There are people who take photos on their phone, and there are photographers. There are people who write everyday, and there are writers. There are people who have referred folks to jobs, hired people, played matchmaker, and there are recruiters.

There are certainly many people who can and have bridged the gap from being a novice at something to a respected professional. But until you’ve been the latter, don’t assume you know what it entails.

I’ve been a writer. Actually got paid for it. But I would never assume to be a writer now.

When the economy is good I see a lot of people jump on the recruiting and career guidance bandwagon. You might think, “Companies are hiring, I could help with that!” Great, but if you do….you’re a novice, don’t represent yourself as a professional. You have to earn that distinction.

We’re experiencing a sea change in marijuana policy at the state level—with Oregon, Alaska, Colorado and Washington legalizing recreational use—but when it comes to corporate drug testing policies, things have mostly stayed the same.

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We just cut our second album at Mathys+Potestio. Available on Capricorn Records.

I love looking at this photo. Not because we look bad ass, because we do. And not because we’re wearing cool cowboy boots, because we are. I love looking at this photo because the people in it are awesome. They are not only good at what they do and bring it everyday, they’re just good people. Good people to have on your side, good people to share a drink with, good people to see in the office everyday. And if we’re ever in a street fight? Ya, we got that too.

I’ve always felt that my business was a service that you either needed, wanted, valued, or not. Working through a staffing agency isn’t for everyone.

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Recently, a graphic designer mentioned that they visited my company’s website and didn’t see any job openings. They assumed we didn’t have any because we don’t post open jobs to our site, or anywhere else for that matter.

Read more at LinkedIn….

As the young professionals branch of the Austin Ad Fed, the AD2ATX team is out and about every month meeting new folks in advertising, marketing and similar industries. Our members have vastly different career goals, despite their closeness in age. Some are freelancers, some are still in school and others are the youngest old pros you’ve ever met.

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I have reviewed thousands of portfolios and interviewed dozens upon dozens of job candidates. That experience taught me one thing about career success: working at the wrong job starves career potential.

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A very classy guy, Shawn Busse, CEO of Kinesis, wrote a very nice piece about Mathys+Potestio when it was announced that we had made the Inc. 5000 list for fastest growing companies in America. You can read it here. Thanks for the good words Shawn.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/learning-from-winners-mathyspotestio-shawn-busse-kinesis-

Everything a recent grad needs to know….well, maybe not everything but a lot. Posted on LinkedIn.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/job-search-advice-graduates-steve-potestio?trk=prof-post

If a council were formed to determine a list of the “Founding Fathers” of the Portland design community, Byron Ferris’s name would have to be near the top of that list.

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I do SEO full time, in-house for a large e-commerce company. After that, I scroll through the latest industry news, do some side consulting, and look out for cool online marketing campaigns as I careen around the Internet.

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What would happen if you decided to stop working in advertising or design and attempted to start a business of your own? How would it feel to sit on the other side of the table and ask for help selling your product? Would you know how to talk about what you need when everything is on the line and the wrong decisions could mean the loss of your life savings?

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Working in coffee houses can fatten you up like a holiday turkey. It’s not like they serve wheatgrass. Your choices are scones (fat), croissants (fatter) and granola (fattest). Good thing there’s “coworking”—a healthy alternative for the freelance professional.

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The 1960s design scene in Portland had elements that may seem familiar to designers today: passionate creatives, a small community, and a collaborative work ethic. Out of this creative pool emerged Byron Ferris, Bennet Norrbo, and Charles Politz, three men whose careers overlapped, who influenced each other and yet left their mark in distinctly different ways.

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I’m halfway through my developer bootcamp, filling my brain with JavaScript and preparing to transition my skills out of the classroom and into a job. Along the way, I’ve been collecting resources: documentation libraries for Orchestrate and jQuery, tutorials like Mozilla Developer’s Network and Treehouse, and oodles of bookmarked pages for projects and tips. There are an enormous number of resources out there, and they cover every aspect of development that I could want.

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