What DFA Taught Us
Transitioning out of college into the professional world is never easy. That’s why we asked DFA Alumni to share their experiences and give advice about navigating post-graduate life for DFAers. Hear from Claire, Carlye, and Maria about what DFA taught them and how they used these skills in the next stage of their lives!
Carlye Lauff
DFA CU Boulder
Involvement in Design for America is a powerful example of leadership, interdisciplinary teamwork, and creative problem-solving. Modern, forward-thinking companies are looking for employees that have these exact experiences and diverse skillsets. I would urge all graduating seniors and job-seeking DFA alum to make sure you highlight your DFA involvement on your resume, LinkedIn profile, and definitely in interviews because it will set you apart from your peers. Real-world experiences, like DFA projects, are an excellent way to showcase how you think, work, and solve problems.
Personally, I have translated my experiences into the professional world in three main ways. First, I am able to more confidently lead projects with diverse team members by understanding the unique skillsets that each person brings and leveraging this breadth of knowledge to solve complex problems. Second, I have gotten better at asking deeper questions and challenging the status-quo: like “Why are we doing things this way? Can we do it better?” and “Who are our users and what are their pain-points?”. Third, I have been able to see the bigger picture of problems and connect what I am doing to how it can create positive social impact. Seeing this vision helps the team and company develop more purpose for their work, leading to better outcomes for everyone. DFA taught me all these skills and made me more confident as a designer, researcher, and project lead.
Feel free to connect with me at www.carlyelauff.com or www.linkedin.com/in/carlyelauff
Claire Peng
DFA Rice
When I first started strategy consulting at Accenture, I didn’t realize how valuable design thinking was in the business world. On my resume and in job interviews, I only focused on how DFA taught me to work in teams and helped me improve my written and oral communication skills. However, when I began my consulting project that aimed to improve the seller experience in the client’s sales organization, I learned how my DFA experience was valuable beyond improving my soft skills; DFA helped me build my design thinking skills, which taught me to solve business problems critically and creatively.
Through my experiences at DFA Rice, I used the ‘identify-immerse-reframe-ideate-build-test’ framework to find solutions to all types of problems, like figuring how to engage park visitors or how to increase college preparedness for underprivileged high school students. At Accenture, I had the chance to use very similar design principles to redesign the seller experience for the client. We ran ‘discovery’ sessions to gain insights into the sellers’ pain points and their selling journeys, ‘described’ the gap that existed between the current state and future state, ‘co-created’ concepts and ideas with the clients, and then ‘built’ recommendations on how to best improve the sales organization. Because of my experiences at DFA, I was extremely familiar with the design process and was able to develop creative recommendations that were centered around the user.
M Kuzetsov
DFA CWRU
My DFA studio would participate in ask/give circles, where each person asked for help, and each person in the circle responded if they could help. Someone’s question could be another person’s answer. There, I learned that, by sharing their goals and resources, everyone could grow together.
With that exercise in mind, when I moved to Minneapolis, I wrote down my goals: I wanted to meet cyclists and designers. Those were my “asks,” and I introduced them whenever I met someone new. It was nerve-wracking at times, but without asking, I’d never find what I was looking for.
Being new can mean you aren’t an expert. Yet, you. as a person, have so much to offer! This is the best time to ask for recommendations and to start showing up. Ask to get introduced to people! Ask about events! Just say hi to people you see a lot!
You are in a position to ask a lot of those you meet, but you also can give. Your attention, time, and willingness to keep reaching out are valuable. Don’t spend them all in one spot, but don’t keep them to yourself either. Recently, some cyclists I’d met started development bootcamp. I’m not a great cyclist, but I work in software engineering. I offered to read over resumes and share my limited experience. By sharing what I knew, I found myself learning more about and fostering connections with my community. Build connections over who you want to be and include others in your growth. In the DFA studio and elsewhere: don’t be afraid to ask, and don’t be afraid to give.
