You will be exposed to a wide range of tasks and most likely have a lot of freedom when it comes to making design decisions for the team (also depending on how involved is the rest of the team when it comes to design). It means that you will have the opportunities to learn things outside of one design discipline.
What I struggled with as the only designer in a startup is the lack of structure and support. Structure is something that you can define for yourself and the rest of the team you are working with. It does take time to get to a good balance of quality work vs the quantity of the design output.
The support aspect is probably the most challenging part and it's indeed frustrating to be the only designer at times. Not only you will be swarmed with many tasks being the only designer, you also don't have another design resource (designer) available to help you grow professionally. This is where you should seek outside mentorships or to go design events to make sure you are progressing.
In sum, I would personally recommend joining a startup as the only designer because I believe it's rewarding in different ways. If the startup is projected to grow fast, you'll actually be in a more position where you get to help build a team and that is an unique experience to acquire.
You will be exposed to a wide range of tasks and most likely have a lot of freedom when it comes to making design decisions for the team (also depending on how involved is the rest of the team when it comes to design). It means that you will have the opportunities to learn things outside of one design discipline.
What I struggled with as the only designer in a startup is the lack of structure and support. Structure is something that you can define for yourself and the rest of the team you are working with. It does take time to get to a good balance of quality work vs the quantity of the design output.
The support aspect is probably the most challenging part and it's indeed frustrating to be the only designer at times. Not only you will be swarmed with many tasks being the only designer, you also don't have another design resource (designer) available to help you grow professionally. This is where you should seek outside mentorships or to go design events to make sure you are progressing.
In sum, I would personally recommend joining a startup as the only designer because I believe it's rewarding in different ways. If the startup is projected to grow fast, you'll actually be in a more position where you get to help build a team and that is an unique experience to acquire.