Wassup Saints! Here’s a transparent blog (sn: they all are honestly lol. If they weren’t I wouldn’t waste my time writing to you all.) I’m coming at you live with an update as I sit here and contemplate where I want to go in my career trajectory. I’m just shy of two years in the game (time has literally flown) and sitting back to take account of what it all means. Two pertinent conversations come to mind. The first conversation was one I had with my favorite boss (hey OG!!) and I remember it like it was yesterday. I was struggling through an architectural design decision and he was asking me a ton of questions I didn’t know the answer to. He then asked me if I thought my learning stopped at 40 hours? He went on to tell me that when he first started out in his career he would end up spending a decent amount of time after hours perfecting his craft. He put the time in until he got to a knowledgeable place and continued to put in the time after that. That conversation replays in my head on the regular.
The next conversation took place with one of my architecture professors during my third year of college. I’m not sure what prompted us but we asked for advice on how to best prepare for our future careers. She mentioned, “No matter what, don’t let your skillset get old.” So as I sit here coming up on two years in this new career I’m having a sort of come to Jesus moment. Like girl, where your head at? Where do you want to go in this career now? How we doing fareal? And I can say there are places where I want to expand my knowledge for sure. User experience is such a broad category with many avenues to specialize in, but I’m at a place where I’ve zoned in on where and what I want to explore first and how.
So here’s the truth of it…I’m taking a page out of my favorite boss’s book and hijacking my second 40 hour work week. That’s the one that starts after you clock out of work just in case you were lost lol. Here’s my why though. Thus far in my career I feel I’ve had a good baby introduction into a few different avenues within user experience. I’ve gotten a chance to get some good research under my belt and a dollop of design time. Now that I’ve seen a few things it turns out I’m still the same girl at heart–and that is a designer through and through. I. Have. Loved. Design. My. Whole. Life. I recall getting introduced to the world of Adobe where Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign ran my life in college. In college we had to pick up new programs and skills all the time and we just did it. The parts I loved most were being able to come up with something out of literally nothing and having this place where “No” didn’t exist. If I could think of it, I could design it and I want to live in that space again.
So my plan is to make more opportunities to enhance my visual design skills on and off the clock. (Sidenote: I know there are some folks that won’t subscribe to this plan because you put in your 40 hours and leave. I get it and that’s great. Do you! However, the level that I want to be at calls for a bit more of my time so I’m moving accordingly😀.) I plan on achieving that by doing the following:
Consuming content daily that will strengthen my visual design skills - currently I’m exploring Dan’s Figma’s Advanced Skills to keep my hands in Figma
Opening Figma each day and complete one #DailyUI challenge
Watching an endless amount of time lapse videos just to get an idea of other people’s work flows which should sharpen or shorten my own
Looking into volunteer opportunities with a visual design focus so that I can bolster those skills while increasing my network
Buying books centered around UX design so I can keep getting an idea for the theory behind good design and visual styles
Talking to y’all about it all because well….accountability
Alright, that’s the plan and I’m thinking the more I get into these habits I’ll come back with updates. I’m also thinking this would be a great start for anyone else trying to break into experience design as well. I remember it like it was yesterday, the constant barrage of “no’s” I received when job hunting and how much emphasis was placed on the experience needed just to get the experience I was looking for from a first job. So we’re still in this together. I’d love to hear what your plans are for making yourself a better designer, developer, etc. Feel free to let me know in the comments but as always wishing you all the best!
My best,
Kiera
