What the Next Season is Looking Like..‪.‬ User Defenders – UX Design & Personal Growth

This episode is me apologizing for the literal radio silence and filling you in on all the very valid reasons why I've been MIA with new content here in this feed.
I miss you, and I miss putting content out regularly, but there have been (and continue to be) some significant transitions in my own world, not to mention the world at large that have impacted me and this show...
TRANSCRIPT
Greetings. User Defenders. Remember me? Your faithful host. Well, maybe I haven't been so faithful lately. I have taken a, quite a bit of a hiatus as. I have a feeling you may have noticed. I think the last episode that I released in season was in November with Shaheena. I think that was episode 70 and.
Then I released a very special recording live from an event apart Denver in January of 2020. That's when we were all innocent. Do you remember? We were all innocent and we hadn't experienced COVID and, the racial injustice so clearly seen, this year. not that it's new, but it's just been very, very exposed this year.
so. All that to say 20, is it safe to say 2020 has kind of sucked so far? I'm usually a really optimistic guy and I. I'm always excited about the new years. I'm always excited about the fresh starts and, and normally they, they shape up pretty good, but this one is really just bit the big one I'm telling you, all that to say, again, I'm still very hopeful.
I'm very optimistic. I know things can get better and will get better. I hope, at least, I know that. We've learned a lot, right through the COVID stuff. We've learned a lot. How to, I hate to say wash our hands. I think we all knew how to do that. Maybe we're a little more diligent than we were before.
And then these masks seem like they're going to become a mainstay for quite a while for the foreseeable future. all that to say, okay. I, I just wanted to come back on here and explain what's been going on with the show what's been going on with me. Why there hasn't been a new episode in really six months.
And, there's a really good reason, not just. Everything. I just explained that's happened this year. That's that's probably, that could be reason enough, I suppose, but I've gone through some significant transitions, myself. this year and actually that it all began actually last year, right around when I did release the last episode with Shaheena in November, I did receive my, my job loss notice, after six and a half years of service, I was being laid off at the company I'd been at.
And you know, of course it sucks to be. Laid off right before the holidays. That wasn't fun at all, but the, my company was very gracious. I will give them a lot of credit for giving me plenty of notice. I, my layoff date was January 3rd of 2020. So they gave me nearly two months notice. And, and so they were extremely gracious through, through that whole process.
but you know, the, the, the job seeking. The defenders, those of you who are looking or have been looking, especially after COVID I know a lot of you have been affected by unemployment. The numbers don't lie. Right. And I've heard your voices on Twitter and. And, through email and through my DMS and everything and through the community, of course, as well.
I know how hard this can be firsthand. I have. I felt your pain. I felt your, just what it's like before COVID I felt how hard it was to find a job harder than I thought it would be. I mean, it's been about 10 years, honestly, since I've had to pound the pavement, because my transition for the six and a half year job before that was fairly quick.
So. I've learned a lot and I definitely want to be sharing. I will be sharing with you in the near future. I hope, about what I've learned about job seeking and, in UX. And so be on the lookout for that. my empathy abounds for you defenders, if you're in that situation, Let me just continue my story.
I, I was able to find a job fairly, I guess, fairly quickly after my, after my actual release date of January 3rd, I was able to inter