We're hiring remote at BuzzFeed and already have a pretty sizable amount of remote employees. On my team, the mobile team, we have engineers in Austin, Minnesota, and St.Kitts (yeah, the island). As well we have one remote designer in Portland on our design team (out of 10 designers). We also work with Power to Fly to hire more remote people.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/about/jobs

Feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

I think it depends what you expect to gain out of it?

I attended CMU's undergraduate design program, which I would highly recommend and I really valued my experience. There are a lot of key differences between the undergraduate versus graduate programs, though. For one, there's much less technical training - CMU even for undergrad is light on technical teaching. It's more of a school of theory, even in the computer science department. On one hand, those more theoretical skills are pretty rare in the work world and can put you at an advantage. If you already have technical ability (visual and coding) than I could see the skills taught at CMU taking you even further. However, the flip side is that as you get into the more advanced masters/doctorate degrees, it almost seems like the students get so far steeped in theory and conceptual thinking they forget about the practicality and execution (which is going to matter to most employers). It makes sense, as masters/doctorates are more involved in academia and research.

Were you accepted into design via the design school or MHCI? To be honest MHCI is probably a better value since the program is 1 year + a summer semester, versus two full years in the design program. I also think MHCI prepares you with more practical skills versus the School of Design's master's programs (having worked with students in each while I was an undergrad). Though, another thing to note about both programs is that they tend to be popular amongst adults who are switching into design/technology from an unrelated field and don't want to go through 4 years of undergraduate study all over again.

You seem to already have work experience as a UX designer. Most people who matriculate from those graduate programs will be hoping to get the very job you have now. If you're hoping to advance your skill-set even further than perhaps a change of work environment may be more impactful (you could even consider joining a company that currently employs many CMU design graduates and learn from working with them or just being in the culture that supports a similar approach to design, such as R/GA or Facebook).

This is awesome, but so not what I was expecting when I read "pattern library"!

"With over 3,000 reviews and a 4+ rating on the app store, it’s clear that Paper is quickly becoming an app to be reckoned with." Hmmmmmm someone doesn't know what "Rated 4+" in the App Store means.

Sorry, didn't mean to imply that all small startups are bad. There are definitely a lot of well organized, functional companies of a small scale (Makeshift is one I admire). I think I just have had bad luck at picking them or the environment just isn't for me. Is Highfive in SF? I'm going to be out there in a few weeks :)

Totally agree though with not aligning to the company vision. I think we (generally speaking) also take for granted how natural it is to change you feel about a company. Especially when you're young, the type of problems you want to solve at 22 are different than how you may feel at 25. Likewise, companies change a lot as they grow too.

I think it's more than just Facebook or other companies of that scale. I've experienced this at the last two startups I worked at, which pretty much put a nail in the coffin to the lure of the free-wheeling startup lifestyle for me. Younger startups probably face more pressure from investors (such as in the article's metaphor) because they have yet to prove they can take their own risks and get away with it.

On the flip side, I get it. What we might think is high quality work might not 'sell' as fast or as much as the people running a business would like. While I do think designers play the long game when they focus on high quality work, sometimes that's not what a particular company or business needs right now.

I think it does apply to anyone but I think it's safer to say "Why Designers Leave" and speak from her personal experience. People are really quick to jump down your throat if you claim to know how they think and you get one little thing wrong. This was targeted to an audience the author genuinely knows well.

Yeah, was hoping for more of a gallery of good examples but it seems like the blog is just a showcase of any/all empty states.

Agreed, it's really playing to the demographic of designers/office employees.

The thing that's bothering me the most right now is I can't seem to find a way to turn off push notifications. When I tap on the settings icon all I get is a prompt to connect more social network accounts. :/ My phone's been going off all day as more and more people join.