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We are currently looking for two designers to join our expanding and highly skilled team here at Outside Line. You will form part of our digital design department, creating designs for web, digital experiences and installations.

Based in Farringdon, London, Outside Line is a full service digital agency that brings great ideas to life. From design and development through to content creation and social media marketing, we work with global brands to deliver innovative and engaging campaigns.

Candidates should have a strong interest in digital design, as well as a healthy obsession with design trends and web innovations. Requirements:

Junior Designer
- BFA in Graphic Design, Interaction Design, Fine Arts or related, and/or equivalent work experience
- Experience with Photoshop
- Experience with designing for digital solutions and understanding of the medium
- A strong portfolio that shows great potential
- Understanding of typography and layout with attention to detail
- Must be able to handle multiple projects and work well in a team
- Desire to learn
- Stay on top of industry trends and share them with the team

MId-Senior Designer
- BFA in Graphic Design, Interaction Design, Fine Arts or related, and/or equivalent work experience
- 3+ years of interactive design experience
- A portfolio showcasing your design aesthetic
- Expert-level in Photoshop and Illustrator
- The ability to conceptualize and design for different types of digital products (sites, rich media, mobile, etc)
- Knowledge of designing for HTML5/CSS3 preferred
- Some experience with 3D software is a bonus
- Ability to work in a team and alone; both to learn and mentor

Submissions without portfolios will not be considered. We are very interested in seeing real life, on-the-job work from internships, freelance projects, etc.

Submit applications to: jobs@outsideline.co.uk

Please list any and all, current personal or business websites, web pages or memberships on any Internet-based chat rooms, social clubs or forums, to include, but not limited to: Facebook, Google, Yahoo, YouTube.com, MySpace, etc.”

Fancy a job with the City of Bozeman (pop. 27,509)? Well get ready to divulge your whole social footprint to your future employer. The above line is taken from their application form, with a space to fill in the URLs of all your online profile locations.

Is this something that we’re going to be seeing more of further down the line? We’ve seen people getting sacked for Facebook transgressions, but surely this is a step too far? I’m all for helping employers to see the many facets of your skillset and interests via what you share with them on your CV, but that should be a decision made by the candidate, not the employer. It’s called a personal life for a reason, and the idea that you could be denied a job due to something you wrote in a forum in 1999* is absurd.

However, remember the golden rule of social networks – if you’re not happy with someone, one day, finding something you’ve done or said, then don’t put it out there.

* I’m just glad that my forum posts from that era were all done under an alias …

I find the RSS feed for The New York Times Technology section a daily source of joy. It’s always interesting, the writing is exemplary and the content is always relevent. And none more pertinent than in their recent piece on Tweeting Your Way to a Job, which details the ongoing trend for companies recruiting people into social media positions, and the tribulations that some people will go through to get them.

Outside Line were one of those companies. And when I came in for my first interview here almost 5 months ago I realised I was one of those people. So once a second interview was confirmed, and while waiting for a working brief to be sent through, I set up a secret Twitter stream where I could capture my work in progress for the presentation I was preparing. Thinking back to my Maths GCSE, and how “showing your working” was important as the answers themselves, my thinking was that Twitter was the perfect tool to capture a stream of consciousness.

I came, I saw, tweeted. And bagged a job.

And the learning? Twitter is a tool, not an idea. So if you’re using it to find the dream job, find some way of tailoring it towards to role itself – build a Flickr page of images you’ve found that might inspire the company, record a YouTube video of you using their products, set up a Tumblr of what you think will be relevent articles to your new position.

Be creative. Don’t just use technology for technology’s sake.

Recruitment time here at Outside Line, as we’re looking to add another all-star member to our Marketing Team. We’re looking for a Social Media Marketing Executive, who’ll help plan, execute and track social media campaigns for the many interesting brands within our roster.

In our heads we’ve got an idea of the person we want, and it’s less to do with on-the-job experience and more about passion for social media and “super geek know-how”.

If Twitter and Facebook are like water and oxygen for you (or someone you know) please take a read of the job spec and get in touch.