What is your design career goal?

4 years ago from Teodor Decu, Product Designer

  • Scott ThomasScott Thomas, 4 years ago

    The overall theme, stick to your gut and chase what you like to do

    I started out as a CS major and I never took an art class before. However, I knew enjoyed the creativity and wanted to chase it. Took me 3 years to realize it, but I ended up leaving my senior year to go to art school. Seriously the best decision I have made for myself. I wanted and needed that time to learn the basics.

    I thought I wanted to be like Don Draper right out of art school. I had the chance with an ad agency and I realized I reallllly suck at creativity. I'm not an out of the box thinker and edgy marketing wasn't my strength. I had a lot of opportunities to do amazing things in my life that I would never believe I could. However, the constant struggle made it the most depressing time of my life. This humbling experience helped me understand what are my interests and strengths, which was web design.

    The last one was in 2012, just when the term UX was starting to get trendy. I started to work in the web design space and I knew I found my niche. However, my projects started to move from simple sites to complex ones. We never did wireframes, sitemaps, user flows, or even talk to users. I knew there was a better way, so I started to read up and implement UX methods. I wanted to know more but felt like an outsider because I never had an HCI education. I remember applying as a UX intern when I had 4 years of design experience (They laughed at me). I chased jobs to get me in the right atmosphere. Going on my 4th year on my current job and I love it. I learned so much through trial and error.... I don't know what my next step is... however I know what I don't want.

    11 points