#18 Skating on thin ice 🧊
Something naughty and something nice
Our last update of 2024
Hey Voice This! fam, today we write to you with heavy hearts. The end of year holiday season is approaching, which means (in this economy): layoffs.
If you’ve been impacted, we’re so sorry. It’s usually never a personal reflection on you, but rather, a way for an organization or company to protect itself. Corporate survival will always take priority over the individual. It’s cheesy but, at these moments, it’s important for us to hold close the parts of our life that bring us peace and strength: family and personal connections, hobbies and interests, or even, sacred routines and familiar spaces. We hope you can find comfort during these tough times.
For the rest of us, it can sometimes feel like playing the corporate game is almost like skating on thin ice. There are ways to protect yourself, sure, but ultimately when the time comes, it’ll come, no matter how prepared you are or have been. Nothing in life is certain, except change :) Endings can be the mark of a new beginning and change can present us with new challenges for personal growth… and sometimes it just sucks. It’ll never not suck. You can try to minimize the suck (fielding interviewing, polishing your resume, staying connected with the industry), but you probably won’t avoid it completely.
At least, in spite of everything, we have each other. Seriously, thank you for being an active part of this community. Voice This! fam, we never would have imagined there’d be 135 of you checking in and reading our newsletter. Thank you for the lovely comments, reshares, and engagement! We’re so lucky to have you all as readers (and listeners, even though we might’ve gone quiet on the podcast for a bit). As a final show of appreciation, we’re including a VTP curated CxD holiday gift guide.
Thank you for a lovely 2024, see you in the new year 💜💙💜
🔮 CxD mentors and where to find them
Wouldn't it be amazing if all of our CxD mentors could be found in one place? A dream becoming reality, thanks to you!If you’re available as a mentor, we’d love to showcase you in our next issue! Please tell us by submitting on our Google Form.
CxD mentors
On Linkedin:
On Bot Jobs:
On ADPList:
Shraddha Singh (on hiatus)
A Nam Nguyen (on hiatus)
Olivera Bay (on hiatus)
Leonardo Noriega (on hiatus)
Elaine Anzaldo (on hiatus)
CxD career coaches
⭐️ Bonus! CxD newsletters and where to find them 📰
⭐️ Bonus! CxD jobs and where to find them 👔
LinkedIn
You’ll need great SEO skills for this (add as many CxD keywords as possible on your profile) or get a friend on the inside who can refer you to recruiters!
🍵 CxD Tea Corner
Industry tea you might've missed. A section previously titled "2024 CxD news so far". Spotted! CxD is making its way into the mainstream. In their last design job market report, ADPList wrote: “Conversation Design roles have surged by 8.2%, likely due to advancements in AI and chatbots.”
Emily Wengert writes, “I’m ready to retire the word “chatbot." [source]
❄️ CxD Holiday Gift Guide
Just for fun! We are unaffiliated and do not receive any commissions for promoting the following products. 
Books
Fun Stuff
“Smells like the world’s greatest UX designer” candle
Jack Black lip balm (yap professionally without chapped lips!)
Sticker sheet, artwork by Damian Orellana
Work Stuff
Catch early-bird ticket pricing for Config! The world’s largest gathering of designers.
🇦🇺Australia friends, sign-up for Maaike’s Gen AI course on Maven!
Thanks for Reading This!
See you in 2025.