Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Account Executive, £18k – £25k, London, Permanent, J461

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

As Account Executive for this full service digital agency you will get to work with some great brands and are an experienced digital team so a good place to cut your teeth and really learn the client services function and the digital space.  Your role will be varied involving everything from assisting in production contact reports, writing press releases, supporting preparation of proposals, financial management and assisting in the management of creative and technical teams. 

The team work in a very collaborative way so you will also get involved in assisting in brainstorming sessions and supporting pitch’s.  A big part of your role will be keeping abreast of digital industry developments, launches and client industry competitor activity to keep the rest of the team and the client informed on latest trends.

This role is a very good opportunity to work with smart, passionate and creative people.  As the agency is 25 person strong you get exposure to all stages in the production lifecycle and the running’s of an agency so a great platform to launch yourself into an Account Manager role.

As Account Executive you will have an appreciation of digital or at the least having come from an integrated background.  You will be able to demonstrate client facing ability, pro activeness and that you are organised and you have a cool head under pressure.  Some experience working in an agency would be useful or at least experience taking ownership of a project end to end.

This role is based in London, the rate is £18k-£25k and is permanent.

 If you demonstrate the above please send your CV to rachel@wearefutureheads.co.uk

Digital Workshop

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Futureheads had a great training session yesterday with Gareth Knight who runs Technovated, check them out on www.technovated.com. Our session was a Digital Project Implementation Workshop which was really looking at how to run a digital project successfully. Lots of top tips which we found very useful for our own business and lots of food for thought in terms of relevant interview and client questions/considerations. Maybe you are another recruitment business who wants a training session for your consultants, or you work in an integrated agency and need to get more buy in from your senior management in digital team structure and process etc, or you simply need a great digital training session to run with your team (digital and none digital), then do consider Gareth. He comes highly recommended by Futureheads. Check out www.web-workshops.co.uk for more details. Feel free to get in touch with Rachel at Futureheads on 0207 420 3540 if you want more detail too.

Fun relaxed Networking Event – Tuesday 25th May, Soho, 6pm

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Futureheads would like to invite you to Castaway a fun and relaxed networking event set up by one of the Futureheads Directors, Charlie Hoult. Best thing to do is view http://opencast.wordpress.com/castaway/ for more details.
Would be great to see you there and please do bring an influential friend. It will be a fun and interesting evening. Please do join us.
If you want any more details please feel free to call Rachel on 0207 420 3540 or email rachel@wearefutureheads.co.uk.
See you there!

User Experience Consultant- Contract

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

Our client is looking for a User Experience Contractor to join a well known and respected agency to help work on a micro site project for a car brand.

You will be updating some wireframes and creating some additional documentation.

The ideal candidate would have some experience with Adobe InDesign and Apple Keynote, you don’t need to use the tools every day – but some people around you use it, and some documents have already been produced, so someone who isn’t going to be precious about handling these.

There is a strong possibility that this contract could be extended – but its too early to say just now.

This is a client who I have worked with for many years, and you nearly always get invited back on a recall. Give me a holler if you are free next week.

5 Days work at £350 per day based in London.

Please send you CV and details to be@wearefutureheads.co.uk

Senior Producer, Central London/West End £45-50k Ref J383

Friday, May 14th, 2010

Great opportunity to join a fast-growing, award-winning integrated digital marketing agency in Central London. We’re looking for a Senior Producer to join their successful digital business unit and to focus specifically on larger web build projects up to £250k in value for blue-chip clients across a range of sectors including utilities, travel and insurance. Projects are varied and include site builds, CMS solutions, blogs & forums and e-commerce platforms.

 This role will report into but also work in close partnership with the Digital Creative Director. As well as being able to contribute to and manage the creative delivery of the projects, this PM also needs to have a good level of technical understanding as the small team of developers will report into the Senior Producer.

 The role will revolve around running the agency’s larger web projects, employing an appropriate methodology to suit size and complexity of project – exposure to waterfall and a light agile approach would be an advantage. This will encompass scoping the project, developing a technical spec in conjunction with the developers, managing technical resource and workflow with internal staff, freelancers and third party suppliers. The Senior Producer would also be responsible for project documentation, analysis of project success and ongoing refinement of a best-practice process.

 You’ll be dynamic and commercially savvy, eager to get involved in helping to pitch and secure new business.

 This role is a permanent position paying £45-50k which is to start as soon as possible.

 Contact Gill Arnold on  020 7420 3538 or gill@wearefutureheads.co.uk

Who said 13 was unlucky? Lots of User Experience roles

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

1.    User Experience Consultant £35-55K dependent on experience and suitability

My client is a leading brand communications consultancy based in central London, they instil pragmatic user centred design and user experiences into all of their digital work, they also contribute to service design, brand strategy and marketing communications across a wider group. They are looking to grow the existing team with user experience people who have worked closely with design and technical teams producing simple design solutions for clients. You will be able to quickly mock up information architectures, experiences and interaction design deliverables, working off instinct as there is not always an in-depth user research phase that takes place. You need to be happy to work with clients to understand their requirements. You will be based in super offices, and be mentored by a very senior and well respected leader and practitioner in the industry

 2.    User Experience Consultant, £30 to £38K

This agency are always winning awards, they have a dedicated team and they are known for slick design – can you help underpin this with a great user experience? You will have experience of working on both websites and applications, where the emphasis is on motivating the user and organising content. You will support the team in place in translating business requirements, and help develop personas and scenarios from immersive user research. You will work in collaboration with design and tech teams to produce mock ups and prototypes for clients and work with designers to develop user journeys. You need to be a great communicator. To find out more about this award winning team, get in touch.

 3.    User Experience Architect £30 to £45K

One of the top 20 digital marketing agencies in the UK are looking for a user experience consultant to join their very ideas led business. They have a wide range of clients in travel, finance, the arts and automobile. The projects can range from e-commerce and banking sites, through to campaign microsites, advertising, email and mobile. You need a thorough understanding and experience of the end to end web-build project life cycle, great client liaison skills, and a full understanding of the user experience toolkit. You will be supporting members of the team in costing, planning and pitching for work. Conducting and documenting research and insights (user interviews, focus groups, surveys, expert reviews, ethnographic studies and heuristic and expert evaluations etc). You will be using personas, user journeys, sitemaps, wireframes, usability and accessibility audits, content audits an d prototyping as design and documentation and work closely with design and tech teams to ensure feasibility and quality of the solution.

 4.    User Experience Consultant – to £45K

My client works with world class luxury brands both on and offline, projects range from dynamic site builds toregional press campaigns to CRM and offline direct marketing. They offer an integrated approach to their client but also understand the importance of good user experience. I am looking for a user experience consultant who has experience of, or an appetite for working in a very integrated way – everything my client delivers is against brand and business goals. Of course you will be responsible for business and user requirements, translating this throughout the design and technology phase. You will create documentation including wireframes, site maps, use cases, business process flows, navigational flows & create usability guidelines and consistent information hierarchy’s. You will be based in cool cool Shoreditch  for a boutique agency, but working with truly international brands.

 5.    User Experience Consultant – to 40K

My client, a FTSE100 owned recruitment website, are looking to bolster their central User Experience team with a strong mid-weight User Experience practitioner. This role will focus both on delivery, working within an ‘agile’ framework, and on new product development, working closely with a variety of stakeholders and cross-functional teams.  The User Experience analyst will also be asked to support all the activities performed by the User Experience Team (including research and measurement). The successful candidate will have The senior user experience analyst will have an appropriate level of experience of working for one or more well-known, online brands, whether in permanent or consulting roles. The User Experience analyst will be able to demonstrate a good knowledge of e-commerce, product and website development.  You will ideally be skilled and practiced in a wide range of user experience techniques, tools and methods.  Additional experience in concept / new product development would be a plus. This is a good opportunity to work on a suite of very visible, high profile products, to work on long term, end to end projects, and to help evolve, refine and improve a central product.

 6.    User Experience Designer perm role – up to 50k – client side -

Our client, a renowned e-commerce application provider to the financial markets, is looking to bolster it’s in house User Experience team with a senior User Experience Designer hire. The scope for this role is  to work alongside a team of senior UX professionals, working on highly interactive rich internet applications, with a focus on exemplary UI’s. The products in this instance are internal applications, NOT web based products. This role will involve direct liaison with the companies client base, so excellent communication and stakeholder management skills are essential. You will be responsible for creating wireframes and interaction designs, produce rapid iterative prototypes, design and brand numerous UI iterations, develop new UI concepts and prototypes, create style guides, lead research projects to update personas and design maps. This is a great opportunity to join a company with a healthy and growing appetite for UX, and impact a crucial core function of the business.

7.    New perm agency role – Interaction Designer – up to 60k

We are looking for a Senior Interaction Designer to join one of our User Experience Consultancies in Central London. This role is focussed around shaping the organisations approach, integration, and methodology of interaction design, as well as being  a hands on practitioner and subject matter expert for the agencies full portfolio of clients and projects. Somebody with 3-5 years experience in information architecture / interaction design, preferably from an agency environment, would be a good fit for this position. Exposure to the following things would also be beneficial; user journey mapping, conceptual interaction modelling, storyboarding, site mapping, taxonomy and categorisation, and conceptual wireframing through to detailed heavily annotated wireframing. This is a great opportunity to join a fast growing consultancy with a voracious appetite and mature approach to User Experience, and really impact the core business. An interest in platforms outside of pure web would also be beneficial.

8.    New perm agency role – Senior UX consultant – up to 60k  

We are looking for a Senior User Experience Consultant  to join one of our dedicated User Experience Agencies, based in Central London. This role’s focus is to lead the organisations User Experience practice and act as subject matter expert across the business and full client portfolio. This role is integrated into projects from the point of requirements gathering and client brief, all the way through design, delivery and ongoing testing. This role requires somebody with full bodied UX exposure, including extensive research skills (competitor analysis, expert reviews, content audits, workshops, task analysis and user journeys), design skills (site maps and wireframes) and user testing (1 on 1, talk aloud, eye tracking). As this will be a client facing role, as well as requiring strong internal and external relationships across numerous business units and partners, a confident communicator who is able to build rapport quickly is essential. In return for all of this, you get to play a pivotal role in shaping this organisations integration and approach to User Experience and UCD, and work within an organisation to whom the User Experience is integral to everything that they produce for their clients.

9.    Experience Architects, London and Gloucester – £50K -

Experience Architects, London and Gloucester – £30 to 40K. Client is a business consulting firm based in Central London, you will work with large scale projects and ensure that a business and user centred design process is adopted throughout the production process. You need to be an excellent communicator and you will often be asked to work on client site so you can absorb the requirements gathering process and ensure that you can be the guardian of these through design and development phase. Its essential that you have demonstrable skills in development of information architectures, wireframes, usability testing, competitor benchmarking, accessibility compliance, user profiling and user research. My client would love to meet someone who has additional skills in search, social media, mobile and content audits.

10. Perm Information Architect – Agency – 50k –

My client, a leading London based corporate and brand communications agency, are looking for an information architect / user experience practitioner to join their team on a permanent basis. Whilst the role is primarily focussed on the delivery of digital products to clients, it also directly impacts the agencies growth plans and business strategy through research and analysis on a wider scale. This agency works predominantly with FTSE250 business’ and multinationals, so strong stakeholder management skills are key, as is hands on experience of the full end to end user experience process, including numerous research tools (focus groups, site audits, competitor analysis, peer benchmarking), strong wireframing and design skills and exposure to testing methods. This is an agency with a strong appetite for user experience, and a great place for somebody to gain exposure to working with some of the biggest brands and      organisations in the country across the full range of digital products.

11. Midweight Information Architect £30-£50k -

My client, an award winning full service digital design agency, are looking for a mid-weight Information Architect to join their already sizable User Experience team as soon as possible. This role is to work across the agencies full portfolio of FTSE250 and multinational clients, and across a variety of different channels and mediums, from internal and external site design, to rich media applications, widgets and apps. Usability is absolutely central to everything this agency does, and this role will involve seeing projects through from initial brief with clients and gathering user and business objectives, all the way through design, delivery, testing and beyond. This role is central to ensuring that all internal stakeholders are aware and understand what the goals are for the projects throughout their lifecycle. Key internal relationships include the planning, creative and technical teams, but the role also involves client facing responsibilities, so a confident and capable communicator is essential for this position. In exchange for all of this, you will have the opportunity to work within one of the most exciting digital agencies in the country, and in an environment where the role of the Information Architect is both central to and of great value to everything that is produced.

12. User Experience Architect £30 to £45K -

A corporate design and communications agency based in West London are seeking an additional member to the user experience team. This is an opportunity to work on large FTSE 100 companies and deliver rich interactive experience often using video and rich media. You will be able to gather translate and document user requirements through appropriate research and scoping techniques such as site audits, competitor analysis, benchmarking, stakeholder interviews and workshops. You will use best practise tools and technology to deliver innovative visualisation – storyboarding or wireframeing  as appropriate. You need to be an evangelist internally, and inspire clients and colleagues to keep up with the market and conduct research and testing with users as necessary. You need to be really passionate to join this team, you need to be an excellent communicator with a well to climb the ladder quickly and work on bigger and bigger projects. This company has great benefits including medical cover, 22 days holiday + Christmas and a great social life.

 13. User Experience Designer, £30K Perm

A User Experience Designer is required to join a luxury travel brand  based in Surrey. You will work closely with marketing and ecommerce teams and be responsible for bringing customer journeys to life in the form of designs, prototypes, web pages and emails. You will have worked in a similar environment and be involved in web design strategy, user research and testing. The user experience design and prototyping incorporates all aspects of information architecture, interaction design, brand development and visual design. You will be accomplished in converting layouts using Photoshop or Fireworks and be able to maintain and create style guides for other members of the business and external agencies. You will be working with a great team using paper and HTML prototyping  and designing templates for page build in XHTML. You will work with some experts in the industry, in a great environments with a salary of up to £30K + great bens.

The freelance outlook for 2010

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

At the beginning of this week I was really looking forward to a. Taking some time off work, b. Building a snowman, c. A busy year ahead of me.

Seems one of my wishes came true already.

I am being asked lots of questions around freelance resource to kick off Jan 4th 2010. This is likely to be for 1-3 months while we absorb the lapse in time to make the right permanent hires or deliver projects that have already been signed off. So, if you will be looking for freelance work in 2010 please do make sure we have your up to date CV (word is preferable) and your portfolio samples so we can move quickly on the right assignments for you. If your samples are huge, please send them via www.yousendit.com so as not to fatten up my inbox. There should only be one thing that gets fat over Christmas, and that will be me.

User Experience Planner, around £60K, Permanent (ref J122)

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Working in an integrated advertising agency in London, I am looking for a user experience planner to work strategically on consumer facing digital projects. The appetite for good user experience is enormous with clients and the agency and you would work with many high profile brands working on innovation and development of social media projects, big site design and builds and marketing led projects.  You will produce strategic briefing documents, rationalisation of insights and work with creative and information architecture teams to ensure that these requirements underpin the project through delivery.  A key part of your role will be to manage brainstorming and strategic workshops with clients and continue to build confidence and strong relationships. You will work in collaboration with a user experience/research agency and have a good understanding of how to write and manage creative briefs and the 360 degree or integrated agency process would be an advantage.

 Great benefits and perks to work with this agency, super location and very good collaborative and cohesive teams.

 Drop me a an email with your CV and suitability.

 Thanks

Be Kaler Blake

0207 420 3539

be@wearefutureheads.co.uk

Positive feedback for the team

Monday, November 16th, 2009

We’re getting some decent feedback from our clients and contacts – for instance Shawn Whitehead, a senior project manager within the design space:

LinkedIn Recommendations
Shawn Whitehead has endorsed your work as Director at Futureheads.
Dear Rachel,
I’ve written this recommendation of your work to share with other LinkedIn users.

Details of the Recommendation: “Rachel and the the team at Futureheads embody all that the recruitment industry should be. Her empathy to a given scenario is off the scale which is why I’d recommend her and the gang every time. 10/10……”

And, following an intense Friday afternoon, we placed a freelancer to work on a tender document with an hour’s notice. Our client gave this feedback:

You’re a star – thank you
Such an impressive service this afternoon – you beat the competition hands down – well hands down+!

 

Launch – with support from key industry figures

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

Top digital specialists team up with agency entrepreneur to launch Futureheads

The Team

The Futureheads team brings together three of the most experienced recruiters in UK digital – delivering deep industry knowledge and a commitment to professionalism for clients and candidates.

Be Kaler Blake is on the council of BIMA, the British Interactive Media Association, and has been responsible for bringing together some of the key user experience teams in the market.

Gill Arnold will concentrate on strategic hire agreements across government and public sector, focussing on content, design and project management. Gill will lead Futureheads’ quality assurance and best practice.

Rachel Murray tracks corporate and agency recruitment – she has a focus on project management and client service roles. Rachel is nurturing new Futureheads joiners to become top quality consultants of the future.

Agency entrepreneur Charlie Hoult has grown a number of businesses in design and digital, notably Loewy Group which he took from 40 to 400 staff in 4 years. He also ran First Tuesday London and a nationwide government programme BeyondBricks to champion digital entrepreneurship.

Team comments

“We start with one of the best networks in London from years in the field. Look at our links with Third Sector Forum, BIMA, UK UPA or Castaway,” says Futureheads Chairman Charlie Hoult. “But, we also start with a work ethic and a twinkle in our eyes: we do the same stuff but better than everyone else.”

“We’ve been on the digital ‘block’ for longer than we care to remember and we make it our business to know where the industry is going,” says Rachel Murray. “We’ve built strong relationships over years – we’ve been overwhelmed by the feedback so far. People come to us because we are totally immersed in the digital space.”

“We understand the importance of good process and QA throughout the recruitment lifecycle” says Gill Arnold. “We really want to raise the standards of recruitment in the digital industry through honesty, transparency and deep industry knowledge.”

Futureheads’ Be Kaler Blake says: “The digital industry is a national asset – it’s one area where the UK is a world beater. Futureheads is here to nurture the best talent to keep the industry on top.”

Industry comments

Justin Cooke, Fortune Cookie MD and BIMA Chair, adds: “The team behind Futureheads have helped Fortune Cookie find brilliant, world-class people for the past 8 years. I trust their honesty, transparency and the speed with which they respond to our needs.”

Richard Titus, CEO of Associated Northcliffe Digital, says: “Futureheads is an exciting proposition, having worked with the team closely they are my first port of call when sourcing user experience, design and project management talent. I cannot speak highly enough of them.”

Jason Mesut, Experience Director, The Team, says: “I am keen to use Be at Futureheads for contract and permanent roles going forward. She is the only recruiter I have ever met who gets what I and my peers do, and in a market full of charlatans, I really need to cut through the crap to find the talent.”

Matt Hopgood, former Head of UX at BBC confirms: “These girls have been my first port of call for both interim & contract staff as well as providing me with my own career opportunities for the last 8 years. In all that time, they have never failed to provide the highest calibre staff and the last job they got me was Head of UX at the BBC and it doesn’t get better than that. Be, Gill and Rachel are diligent, professional, extremely well connected and thoroughly lovely to boot.”

And, thank you to Steph at WilliamJoseph for the branding, Natasha Frangos from HaysMac for accounting advice, Rakesh Patel and Sarah Nichols at RBS, Jane Latham at SteakDigital, Mark Brown at Hoults Yard

Visit the website here: www.wearefutureheads.co.uk