how to start sharing your work and some prompts to help you begin.

Today on Design Life we discuss taking ownership of your career growth. Pursuing your dream career takes courage but the risk is worth the reward. In this episode we answer a question from a listener about how to discuss career growth with your manager as a junior designer and also as a woman. We share the times that we have succeeded, and failed, at taking that leap in our own careers and what we have learned along the way.

Have you ever thought about organising a hack or jam day at your work? A hack, hackathon or jam day is an event for you and your team to put aside your usual work and focus on one project or idea, an opportunity to make progress within a tight time constraint, like one day or a half a day. In this episode Femke shares her experience of running jam days at Uber as Charli prepares to run a hack day for her team at Convertkit.

How has your daily routine changed over the past year? Working from home has meant our daily routines have adapted so that we start a little later, spend more time on our morning routines and get more from our day as a result. Today on Design Life we chat all about our daily routines and really break down how we spend each part of our day.

How do we balance our side projects and our full time jobs? This is a question we get asked a lot! The thing is, time gets filled up very easily. You’ll never find the time unless you are purposeful about how you spend it. Today on Design Life we discuss how working from home, taking on more responsibility in our day jobs and having shorter blocks of time in which to get work done has made us change our priorities and find balance in new ways.

This week on Design Life we want to talk about hiring from the perspective of the person doing the hiring. In the past we’ve talked a lot about finding a design job, portfolios, interviews and everything that the process entails but today we are looking at the other side of hiring.

What do you need to consider when hiring a designer to join a team at your company? How can you encourage a diverse pool of the right people to apply for the job and how can you whittle it down to the best applicant. If you’re leading a team and own the hiring process, or if you regularly get pulled in to help during the hiring process this episode will be useful for you.

In today’s episode of Design Life we talk about ageing and ageism in the tech industry. This is something we’ve started to think about more recently as we noticed there are a lot of people in the design industry in their 20’s and 30’s and a lot less in their 40’s. What happens to people as they age in this industry? As designers, we are ageing along with tech. Ten years from now will it be common place to have your entire design team made up of people in their 40’s, or is this a naive idea? We discuss finding role models, fuelling your ambition and what we can do about ageism in tech.