hiring culture and breaking into tech w/ branden thornton

full transcript

auto-generated from the audio, so expect a few typos. the audio is the source of truth.

not unusually but it's like cooler this morning here in here in New York dude yeah yeah so like my allergies have been like kicking in what's going on everybody good morning we live Brandon's allergies kicking in yes sir but you look great you look great um it's great to see y'all this morning while none of y'all are here yeah it takes like a hot second for y'all to get get notified but uh excited I have been um I've been eating uh croissants fresh pasta and traveling the Italian Countryside for the last two weeks got back late last night and so I am back Brandon is

the first guest back from vacay and honestly I wouldn't have it any other way so man thanks again for joining I appreciate it yes sir man damn man thanks for having me man I can't believe that that you went straight from Italy to me like I don't know how you make that transition but you know you know it's living up to the hype um but for those of you who are tuning in welcome say hey we'd love to hear from you again as always this is a networking platform the reason why I tell people to say hey the reason why I tell people to comment

is because this is a meet up um I basically try to create an ecosystem that I wish I had uh when I was looking for a job 12 years ago uh my first job in that there was a place where I could come where I could hang out um network with other people um and then learn something so that's what this is so please comment even if you watch this in the future I would still drop a comment because there are people that kind of go back through and kind of networking and and what's what I would do if I were used I would network

with every guest I have so reach out to Brandon just let me know hey saw your own guidance counselor 2.0 network with everybody who comments in the chat jump on over to unicorn finders my other podcasts because the man can't have too many podcasts and I would network with every single founder I bring on that podcast and if and if you do that if you set like specif ic time to do that over the next like month or two because it's it's going to be a lot you're gonna have an extensive network and so that's what I want to give to you so that's why

I tell people to comment second off uh ask questions this is the time where I get branded on the show somebody with the talent that Brandon has and he doesn't bill you for it so ask questions take advantage of it take advantage of it um let's see here what else I also want to go shout out to gun dot IO the company I'm at now uh we help Freelancers around the world get placed um literally we're around the world so a designer like Brandon Engineers is kind of our specialty um please please uh jump on the platform we'd love to have you um and then

lastly um shout out to the coffee sponsor I'm not drinking it this morning I didn't even have time to make coffee this morning it's kind of been a Mad Dash but that conference um uh go check them out uh the the Keynotes for the Austin conference have been released and it's Kelly Vaughn Shawnee Pearson and Danny Thompson sure you all recognize those three names they've all been on the show they're all incredible incredible individuals so Austin that conference can be lit I would highly recommend being there so go check that out I want to give a shout out to people tuning in Richie Ricardo Alex

Christina Scott it's great to see y'all Brady oh snap I am back I I'm just I'm I'm floating my body's made of pasta at this point an espresso Eugene it's good to see you um olenka it's great to see you as well I love it from New York City checking in I love it hello from Copenhagen Christina I'm so jealous you're in Copenhagen that is awesome um and let's see here Brett it's great to see you all right uh enough of me running my mouth Brandon let's get to people what they want who are you what do you do what's your background um and then

we'll start talking about breaking into Tech and hiring man I could go through my background in an hour you know it's been a it's been an interesting one so you know what's up everybody I'm Brandon um um uh currently I'm a designer at uh Uber so building some really dope over at Uber um it's been it's been a really nice ride I actually hit my one year mark last week yeah man it's been it's been sick a lot of dope work um a lot of hard work it's it's crazy um how much work goes into that company man that org is so big like it

was like I can't imagine like it's insane man because you know I'm coming from Twitter and like I think Twitter we had maybe like seven eight thousand employees I think Uber has like maybe like double triple like it's it's insane man it's crazy um so like a lot of processes a lot of things that go into that but um before that before I even got into design man like because I'm based in New York now you know whatever consider people say living the dream whatever all that spending a whole bunch of like unnecessary money right um for that though man you know I'm coming from

Mississippi so like I'm coming from like you know the one state that people forget about you know that people talk on you know um I'm coming from Mississippi born and raised Jackson um Magnolia this year oh for sure man yo like shout out shout out to uh Magnolia JS like that man that conference is like that it's a lot of fun they've been they've been they've been showing a lot of love to our city you know um it's dope when I hear people come in there and like eating at places that like you know that I've known I'm like yo yeah and I'm like all

right now I gotta tell you I'm good [Laughter] I love it I do want to talk about this and this is maybe a good segue like when I spoke at Magnolia last year they're like wait there's a Tech Conference in Jackson so let's so talk about and kind of relate to your background about getting into Tech and then because again I mean I I think this is a great way to frame up this conversation yeah for sure so like for me like born and raised in Jackson went to Mississippi state that was my you know alma mater for both degrees got my undergraduate and a

master's degree from Mississippi State neither of which I'm working in because it was in my undergrad was in marketing Communications I really thought I was gonna get into PR all of that kind of stuff right um this was like 2011 2012.

I started noticing that like PR itself was kind of a Dying industry right like in in the traditional sense like yeah PR itself like doesn't exist like everything is kind of it was evolving it was evolving towards like media relations and like you know um kind of diving more into like that Communications like marketing side right um and so I've started looking at that and I'm like yo like I want to make money man like I wanna I wanna I wanna get the bag so I actually uh went and got my master's degree in public policy because I thought I was gonna be an attorney

right like of all things right I thought I was gonna be an attorney dude that did not last like got that degree and I came out and I'm like nah like I I miss being creative I missed that marching side right so um so I moved back to Jackson and I actually started working at the Apple Store this was like the greatest place that that I could think of so I'm like yo what's that one place that like I could work at I could get experience and like I can learn so much it was like it was Apple right now like Apple retail is still

like there's so much you can learn right because like you still connect with like the home base like they they still bring a lot of people down um actually Apple has like really great program like they even allow you to like travel with Apple so like let's say I'm working in Jackson Mississippi at Apple they open up like uh Copenhagen Apple like they'll say like Hey we're opening this new location we want people to go there and like you know you can live there for a couple months and like do your thing you know like it's like yo like this is fire you know so

so like working at App le um one that got me surrounded around products right so I started looking at products every day like I'm looking at apps I'm looking at things that are you know that are on these MacBooks um I'm teaching classes I was doing like some of the creative classes there and actually like out of nowhere this random guy like stumbles in to get his phone fixed and it turns out he's a startup founder there in Mississippi and I'm like yo like like we have startups in Mississippi like like you're like this is this is kind of crazy so like he and I

just like started conversations like we started talking for a while and like ended up working for him um and so uh his company is called Edge Theory and that was actually where I got my start man um started working for them but I was feeling like the marketing side right I was still social media all that kind of stuff um but it really just like opened my eyes to like a lot of the um like the Silicon uh what do they call themselves a silicon uh Delta the Silicon South as they call themselves like there were a lot of like really great like smaller um

Studios smaller startups that were coming out of Mississippi that were like hey like we don't have the big bang or the big bucks like SF or New York but like we're still able to produce some really great stuff you know like we have some great people here like we had some great Engineers like great designers like all that kind of stuff and they're like we can do the same thing coming out of the South you know um and just seeing that was like crazy man I'm like yo this is this is kind of like life-changing in a way you know um but like working with

that company I actually started like realizing I'm like yo like I actually love this product side like this product side it was like it was so much more fun you know like it was more Hands-On like I felt like I had more of an impact um and so I kind of just like dropped everything I was doing and uh started uh going uh good old YouTube Academy and I I learned how to be a designer off YouTube man no way YouTube yeah that should have been the title of the show man YouTube YouTube designer turned up Twitter that's awesome yeah I mean it was still

designed product design still pretty young at that time you know this was like 2014 like apps honestly like apps had just started coming out around like 2010 2009 you know you think about Twitter all of that like they were like text first you know and so like these like apps were starting to be built around like 2010 so 2014 was still relatively new like most product designers didn't even call themselves that they were still just whatever the hell that company called you they called you graphic designer they called you designer you know mean like you did everything and so like I started so it was

a little bit from like YouTube learning like the different tools and stuff but then like Twitter was the machine behind it man I started connecting with so many people in the industry that like that I looked up to or that I saw on like different podcasts or different shows on YouTube and I'm like oh let me follow this person and just reach out like just like what's the worst that can happen they don't answer like you know that's the same as me not reaching out so I'm like right like I'm gonna at least put it out there you know um so started putting it out

there got got a chance to connect with some really cool designers um shout out to Dan Petty who was like one of the first set that um that definitely uh hit me up and then at least like reach back and whatnot um yeah man and like connecting with them I really just kind of learned like like what I needed to work on like what chops I needed to have and um and I just kept pushing from there man started freelancing around Mississippi because that was that was the hardest thing about being in Mississippi Man was that like product design itself still wasn't like a value

you know like companies companies there were still seeing like they're like oh no we need Engineers like we need the functionality and I'm like yes you do need the functionality but that functionality needs to come along with like a great user experience you know right I'm like because everyone says don't judge a book by its cover but if that cover is ugly you're never gonna open that books hey I want to get to Brett's question real quick because I think this is It's kind of where I want to go with you and and also just kind of your story so um this is killer and

thought inspiring I currently don't work anywhere close to Tech adjacent do you think it has an impact on the resume as well working in Apple retail um so I mean what are your thoughts I mean I currently don't work anywhere close to Tech adjacent I still think there's a lot of opportunity here but I'm interested to hear your thoughts yeah man I don't I don't think any job is not close to Tech adjacent you know what I'm saying like there's yeah it just depends on what you're trying to do like everything that's in the non-tech world is also in the tech world every bit of

it you know text to us Finance they have marketing they have accountants they have everything on the business side they have it they have engineering design coms like everything that you're going to get at any other company it's on the tech side you know um but like any any of those any of that experience still translates very well into Tech like Tech itself is honestly just a mindset you know like it's it's just like companies say like oh we have a product so we're Tech now you know yeah well and I'll tell you this too Brett I mean I I post I think I tweeted

this a while back or a few weeks back about so I grew up working in the restaurant industry um servant tables busting tables my Dad ran the Outback Steakhouse in my hometown for 25 years and I met so many cool people there um and I mean obviously like I wasn't attack at the time so I wasn't asking those questions but like I met so many cool people right like I met one guy like and and he and I hit it off so well like he worked for Rayman I got two free Ray-Bans sunglasses out of it right it's just like it's like I I think

I think if you're intentional with your conversation how you interact with your customers I think you're going to learn a lot about them and then proceed to obviously find out they're in Tech um uh Jason it's good to see you Jordan also congrats on the new gig buddy um so all right getting so so let's so a lot of people who tune in you know that I go more engineering bent but obviously you know I I love designers and I need to actually make friends with more designers but um so Brandon I'm kind of curious how do you get into Tech um from a design

perspective we kind of talked about your story but like what the biggest piece of advice I have because it's hard like I mean just like any other like I would say design might be slightly harder than engineering okay um only because it's not based on like what you can do but it's it's solely based on what you can show you know okay yeah um like design is all about that portfolio piece like people want to see your work they want to see your thought process that goes into that work and oftentimes I I honestly think like you know like we can we can get real

for a second like I honestly think they're like boot camps don't do a great job uh from a design perspective they do an amazing job from the engineering side like Engineers like you know whether you go to like a traditional college or you go through a boot camp like they do a pretty good job of like teaching you the tools that you need to have and like helping you to like build out like real tools and and like real products right but they don't do so much on the design side like design like a bunch of design boot camps I mean it's it's like so

really a lot of these engineering boot camps they want you know they want more students they want more money so a lot of them they they start offering like a design program and this isn't you know I'm not trying to on any boot camp but like I honestly think a lot of them could do better on the design side because I actually used to teach at uh Lambda school or when it was called High School yeah um I taught the design side and I think like they were set up for so much success on design because you already have engineering there right like partner these

people like design isn't just learning figma you know like that's what a lot of like these like boot camps teach they just teach the tools they teach you how to do research or you know they teach figma but they don't really teach you like what it's like to be at a company like you know like a lot of times they'll have designers they'll say like go build something or like you know go design something really cool that's not how design works you know like you're gonna be nine times out of ten you're gonna be working at a company that already has an existing product and

you're gonna be solving problems that already exist within that board you know and so that's one of the hardest things to capture so like with new designers I definitely say like one for sure learn the tools learn the skills you know like even outside of the tools is the skill set like learn like typography learn color theories and things like that like learn hierarchy learn like why certain designs look good in certain designs don't you know but then outside of that like practice it like they uh oftentimes you'll see everything like or every place will say like oh like go redesign Netflix or go redesign

like Spotify or something like that right and so like people post that on Twitter they post some dribble all of that but like my question is like don't just go redesign it because like you have no context to it you don't know that the constraints are you don't know like any like problems that they're trying to solve but like take a take an existing problem that you see like going to Netflix right like we all wa nt like Netflix to make better recommendations or like show like show me something that I you know that that I haven't seen or even make it more social I

think like Netflix being more social would be sick like imagine if Taylor had his playlist on Netflix I could follow you and I could see what's on your playlist [Laughter] like that that would be Netflix Ryan Burgess Ryan Jim if you're watching put in an I.T ticket put it in jira free tools here free free free work you know but like that to me is like what a designer should be doing like think of an existing problem and go design that and then talk about it create an entire case study around that and put that in your portfolio you know yeah um I try my

best to honestly help new designers coming out and of course I can't help everyone which sucks but like so I actually like build I have my own like Design Studio on the side of like working at Uber right oh do you really and so I do it for two reasons man do it for two reasons we're called project nine shout out to project nine shout out to my boy Chris Butler who's like one of the greatest engineers in the industry right now um so I do it for two reasons one I come from Mississippi right so that's like reason number one it's like I still

see so many products coming out of Mississippi that have the functionality but they do not have that they don't have that Silicon Valley look you know like their products don't look like they're coming out of SF and whatnot and so like we actually build products to like look like these like amazing you know companies like everyone at project nine works in the industry like I have like designers that come from like Facebook Amazon or whatever because like everyone's bored you know they're bored they just want to do some like cool on the side so I'm like all right cool let's like build real products for

for real companies right but along the way the second reason I do this is actually for young designers I let them come along for the ride they learn from us they learn by having like hands-on experience with real products and like they can put this in their portfolio and we help them to like get to like some really great places you know um like two of the designers that I've worked with at project nine are now one's in Amazon one's at webflow you know so like we're we're like really trying to like help them to learn the quote-unquote right way to learn design and like

kind of being able to to share their process and whatnot what's what's uh what's what's the website for project nine uh well right now it doesn't exist so it's just it's just me it's just me talking about it now we've been we've been uh we've been working on it uh it's like I don't know I think it still might be up right now but it's crap right now but like we've actually been building like a real website so people can actually like find us and all like we've we've done some really great work um I'm really proud of the work we've done but also like

I said I'm more proud of like the fact that like we bring on like young Engineers young designers give them some real products and you know I'm like let them go crazy I'm like these are our products you know like this like yeah we're doing this for clients but like kind of go crazy with it and like you know we'll we'll help you to like trim it down or tone it down but like yeah have fun with it you know a sec there's uh got a few questions coming in here I want to get to um Brandon how long did it take you to grasp

design thing I was exposed back in 2017 and my mind was blown I mean literally I didn't think anything I think what you just said but like as I'm talking like oh like there's a lot from the design perspective just from like just from a tooling perspective let alone like theories and Concepts and all that stuff oh my God man there's so much but like just like with anything like the more you do it the like the easier it is for you to grasp you know and then like when you start do ing it at scale like when I started out like working when I

was freelancing I'm like oh yeah I got the hang of this this is this is simple this is easy then I got my first job with the startup uh coming out of SF and like I'm like oh I've been doing this wrong so like you know I'm learning their way of doing things but like I'm also learning like how to like how to think outside the box how to work within constraints um how to work alongside PMS like PMS are my best friend you know like I gotta work in my PMS like we got to be on the same level um then going from like

smaller startups over to Twitter was another like mind-blowing moment you know like now I'm working on like this product that has billions of users like we're not only trying to like think about like problems that we're trying to solve for the user that exists but like we're also trying to build new stuff so um for those of you that aren't aware I uh help build communities at Twitter so if you have access to community I was about to I was about to tear that up that's pretty sick and so but working on communities was like crazy because like there was so much more that we

had to Think Through you know and then even transitioning from Twitter to Uber there's still more so like I'm still grasping a lot of design thinking you know and like you know even though I'm considered a senior your designer in this industry I'm still learning as I go man there's so much to learn there's so much to grasp like you're never not learning you know yeah and and so to answer your question LinkedIn user here uh it's gonna take time it's gonna take time um Ryan it's good to see you buddy um let's see here yeah I want to go back to Brett I want

to go back to this real quick because I'm just so passionate about people breaking into Tech and networking in their first job that is in Tech what I would do Brett if I were you and I don't know what you do so comment comment if you want to but so if I was serving the tables back in th e day so let's say I have a daughter now so let's say my daughter like when she grows up she like wants a network and she has her first you know restaurant job I would tell her right I'd be like I would get a simple business card

with your name and just your email your phone number and if you're really vibing with somebody just give them to them at the end of dinner just like Hey listen I would love to stay in touch can you hit me up um and and you start doing that because I thinking about it like even when I was serving tables like if I did that can consistently for two years I mean the amount of people you meet in those Industries so again I just I didn't know if you had any more thoughts on that Brandon but I just didn't want to move on too too good

for that yeah no no it's it's all about those conversations in any kind of way that you can create them like that was that was like the the joy of actually working at Apple because like one of the things that Apple wants you to do like apple actually so like another tip here or another like tidbit right so like Apple retail like they don't care if you sell stuff like that is not there that is actually like not their thing they're like they're asking like they're like like we're Apple people come in here we know they're here to buy something you know so like we

don't have to sell people on like you should buy an iPhone you're coming in the store you're buying an iPhone you know like you already know that you want an iPhone or you want a Macbook we don't have to sell you on it and so they were more interested in us like creating meaningful conversations with our uh retail customers you know and so that's that's literally what I did all day like I would actually just create really great conversations I talk to people like when they would come in and buy a Macbook I'm like yo like what are you using this for I learned about

so many different people so many people that were like coming in as like you know like oh like I'm just learning how to like code or some people saying like you know I'm doing graphic design Third Man and like I just started like you know keeping that conversation going and like I said you just never know where these conversations go and pretty much you know like just like you said today like you have a business card that's great if not even just like sharing like your QR code on LinkedIn just to connect something just to keep that Network going you know 100 uh let's see

here um Jordan comes here my wife is curious about trying out UI ux any recommendations on where to start uh first off chemical Brandon [Laughter] 100 100 like I'm always down the chat with people answer questions and whatnot especially when it comes to like UI ux um a good place to start um I would say YouTube like I did but I feel like it's like what do you what do you YouTube first yeah like like it was so much easier in 2014 because it was like you know it wasn't that much content out there but now Dan I followed Dan Petty Dan Petty for sure

man another one Joey Banks another great one um MDS for sure MDS has like one of the greatest like intro to design like programs it's called Uh shift nudge and it's like it's really good because like he teaches not only design but a lot of that like design Theory like he he goes in depth with his stuff you know and it's really great um and he's very Hands-On too so like there there's there's a few places those are some of the top places I would recommend alongside like YouTube just even checking out YouTube watching along and like just like you can actually watch designers build

stuff like you can just watch someone like you know it's like build a build a quick landing page in this and the third and just kind of you know just kind of get a feel for it see if it's something you'd like to do and honestly like I would say like emulated as you're watching like get into figma and like actually like practice alongside someone that's really where I started like I started emulating as I saw like people designing I'm designing alongside with them until I started getting the hang of it myself that's awesome uh let's see here John it's good to see you are

there any YouTubers you would recommend checking out for engineers who have no foundation and product design oh that's interesting kind of a different type of event too that's a good question I actually so I again like being honest I haven't been on YouTube in a while like actually like following designers and stuff but I know um oh man what is his name there's there's there's this guy I think I don't even know if he's from New Zealand or something but like he like always has these videos I see them coming up on like Tick Tock and like uh Twitter and stuff and he's always like

design such and such and then he's like really fast you know and like then he like designs and it looks dope like uh if I can figure out his name that's definitely one person I recommend also I would recommend following Adobe Adobe actually brings on like different designers and stuff um that uh from like different parts of the industry and like they actually uh like you know kind of do like what you're doing Taylor but they actually have like a designer come on like design like deal um I think that would be really good um they went viral recently Adobe does actually their Tick Tock

is pretty cool I think they go through it's quick but like it it goes through the entire process of of Designing something in one minute or something like that it's pretty cool oh damn yeah they've they've done a pretty good job it got it got I'm pretty sure it's Adobe it got like you know one of my social media newsletters that got a lot of responses um uh Kayla's good to see you um let's see here so uh so Brent um we talked a little bit about like breaking Tech obviously let me ask you this getting into Uber and Twitter I know there's a lot

of people so we're wrapping up for next like five minutes or so um I know there's a I know a lot of people want to work in big Tech and a lot of people like want to break into it obviously that can be a whole episode in and of itself but what are just some general tips man around that one it's hard yeah it's very hard you know like and not only from just like a skill set perspective but just thinking of like all of the talent that's also like going for those same jobs right now exactly especially right now that's like the most insane

part but along with that like hone in on those skills like with design in particular it's all about storytelling you know like storytelling with your designs with your design decisions as well as like your process like that's the thing that these companies want to know they want to know like what's your process and then also show me some dope you know like they won't vote they want you to they want you to show them like the great designs the great prototypes but like you also have to be able to explain it you can't just say that yeah yeah you can't just say I designed this

and they say oh like you know what were your thoughts on this like why'd you go with this instead of something like this and I can't just say oh because it was cool or you know just because it looked awesome right um but also honestly Network that's one of the biggest things like on like blindly applying to some of these companies like it ain't happening you know how did you real quick how did you get into Twitter did you know anybody or did you just called interview so yeah I actually knew a few people it was actually both I I applied blindly twice got rejected

both times Twitter ended up coming to Atlanta I was living in Atlanta at the time they came to Atlanta I got to meet uh Dantley Davis who was the head of design and um I actually just sat and talked with him for a while talked with Dantley um and you know he he told me some people to get connected with I ended up meeting up with a few other designers and whatnot and uh finally one of the uh directors from Twitter like hit me up he's like yo like I think your work is great I also think you're underrated in this industry like he was

like you've worked at some you know some some like minor companies he was like but your work is really good like I want you to come through that here you know um and so yeah like I said it's it's it's a lot of that networking piece like going to these conferences going to like that conference going to Magnolia yes now here we are 100 man it's making those connections just even just like talking with people so that if you do find something at these companies you can hit these people up and just let them know like hey I'm interested like you know like what what

do I need to do like what should I know or like is this even something that's like you know that I should go for you know um they can actually give you the ins and outs as well as making those referrals because those referrals go a lot further than just blindly applying just being rolled up I love that and then and then how did you get into um how'd you get into Uber so kind of the same way I did know a few people at Uber um so like chatting with them but honestly like it's it's so weird and and yeah I feel bad at

times but like honestly like when you get one of those big names behind you like people hit you up constantly you know I had recruiters hitting my inbox and and honestly I I swear I actually feel bad because I'm like I'm like yo here's like these other companies are laying people off like here's people that need jobs like go hit them up you know and so like I usually try I try to answer every recruiter that hits me up and like usually my answer is like my answer is like hey I'm not currently like looking at new opportunities but here's some people that I do

know like I would hit them up talk to them you know and I really try to like funnel it back into the community man as a recruiter I mean I'm always going to be a recruiter that's that's some goat right there man that's awesome that's awesome yeah coming I feel like the recruit is like if you're coming after me then like you're also gonna like take my recommendations you're like oh like this person is anything like you I want them you know yeah um all right so uh Richie there goes my interview strategy because it was cool um so all right uh and y'all thanks

again for hanging out this day we're gonna wrap it up here three quick questions I want to ask Brandon but um again please go connect with Brandon on uh LinkedIn on Twitter um he's fantastic um so Brandon uh first question uh what are you into right now man outside of work what brings you Joy outside of work and it could be work that's not work but like what are you having with right now yeah a little bit of like I said project nine stuff just because I really do enjoy like building dope products and and helping uh like younger designers to get into the industry

but outside of the work side man I'm a I'm kind of a huge fashion nut um so like being here in New York has been really dope my girlfriend actually works at Saks and so like like she's already she's like plugged into like the real like fashion scene um and so like man I love like fashion some I don't know how I can connect it over to like what I do but like somehow I would love to work in like a fashion startup or like you know like really kind of something dealing with like fashion man like I love style like I love seeing those

Styles I love that is there is there one brand you love right now damn t-h-o-m brown with them D at the end Tom Brown It's just that iconic four Stripes man like it to me it's more iconic than Adidas like you see that stripe and like and then the clothing is sexy and he puts that stripe on and it's just like man yes yes dude like I love it man you know you know who I really like right now in New York is uh Marcus that's so cool I love Community he built his fashion brand off of running so like he built the community and

then he launch ed the fat I like I love that A lot of my stuff that I'm doing I've pulled a lot from fashion and pop culture yeah um I think there's a lot to learn in Tech about that because I think I think a lot of the nine to five world we think we got to do you know this meetup.com and all this stuff like if you can like pull a lot of the pop culture in is when it gets really really cool yeah it gets super dope man um all right so that's first Square second question um any any any Trends uh tooling

that you're kind of tinkering with right now um that you're that you want to give a shout out to uh 100 shout out to Kramer right now man they are killing it okay they are like framers started out as like one of the hardest tools to use in design like it was great it had like a crazy learning curve and then like now they pivoted into completely like web design and so like framer like you can actually build like a really quick website it's so easy to learn um but it has more um more tooling or it's a little bit more advanced in like a

Squarespace or Wix slightly less advanced than a web flow so it kind of sits in that sweet middle um but like they are killing it man like my current portfolio website's built on framer I built it in like a weekend which is crazy like that's like unheard um last question what would be your biggest piece of career advice to your younger self because again guidance counselor 2.0 is uh you know we had Middle School we had in middle school high school and college we had guidance counselors to announce adults we don't so what would be your biggest customer advice to your younger self oh man

that's actually a really good question that's uh I feel I feel like my advice to my younger self would be don't listen to my guidance counselor honestly so guidance counselor 2.0 is because the the second meaning was I want to kick every guidance counselors in the shin who told everybody that their resume needed to be one page I think there was just so much bad career advi ce oh my God man like dude like my my guidance counselor was so bad he was like he was trying to get me he was like like I had really great grades I had like colleges I wanted to

go to he's like he's like nah man like he's like just go to a community college like that's all you need and I'm like why like you know like the things I wanted to do was like they were very outside of like community colleges and stuff like that and like that was it like he just he thought that was like all that I would achieve you know and so like once I got like my bachelor's my Master's jumped into Tech I'm like that's the first person I gotta hit up man you know I'm just like yo like look at me now man but like yeah

like but no no I I definitely think like some some career advice I would say for for a lot of young people and I really wish we did a better job of this anyway going into like high schools and stuff is like showing them showing high schoolers like jobs that exist outside of like what high school tells you like high school tells you like becoming a doctor and college and college yeah yeah straight up man like they say be a doctor be an engineer like you know okay no offense Engineers but these are like the top things they say yes they're coming back yeah I'm

a lawyer become an engineer and it's like no one told me about it no one no one told me about design no one told me about like PR no one told me about social media marketing when I was doing you know I mean like like these things exist like again kind of going back to that first question of like how do I put in the tech like just get into Tech like that's it like you you already have the skills you have everything you need for it like it's just it's just jumping in it's finding that company like especially a startup like startups want people

that are hungry they have that passion no idea same and like people were building startups in college like that was was the crazy thing like people were like building these things and I had no idea you know yeah yeah I know um well Brandon thanks again for hanging buddy I appreciate it stay on real quick so I can say bye to you but for those of you tune in thank you again for hanging out with us on this wonderful Friday uh y'all have a great one we have a busy busy week I am back um uh we have a huge uh schedule next week for

guidance counselor 2.0 so you don't want to miss it um we got some VPS of engineerings we got some Founders yada yada yada so uh y'all have a good one we'll see y'all