3 Things That Stick with Me While Pursuing my Design Career
Just to set the record straight, I am a Latina women in design. I often sit and think about the lives I’ve lived: A server (many times), A grocery store cashier, a retail worker, a cell phone salesperson, a painting instructor, and even a kickboxing trainer. Each occupation sharing its own story with what seems like a completely different protagonist each time. That makes me wonder how I’ve managed my way through college as a first-generation student, while still being able to have a professional design career for about 5 years now. Many days, I convince myself that this ‘design life’ I live is a facade, where I’d be made an imposter at any moment.
This story is far too common in its many forms. But overall, I know what my individual story has to offer, and simply put: everyone deserves to identify their life’s greatest challenges, how they can be caused or systemic, and what best to do with this knowledge moving forward.
“Those who have experienced specific hardships can help develop meaningful solutions for those who have experienced said hardships.”
Because of unique stories and perspective, diversity in design is essential, as well as in all other fields, workplaces, and positions of power.
Listed below are just 3 of the many personal messages and reminders that stick to me when I think about the future of my design career and where my pre-determined emotional fallacies cannot win. Hopefully this may help someone else in their professional journey who may be facing something similar.
It’s okay to share what you’ve learned, even if it’s wrong.
‘Fail fast’, they say! For many years I’ve feared to publicly share ideas I’ve written. I’ve only dreamed of creating valuable content to publish on Youtube (for now), and my imposter syndrome and addiction to perfectionism has stopped me from publicly providing others with potential resources and knowledge that has ultimately helped me in my career. I have stopped myself in the thought that it might be useless or seen as ‘common-sense.’ Not only that, but because I fear that my input is incorrect.
Being a designer can hold a lot of weight. We are kings of comparison and imperfect in many ways. We pressure ourselves to be creative leaders — a jack of all trades — yet constantly convinced that we aren’t enough. To take it even further, we feed ourselves with knowledge, softwares, and skill sets in the hopes that we will become a design superhero, ending all evil one product at a time. I’ve learned that it is not our job to save the world. Our career is not our identity and our achievements do not dictate our sense of self-worth. We are flawed, but we are not broken. Stick to positive intentions, hard work, and compassion so that being wrong will never equate to being a failure — only a great big lesson.
I’ve found myself inspired by those who aren’t afraid to be wrong — those who share their stories and resources unapologetically and aren’t afraid to connect with a sense of humility.
If we, ourselves, share something that looking back, contains fallacies or a change of heart, it is best to avoid filling ourselves with shame and embarrassment and instead see this change of perspective as an important checkpoint in our personal journey to enlightenment.
Key takeaways:
- Sharing your ideas or content online is not mandatory, but can give you a good idea of where you’ve been, where you are now, and where you’re headed
- If you give it the opportunity, being wrong is an exceptional gift
- Sharing your point-of-view can be helpful to others who are where you have been
- The fear of failure can be manipulated from something avoidable, to instead, something rewarding
- Fear can be closely associated with our personal emotional experiences and how we choose to handle failure based on what we’ve been taught growing up
The comparison circle: Being the dream designer in and outside of work is a large responsibility that can be rewarding when its balanced.
POV: Your favorite designer has a killer portfolio, a blog with major impressions, 500,000+ YouTube subscriptions, and a 500+ LinkedIn network. While listening to their award-winning podcast about how to lead teams of 400 employees, you choose to turn down the volume and opt for a deep stare to the abyss. ‘How could I even compare?’ you say to yourself.
This is so real in design. It’s competitive and sometimes even pretentious. The truth is, some people are just really on their grind! Their resume is filled with the top leading companies and you can’t help but wonder how they got so darn good. Some have definitely sacrificed to chase their next promotion or great big achievement. On the contrary, some have perfected the skill of work-life balance with methods/tools such as templates, strict deadlines, major discipline, and non-negotiable time off. But on the opposing end, some have yet to be so lucky.
Even with the ultimate professional network or the target school education, it’s no longer enough to just show a well-written resume. Even your portfolio can be just almost enough. Some of the real winners clock-out of their 9–5 just to clock-in to their self-starting side projects.
I try to not let the self-doubt and comparison creep its way to me, but to pretend it doesn’t exist would simply be a lie. Often, when I’m feeling graceful enough, I dive deep into my self-starting goals. I strategize new tactics and find buckets of inspiration from others. I may even finally write and publish my first Medium article! ;)
I try to remember that I am the most happy when I’m actively participating in achieving my goals, one step at a time. The grind can be a slow build and I value my journey and take note of my productive capacity along the way.
The perks of taking work outside of work
- You can reflect on your content and record your progress of improvement
- You can become a prime candidate for future opportunities and big clientele
- You can help others who share a similar journey and often learn something new when they interact with your content
- This work can be meaningful to you and your personal goals/values
- With the right balance, you could really be living your best life
Consequences to consider:
- The infamous case of burnout will catch up to you if you’re not being aware of your body and mind
- On a successful incline of impressions, your workload could become more demanding over time and you must consider evolving your strategy and capacity
- Not being able to separate your career and your personal life could possibly sacrifice your relationships with loved ones and the memories you typically tend to push back for a ‘better time’
- This is a stretch, but at its worst, our ‘cancel culture’ could burn your career if you’re not too careful
Key takeaways:
- Comparison only leaves you paralyzed
- With self-care in mind, side-hustles are a great way to pursue meaningful personal projects aside from your 9–5
- Don’t be fooled, the dream designer has, more often than not, made sacrifices and you must not compare mountains if you’re not willing to take the hike
The design community is great for networking, but connecting as real humans is the true perk.
Ah, the classic skill of networking. It’s a great way of staying in the loop and connecting with others who follow a similar career path. Networking within the design community usually looks like a professional dialogue in a Slack channel full of portfolio crits and freelance gigs. The beauty of it is endless. In its best moments, sometimes you can find yourself joining a tight-knit group where members share your diverse background or connect with others on a long-term scale.
While meeting others along the way, some are just starting and others are senior designers making well over the 6-figure mark. Regardless, if things align, you can make impactful relationships that can take your career in an uphill direction.
But when I mention ‘connecting as real humans’ I mean it just like that. If the chemistry is right, I see great benefits when conversations ditch the paragraphed professionalism and stale messaging. Sometimes, networking can feel like a world away from reality — a dialogue that tends to be clean, crisp, and a little too perfect. When I think about my goals in communicating to others in my field, I have a mission to remain true to my personality, culture, and values. I’m a fiery Latina with a big heart. My family needs to say ‘I love you” at least once every 10 minutes, and I really enjoy laughing. I’m convinced that I can still be a great designer and networker without the code-switching. Why do I think that? Because I’ve met others who’ve broke barriers when they spoke. I’ve met people who weren’t scared to keep it real and be the loudest in the room when others wanted to keep them to keep quiet. And those people are the ones I usually look up to as a pave my way through the field.
During those moments that I’ve spoke to open and honest professional designers, I’ve felt like someone was really listening. There are sensitive topics discussed that can open up communication about the struggles of being a women in tech, a minority with majority management, being a first-generation student, or other difficult topics in a systematic capitalist society that many other professionals choose to pretend do not exist.
Important note: Do not have these conversations with just anyone. Of course, you must be careful with who you decide to exchange deeper conversation with; whether their willing to reciprocate, bring insight, or lend an ear. With enough trust and relatability, these conversations can:
- Humanize our professional connections with others
- Bring a new and more clear perspective on our role in society
- Inspire us through the experiences and wisdom of others
- Make our career path more intentional, honest, and compassionate
Looking to find a place to chat or listen to others in your field? Try joining joining a Slack channel that aligns to your career, ethnicity, sexual-orientation, location, and many other self-identifying options. And if you need a private place to chat that values your privacy, download Signal. If you’re more comfortable keeping your thoughts to yourself, no worries, here is a short list of resources that have helped me navigate my career and some of it’s difficult topics:
- UI Narrative, a Podcast by Tolu Ajai: Discusses the stories of people of color interface designers and researchers and their contributions towards creating user-centered experiences.
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari: A world-renowned novel that dives deep into the complex and relatively short history of humanity.
- Perfectly Imperfect with Christine and Regina: A podcast that discusses growth and acceptance hosted by two talented Asian-American women.
Final Thoughts
Design and technology is an intense field of work. With only a couple decades worth of screens and media, the world faces new technological challenges that need our help fast. Although the work can be meaningful, creative, and motivating, this field has a not-so-secret struggle of employee burnout, compassion fatigue, imposter syndrome, and self-doubt. In order to stay sane, I look back to my values and the reasons I choose to design for those who need it most and aim to share relatable and honest content for others who may have had to read between the lines far too many times.
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