ÜBER DIESE EPISODE
What happens when decades of experience, continuous learning, and more than 900 job applications produce only 13 callbacks?
In this episode of Deprecated Human, Jess speaks with multidisciplinary designer, developer, and educator Nic Schroeder about how dramatically the path to paid work has changed, and why slowing down our thinking is a human superpower.
Earlier in Nic’s career, opportunities frequently emerged through relationships. He could speak with someone about a problem, demonstrate what he understood, and help shape a role around the value he could provide.
Their conversation examines why a low response rate is no longer meaningful evidence of someone’s ability or employability. They discuss the limitations of automated hiring, the pressure facing new graduates and international students, and why securing income may require looking beyond traditional employment.
Nic’s career began in fine art before moving through graphic design, web development, user experience, automotive, and digital marketing. Today, he works independently with small businesses and mentors graduate students preparing to enter an unstable labor market.
Jess and Nic also explore what design contributes beyond visual execution: understanding behavior, interpreting complexity, and asking whether technology should be created—not merely whether it can be. Drawing on Daniel Kahneman’s distinction between fast and slow thinking, they consider how AI accelerates pattern recognition while increasing the importance of human judgment, context and meaning-making.
The episode offers a practical invitation to job seekers: look beneath your previous title, identify the problems people trust you to solve, and consider more than one route to turn those capabilities into income. A job is one way to be paid for your experience. It is not the only one.
Podcast Guest: Nic Schroeder
Nic Schroeder is a multidisciplinary designer, web developer, and independent contractor with approximately 20 years of experience across digital design, user experience, automotive, and marketing. His career has taken him from fine art and early web technologies to digital commerce, design strategy, and client work for small businesses. Nic also mentors graduate students at the Savannah College of Art and Design, helping emerging designers connect their research, interests, and capabilities to meaningful work.
Connect with Nic: Nic Schroeder on LinkedIn
Check out Nic’s work:
Design Portfolio: https://njschro.github.io
Podcast Host: Jess Lowry
Jessica Lowry is the Founder and Socio-technical Systems Designer at ENID Studio, a collective of practitioners that enable organizations to redesign work, services, and governance for an AI-enabled future through participatory design and human-centered digital transformation.
Austin Women in Technology (AWT) mentor. Jess is also a founding member of Referral Reef, a community of consultants who trade warm referrals, provide support, and get paid to do it.
Connect with Jess: Jess Lowry LinkedIn
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