I'm 38 and coming up on 19 years in the industry. It's been a wild ride. I started with the belief that I wanted to be a jack of all trades and slowly became more and more specialized in UI and front-end. It was a natural progression and a great learning experience. I've had my own business, been a part of startups and currently work for a product in the renewable energy space.
What I found as you get older is that you start to move away from needing to be the person who always executes the vision into a role where you can help other be successful at executing. Although design is in my blood and I don't see a day where I'm not contributing in that way. You start to collect enough experience to see the road ahead better than someone with less experience. And that can be more valuable than making pixels.
I do worry that as I get older maybe I start to lose touch and become what my brother calls a "designasaur" but I think that is more a result of a general attitude and lack of involvement in the process.
I try not to beat down the young guns in our industry. Sometimes they have loud misguided opinions but I know it's born out of passion and desire to better themselves and our industry. I just have a strong distaste for those that want to tear other people down publicly. This has become a lot more prevalent as we've been given more of a platform to voice our opinions.
I've also really moved away from wanting to work on things that "don't matter". I've worked on enough peoples crazy social networking ideas for a lifetime. This is totally subjective and just personal tendency I have now.
What's cool about our industry is that you can still create a place for yourself. Your choices may become more slim for jobs but that is because you've made yourself so valuable with all that knowledge and experience.
I'm 38 and coming up on 19 years in the industry. It's been a wild ride. I started with the belief that I wanted to be a jack of all trades and slowly became more and more specialized in UI and front-end. It was a natural progression and a great learning experience. I've had my own business, been a part of startups and currently work for a product in the renewable energy space.
What I found as you get older is that you start to move away from needing to be the person who always executes the vision into a role where you can help other be successful at executing. Although design is in my blood and I don't see a day where I'm not contributing in that way. You start to collect enough experience to see the road ahead better than someone with less experience. And that can be more valuable than making pixels.
I do worry that as I get older maybe I start to lose touch and become what my brother calls a "designasaur" but I think that is more a result of a general attitude and lack of involvement in the process.
I try not to beat down the young guns in our industry. Sometimes they have loud misguided opinions but I know it's born out of passion and desire to better themselves and our industry. I just have a strong distaste for those that want to tear other people down publicly. This has become a lot more prevalent as we've been given more of a platform to voice our opinions.
I've also really moved away from wanting to work on things that "don't matter". I've worked on enough peoples crazy social networking ideas for a lifetime. This is totally subjective and just personal tendency I have now.
What's cool about our industry is that you can still create a place for yourself. Your choices may become more slim for jobs but that is because you've made yourself so valuable with all that knowledge and experience.