Jonas Downey
Jonas Downey turned his job search into a design challenge. He got the job when he demonstrated his strategic persistence to determine his path in life by proving his ability to solve problems and improve his skills in order to apply again, months after he applied the first time.
Jonas Downey a product designer at Basecamp in Chicago. He has been creating ideas and interfaces for Basecamp since 2011.
He also made Hello Weather and Emojisaurus with some good friends.
Sometimes he writes short articles on his blog Boxes and Words and at Signal v. Noise.
Blake Stoddard
I have been following the career of Jonas Downey since he was a member of the Symphony CMS forum and a contributor to the open source project.
He made the transition from front-end developer to Designer at Basecamp.
His path is worth noting.
Jonas, who applied once before but didn’t make the cut, came back strong and determined the next time we posted a designer position. He stuck with it, took our feedback, got better, showed us what he’s been up to since we last talked, and made a strong case for reconsideration. Here’s his second-time-around job application site.
Besides solid design chops, Jonas impressed us with his intelligence, his curiosity, his writing ability, his experience wearing a lot of hats, and his interest in exploring ideas and building stuff.
We’re excited to have him on the team.
Side Projects
Side projects can be a good way to have fun while experimenting and innovating in ways that can demonstrate that you are an innovative, creative, and strategic thinker. Consistent, iterative progress over time is analogous to the magic of compound interest in financial management. People think creativity just happens, but creative people know that knowledge, skill, and experience come from relentless persistence over time to learn your craft.
Resources
Jonas Downey
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Cassandra Naji Cassandra is Marketing Lead at Justinmind
