Originally posted on November 20th, 2013

Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend the Artifact Conference in Providence, Rhode Island. The conference focused on Responsive Web Design (RWD), work flow, and the dynamic of the designer/developer in a team.

Overall the speakers were eloquent, approachable, and fun. In my opinion it was the perfect amount of presentation and practice. We heard about best practices when it comes to web fonts, responsive images, team dynamics and client relations, as well as RWD’s role in our growing media driven world.

If I had to pick my three most important takeaways…

The company I work for recently hosted its first Hackathon ever, which also happened to be the first hackathon I’ve ever participated in. For those of you asking yourself, what the heck is a hackathon? I’ll tell you.

A Hackathon is usually a technology-based, organized event that gathers developers, engineers, and designers together to develop a web concept in a set amount of time, usually 1–2 days.Dave Fontenot describes it best when he says, “Hackathons provide a venue for self expression and creativity through technology. People with technical backgrounds come together, form teams around a problem or idea, and collaboratively…

The post-graduate life is notoriously dreary. There you are applying to several opportunities, constantly striving to get your name and work out there, and becoming increasingly used to rejection. Then you rinse and repeat. If you’re lucky enough to get hired somewhere you’re more often than not underpaid, overworked, and/or under appreciated.

This isn’t the rule — it’s more an observation from my own experience as well as seeing the younger workforce entrants who have followed me. …