I want to tell you a story about how I learned that the biggest career failures can often lead (directly or indirectly) to some of the biggest career successes. In this case, I want to tell you the story about how I once created a drawing in 10 minutes that morphed into the mascot for an entire university division of over 200 staff members. His name is Byte, and he’s been drawn on whiteboards and shown up in powerpoint presentations across campus. He’s also going to be featured prominently on a website which will be utilized by over 50,000 people… and his reign as the beloved and iconic character representing Information Technology Services is just getting started.
I am a proud husky. I’ve been working full-time at Northeastern University for a little over two years, and I’ve been simultaneously attending classes at the institution for a year and a half. My thousands of hours spent on the campus have been chock-full of learning and growth, both professionally and academically. With it’s quiet, redbrick paths surrounded by trees in an otherwise hustling and bustling urban environment, I’ve truly grown to love this place.
My time spent at Northeastern has featured its fair share of failures, however. Earlier this year, I was working in a position on campus that didn’t make me feel entirely happy or fulfilled (thankfully, that’s no longer the case). At the time, I felt undervalued and underutilized in my role, so I did what any motivated professional would do: I began applying for jobs elsewhere.
I was absolutely thrilled when I got called in for an interview for one of the positions I had applied for, one in which I’d be able to stay at Northeastern University and manage the social media presence for an entire college at the institution. There was one stipulation though… the interviewers wanted me to complete an assignment for them prior to our first meeting.
Now, I know there is a lot of conversation in the design community about the ethics of spec work, and I certainly have opinions on said topic that have changed over time, but I’ll save those for another blog post. In this case, I made the choice to comply with the interviewer’s request, and I completed the assignment as asked. I poured 20+ hours into the project, going above and beyond what was asked of me, hoping my work would impress the team enough to be offered a job. You can imagine how crushed I felt when I didn’t receive an offer. “After all that hard work and enthusiasm?” I thought to myself with sadness.
Luckily, my hard work was not in vain. As a part of the interview assignment, I made a quick digital drawing of a silly husky with its tongue out. The husky sat next to a little flag that said “Go Huskies!” He wasn’t perfect, but I was proud of my work.
Fast forward six months, I was happily working in a new department at Northeastern University, Information Technology Services, designing a slide announcing the latest hires in the division (myself included), when I remembered the husky I had drawn for the purposes of that failed interview. The slide did seem to be missing something, so in a spur of the moment decision, I decided to add the husky drawing to add a little school spirit and flair.
A few weeks later, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the institution (aka my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss) told me in an unrelated Communications meeting how much he loved my doodle of a husky. He said he thought it would be great if I could draw more huskies in a manner that could be integrated into the overall ITS web strategy. I was shocked and flattered, especially since I had never thought of myself as good at drawing. Okay? Sure. Good? Not really. The idea that my drawing was being thought of as worthy of being prominently featured in our web strategy was flattering, but nerve wracking. I think the CIO could tell I wasn’t entirely convinced.
“Oh, that drawing didn’t take me very long, I could probably make a better one,” I said.
“Only if it’s exactly the same.” He said with a smile.
With that, I had the confidence I needed to get to work on drawing more huskies. The CIO recommended that I be provided with a Wacom tablet, and as soon as the sleek device arrived in the mail, I began my frightening, but exhilarating immersion into drawing for strategic commercial purposes.
How exciting it was to get paid to draw! What had always been a side hobby that I hadn’t ever done for anyone else’s enjoyment was now being recognized on a professional level, and I was stoked. The first huskies I drew were a part of a website I was designing which would act as a portal for a new ITS service (details to come down the road). The main theme of the new service would be to encourage the Northeastern community to “express themselves” through building their own WordPress websites. Thus, I came up with the name “Express Northeastern” and decided to integrate huskies “expressing themselves” in various fashions. In an effort to encompass the term “expression” while also letting faculty and staff know that they could use the service for professional purposes as well, I drew a researcher husky, an entrepreneur husky, and an instructor husky, and I have plans to draw at least three more.
Several of my co-workers began to notice my computer monitors while I was drawing, and they came up to me to tell me how much they loved my artwork. With renewed confidence from my co-worker’s compliments, I decided to begin drawing my husky on the communal whiteboard in the office, something that soon stirred a staff-wide vote on what the husky’s name should be.
As I mentioned earlier, the final consensus was “Byte,” a name that referenced both dogs and tech – a perfect fit for our ITS husky!
While the polling on choosing the name was taking place, someone even suggested that the ITS husky become an official tech advice giver with its own social media channels! Who knows? All I can say is that the future of Byte looks bright, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for him.
