Professional Identity

Mark McLoone
TWC-301
Project #3
Table of contents:

Page 2 Table of Contents

Page 3 The Future Professional Me

Page 5 The Current Me

Page 6 Conclusions

Page 6 Executive Summary

Page 7 Appendix

2
The Future Professional Me
I am planning on graduating in May of 2011, and have recently been advised
to take a year off from school before applying for graduate school. I have been in
school for 5 years now, and would like to experience work in the field of industrial
design. I have been interested in this for about 3 years now, but it wasn’t until a year
ago that I realized I have been interested in designing products my whole life. This is
something I wish to pursue because it interests me a great deal, and I believe I have
great ideas that can support me down the road.
This type of professional career has characteristics of lots of communicating,
collaborating, and product development. When people and companies are looking to
hire people for these jobs, they are considering all of these aspects, as well as an
extensive portfolio of drawing ability, ideas, and a display of group work.
The first job advertisement comes from the worldwide leader in shoes, Nike.
The job title is “Sr. Designer, Product Craft Specialist” located in Portland, Oregon.
This job includes: construction detail, color, form, style, fit performance, and graphic
application. It is very competitive, and the qualifications include the ability to
manage up to 4 projects at a time, effective use of computer design applications, and
previous experience in working factories. This would be a very cool job, even though
it seems like a stretch for right now.
A person works with Nike right now (they are private on Linkedin) with this
job title. Their past education lists Columbia University undergraduate school, and
Colombia University graduate school of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Their past work experience is all with Nike and includes Art Director and Design
Director for both Nike Global and Nike, Inc. The skills needed for this position are
experience within the company and the ability to work with a group and be the
leader. The experience is just that, they have had 5 years of experience working with
Nike, and working their way up from the bottom. The criteria to evaluate this person
for this job would include: years of experience within the field, education, portfolio,
2D and 3D capabilities on paper and computer, and ability to come up with new
ideas.
The second job advertisement comes from Warrior Lacrosse. They are a huge
brand name in the sport of Lacrosse, and offer everything from sticks to goals to
apparel. The job title is “Lacrosse Head Designer”, which is located in Pasadena,
California. The job description includes designing heads, working with a team, and
the graphic application. There are qualifications, however they are: must have job
experience in lacrosse, have at least 2 years experience, and a portfolio submission
of plastic molds. I have a few friends who work for Warrior Lacrosse, and they love
their jobs and get treated with respect in the great working environment.
Lee Blackwell holds this job at Warrior Lacrosse. He holds a bachelors degree
from the Maesteg School in the United Kingdom. His past experience includes
product development at Umbro and footwear product manager at Gelert Limited. He
doesn’t seem to have too much experience within the field, which is a good sign for
me. The criteria to evaluate this person for this job would include: portfolio, job
experience within the field, ability to market a new product by aesthetics only, 2D
and 3D capabilities on paper and computer, and ability to come up with new ideas.

3
 The third job advertisement is for Kohler. They make sinks, toilets, and
everything in between for bathrooms and kitchens. The job title is “Industrial
Designer (Surface Designer)”. The job description includes collaborating with a team
on a new product, coordinate a 2D product for development, working with new
materials, and pushing the envelope to create a great product. I have enjoyed
coming up with new ways of making things work better, and more specifically
within the home. I have lots of ideas that pertain specifically to this job, and this job
falls into every category.
Jason Rousseau holds this job at Kohler Company. He graduated in 3 years
from the Rhode Island School of Design in product design. His past experience
includes moving to France where he worked at Bfd Design, and was a product
designer at LDV global design agency. His portfolio is online as well, which would be
the main reason for why he was hired, as everything in it is very clean, modern and
sophisticated. The criteria to evaluate this person for this job would include: ability
to come up with new ideas, job experience, education and the prestige of the school,
portfolio, and recommendation letters.

4
The Current Me
After searching my name on Google, Yahoo and Bing (for the first time ever),
I have come to the realization that there is a lot about me regarding the sport of
lacrosse, and nothing at all about the future professional me. I am found on
linkedin*, arcadia broncos website** and twitter***. The criteria that I have outlined
in The Future Professional Me are: portfolio, ability to come up with ideas, job
experience, education, 2D and 3D capabilities on paper and computer, and
recommendation letters.
Portfolio: no where online is there a place for someone to see my portfolio
yet. This is not fulfilled.
Ability to come up with ideas: no where online is there a place for anyone
to see this yet. This is not fulfilled.
Job experience: on linkedin and the arcadia broncos website, someone can
see that I have been a coach for 3 years for a Junior High School lacrosse team. This
shows some experience with being a leader of a group, but for the most part, this is
not fulfilled.
Education: My education can be found on linkedin, now that I have created a
linkedin account. This is fulfilled.
2D and 3D capabilities on paper and computer: no where online can this
be found yet. This is not fulfilled.
Recommendation letters: no where online can this be found yet. I plan on
doing this through linkedin. This is not fulfilled.

5
Conclusions:
My current strengths depicted by my various online identities are that my
college education can be found easily, and that job experience for my coaching
career can be found as well. My current weaknesses depicted by my various online
identities are that my portfolio is not anywhere to be found, and there are no
recommendation letters anywhere.
Building on my strengths, I plan on going to graduate school to build on my
education. I will only have my bachelors degree following graduation, but having a
MBA in design and industrial design would bring me a huge advantage in following
my career path. I also plan on coaching lacrosse for years to come, as it is something
I truly enjoy. In order to build upon my job experience, I plan on getting a job in a
design field, even if it is an intern job. From this, I feel I will show that I have some
experience and that I am qualified for a job later on.
Building on my weaknesses, in order to make them strengths, I plan on
posting recommendations to my linkedin profile. This would be a result of getting an
internship or a job through a design related company. I also plan on posting my
portfolio onto linkedin. This will allow future employees to view my work and for
me to express my abilities more accurately than words.

Executive Summary
This report discusses my professional aspirations within the next 5 years,
what is needed of me to get there, what is available for other people to find about
me online in regards to work and school, and a conclusion.

6
Appendix:

*Google:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/mark-mcloone/31/368/393

**Bing:
http://www.arcadiabroncos.com/Arcadia_Broncos/Staff.html

***Yahoo:
http://twitter.com/#!/the_realmcloone