Career Advice in Design — Leadership, Career Paths
The topic for this article has been something that I have tackled in the past. This article functions more as a compilation of a lot of questions I’ve been getting through the Career Advice program that I collaborate with on LinkedIn. For those who are unfamiliar with this program, Linkedin promotes an opportunity for professionals to seek out or ask for advice from seasoned professionals. These questions can be on a variety of topics and typically are originated by professionals with different experience levels, goals and interests. What I’ve compiled and detailed below, are some of the answers I’ve given in the past, since I’ve realized that for a lot of professionals, particularly the ones coming into the Design Industry, there’s a lot of questions on topics such as education, career paths, leadership, networking, interviewing, among many others. The article is grouped under specific topics, and it’s my hope that this sheds some additional information on these subjects. As always I appreciate everyone’s candor and responses when going through the article. Thank you for reading and for those who have participated in the program, thank you for your questions.
Topics. Leadership
(1) Thank you for reaching out and for your question. In my experience and in dealing with different teams and designers throughout the years, what has always come across as a testament of leadership, is the way Designers lead by example, both in devising strategies, but also building relationships with different team members. As a UX Architect, hopefully you have an opportunity to run a lean process, from research through incubation/iterative sessions, and other activities, which you can lead and bring other team members on board, therefore showcasing your skills as a facilitator, and organizer/driver of the entire process. This typically emphasizes your leadership skills, as does your ability to communicate your process clearly with defined KPIs, with attention to different factors (inclusivity of design, accessibility, localization and so on). My suggestion is also for you to be more present on your local Design Communities, or start a Design Hub within your organization, where you can share different information, new tools (software updates, new testing platforms for instance).
(2) Leadership and the process of becoming an effective leader, can take a lot of different aspects, and I’m sure there’s plenty of authors out there that have pointed out in their postings/books, long discussions about vision, the ability to bring out the best in others, and many other relevant topics (every other day on Linkedin alone, there’s someone writing about how Jeff Bezos became a great leader, and what great leaders do before they even get to work in the morning). To be very candid and pragmatic, in Design, there’s a bit of everything when it comes to leaders — some that grew in the business, understand the intricacies of the industry and what it takes to make a project successfully thrive (while building a solid team), as well as there are others who just get a title, without much to back their position or standing. I’d say the skills/qualities that are most effective for a good leader (in the design field in particular) include: — transparency (about who you are, expectations, processes, team integration, timelines, among other factors), organization (being able to wear at times multiple hats, without losing track of what you’re doing is crucial), humbleness (no matter how much experience a person has, you should always surround yourself with capable and intelligent individuals who challenge and teach you), honesty (that goes without saying, but also in how you relate to others, provide feedback, communicate), market awareness (being able to research, understand the evolution of the market, tools, processes, methodologies) and finally a good sense of humor (that’s imperative, to be able to not take oneself too seriously, understand that there’s hard work to everything, but that life is the sum of many factors, and not just work). The Design field is always morphing and evolving, these days being a good designer isn’t just about creating a good experience — it’s about creating one that is impactful on multiple levels, namely business, brand awareness, customer retention, and how that is communicated to market. Being flexible and insightful are also good points to keep in mind. Here’s something I wrote on this topic: https://uxplanet.org/how-designers-measure-success-part-ii-4b704c42a7c4 Hope this helps. Let me know if I can provide any further clarification on anything.
Career Paths
(1) Thank you for reaching out and for the question. The pros of moving into a career in Tech can be summarized in the following three aspects: ever evolving market, dynamic opportunities and of course, rewards tied to financial opportunities, that can come from either working in a Start-Up, starting your own business or simply working with a solid tech centric organization. The Cons are somewhat similar to many other industries — it’s a very competitive vertical, it demands a constant study, investigation, since technology becomes obsolete very rapidly. The challenges that you may encounter are typically associated with a market that is filled with professionals, many of whom are competing for the same positions, for which they’re not really qualified. What I’m trying to say is — in order to get a smoother transition, it typically helps have relevant skills, that are pertinent and applicable to what most tech companies are in dire need of (developers/engineers/designers/analysts/researchers/ project managers/product managers, the list goes on). Hope this provides some insight. Thank you for the attention and best of luck in your career endeavors.
Resources for Designers (online)
https://uxplanet.org/
https://productcoalition.com/
https://medium.muz.li/
https://uxdesign.cc/
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/
Resources for Designers (books)
Strategic Designer by David Holston
Radical Candor by Kim Scott
Emotional Design by Don Norman
Just Enough Research by Erika Hall
UX Strategy by Jaime Levy
The Design of Everyday Things by Dan Norman
How to Speak Machine by John Maeda
(2) Thank you for reaching out and for your question. I wrote an article on the topic of starting a career in Design which you can find here: https://uxplanet.org/how-to-start-a-career-in-design-portfolios-interviewing-605764359624. To compliment a bit on the topics of that article, I’d say this, if you don’t mind. When shifting dramatically your career path, there are quite a few items to consider: 1. What is prompting the shift? 2. Are you leaning into an industry that makes sense for you? 3. In order to get started, do you have the necessary resources to make that transition smoothly and hopefully not too disruptive for yourself? 4. Longevity — do you see yourself working in that field for the foreseeable future? 5. Education wise — how do you envision gaining the knowledge/skills to be able to perform and excel in this new path. The article I wrote tackles some of these topics, but I’d say that the Design Industry is one filled with opportunities, but much like ever other one, has plenty of challenges and a lot of competition obviously. It all comes down to what you really enjoy doing or envision yourself doing. Within the design industry there’s so many subsets of disciplines you can focus on and carve out your niche. Please let me know if I can assist you with any further information.
(3) Here’s a few topics/highlights that may be useful/helpful as you’re getting back into the working force. As a designer, it’s important to have a robust network and portfolio. What that effectively means translates on how you present yourself across a multitude of creative centric platforms. This contemplates products such as Behance, Coroflot, Krop, CargoCollective, and also across social media, namely Linkedin. If possible, always include that information (to your portfolio(s) for instance) in the contact info. It’s typically what hiring managers and recruiters look for. Also thrive for consistency across your networks — specifically in tone, work being displayed, messaging. 2. Portfolios — Thrive to make those as available and visible as possible. These days having a portfolio is extremely accessible, with out of the box solutions and platforms. Either using Behance, Dribbble, Coroflot, Krop, Cargo Collective, Squarespace, aim to build something where the content is easy to access and read. The container, as impeccable as it may be, is no match for the work you display, and how crystal clear your point of view comes across. 3. Interviews — I wrote an article on Medium about this topic. I apologize for plugging it here, but I think it can give you some insights and some things to reflect upon. https://uxplanet.org/how-to-start-a-career-in-design-portfolios-interviewing-605764359624 4. Skills — The best thing a designer can do to stay relevant and pertinent, is learn about new software, new tools, methodologies. Being challenged is really important, staying relevant even more so. If you want to keep the knowledge base fresh and relevant, please look at lynda.com or even generalassembly. Look for a combination of technical skills, with also insights into different types of work cadences (if you’re so inclined of course). Hope all these topics give you something to ponder. If there’s any additional information I can provide, please don’t hesitate to reach out. All my very best for you and your career path.
(4) Thank you for reaching out. Hope my answer meets some (or all) of what you were aiming for. I recently wrote an article on the topic you just asked about — please find it here: https://uxplanet.org/how-designers-measure-success-part-ii-4b704c42a7c4. To compliment what I wrote in that article and further substantiate the answer to your question — a career path is not as linear as one may sometimes expect. The Design field is filled with professionals with very different paths and levels of experience, and one can not and should not compare oneself with another professional, since we’re all so very different. If I may suggest an approach, I’d say, focus on what you actually love and appreciate doing and make your portfolio be a representation of that. Mind you, I’m not saying that you should solely focus on showcasing a certain type of project, but build a portfolio where you contemplate the different types of products you have worked in the past, and how that has shaped your approach and process when tackling challenges. Being able to communicate a process, your role, your relationships with different stakeholders is crucial, and plays an enormous role in further defining your seniority. I’ve come to realize that seniority isn’t solely a result of working for multiple years in a certain industry — it’s a combination of experience and ability to communicate a process driven point of view. Everyone now talks about the Design Thinking Process, and how User Interviews/Usability Testing and the Iterative Process gets done, because it’s a trend, and everyone wants a quick formula to achieve success. I’d say, if I may, focus on understanding the processes, but always showcase your unique point of view, insight and approach. The way you relate and demonstrate your path is a testament to your seniority and to how you continue on your career path. Hope this provides some topics to reflect upon. Thank you for reaching out, and may your career continue to be a tremendously successful one.
(5) Here is my input in terms of career advancement and/or pathways. Please bear in mind with me, that I’m sure you’ve considered all these venues I’m about to outline, so please forgive me in advance for some idea repetition. My goal is just to showcase pathways and hopefully add a bit in your decision making process. There comes a time in everyone’s career where a professional asks himself what is the ultimate goal in terms of path and general direction of one’s career. A career in Design for instance has a lot of different steps. For a lot of professionals, the natural transition goes from Designer > Senior Designer > Art Director > Principal > Creative Director roles, though these roles have all shifted and have included Research/UX/Visual Design subsets (among others). My point in illustrating that cadence lies in the following: Management is indeed a way to progress, to gain visibility, and to move upwards in your career. However it’s also a category that requires the ability to empathize, be a good communicator, problem solver, since it’s all about managing people/expectations, and being able to bring out the best in the people you hire(or have in your team). There’s plenty of interesting books on managerial competences (Kim Scott’s “Radical Candor” is an interesting one), but there’s a realization that every single professional must have: not everyone makes a good manager (and not everyone is interested in being one). The question you must ask yourself is where does your interest and focus lie. Do you appreciate mentoring, team integration, culture development, or do you prefer to keep focusing on being an expert at what you do? There’s no wrong or right answer to that. It all comes down to what you want to focus on. If your focus is in being an authority in your subject matter, I’d suggest starting a Medium profile, authoring articles/opinions on blogs/publications that are relevant for your field. Creating visibility towards yourself and your point of view just takes perseverance and discipline. Hope this helps.
Interviews, Portfolios, Education
(1) Thank you for reaching out on the Career Advice program. From your question, I’m not entirely sure if you’re wanting to move to a different industry or career path, so I’ll try to be as encompassing as possible in my response. Typically when wanting to stand out and land interviews, it’s important to do some background check on the company, people interviewing, since that highlights your interest in joining that organization, while also knowing a bit more information on the person you’re interviewing with (you can allude to topics you know that person has an interest on, as a way to build a bridge with your interviewer). On phone interviews it’s really important you make a good impression, so it’s always preferable you’re in a silent place, so the interviewer can hear your responses clearly. Try to be articulate, and when questions catch you unexpectedly, don’t be shy to take a few seconds to think about it, and then formulate your response. All of this is important during the interview over the phone, but in order to capture that, it’s fundamental you have a resume that is articulate, chronologically organized, where you also have a Summary which demonstrates your career intents/objectives. This combination of resume and polished phone interview (with preparation), will help tremendously in securing an in person interview. Please let me know if this is what you had in mind when you sent your question. I’m glad to provide more examples or tactics.
(2) Building a portfolio can indeed be a challenge, and requires a lot of time and discipline (here’s an article I wrote on that topic — https://uxplanet.org/how-to-start-a-career-in-design-portfolios-interviewing-605764359624). As far as your specific question on websites that host collection of ideas for projects, there are a few that somewhat attest to what you’re asking for (and be mindful, you’ll have to do some dig through to find some direction to what you want to tackle).
WebDesignerNews — https://www.webdesignernews.com/
DesignerNews — https://www.designernews.co/
Dribbble — https://dribbble.com/
Behance — https://www.behance.net/
If I may suggest an approach, think about creating concepts that can either be related to your experiences as a consumer or a personal experience that you went through. For instance, build a flow or a product experience for a baby shower type of application. Something that contemplates variables such as attendees list, wish list, products that are sold out, recommendations, location of the celebration/bash (with the corresponding mapping experience), invite send outs. Remember you can do these projects as complex as you like or as streamlined as you like. Some of those sites will have a mix bag of ideas and concepts, which will also burn quite a lot of your time, but they can also provide some ideas on what to tackle. Though I do suggest, don’t do another product design consideration on Spotify. Those have been exhausted. Hope this helps.
(3) If UI/UX is indeed something you want to pursue, here is some information I collated for other students/professionals wanting to get into this arena.If I may, I’d suggest you’d look into the following programs/workshops:
1. https://www.nngroup.com/courses/ux-basic-training/
The Nielsen Norman Group covers a lot of relevant topics, and is a good introduction to the processes. It’s also a great way for you to network.
2. https://generalassemb.ly/education/user-experience-design
General Assembly is also a great resource for Workshop attendance and getting situated within this discipline.
3. https://www.meetup.com/topics/ux-design/all/
Another venue to consider is Meetups. There’s quite a few of these that can give you some insight into different processes, and also a great way for you to network.
4. Some books worth reading: The Strategic Designer by David Holston, Radical Candor by Kim Scott, Emotional Design by Don Norman, Just Enough Research by Erika Hall, UX Strategy by Jaime Levy.
5. Some additional resources for you to look at include (I’ll avoid repeating these since they were mentioned above).
As far as the pros and cons of moving/shifting your career into this field. The Pros revolve around the vast challenges that you’ll always have, the constant learning and also the fact that from a stability point of view, it’s a field that is ripe with possibilities (and job opportunities). As far as the cons, there are quite a few as well. It’s a field that is littered with professionals who don’t have the qualifications to properly run and understand what technology is and how it’s implemented. Therefore, it creates that much more of a hassle for people to take Design and Designers seriously. It’s also a somewhat difficult field to actually have good training on. There aren’t many programs that are effective and focused on delivering good solutions for their students. And like many fields, it’s very competitive, and tends to centralize itself around big centers/cosmopolitan areas, which makes it somewhat difficult for people to have a good quality of life/income ratio. Hope this gives you some ideas and scenarios to pursue. All my very best on all your career endeavors, and please let me know if you need further information.
Reality Check. I could have gone on with more answers on a variety of other topics, but I believe these suffice to illustrate the fact that for many professionals, particularly ones that are coming into the Design world, there are a lot of questions surrounding their path and the choices they want to make. There is effectively a plethora of fields, each rewarding and enticing, but for a lot of professionals coming into this universe, there’s also uncertainty on where to start, how to start, and even how to make their careers keep progressing. The underlying truth has always remained the same for me as a professional: find what you love doing, keep learning how to do your craft better, while continuously learning about what surrounds the discipline of Design. This is a Discipline that is imminently social, driven for users/consumers/audiences. Understanding the contexts is a deep dive into the unknown, and for Designers, that is the challenge itself. Creating a path for uncharted territories!
I’ll conclude with the following quote, from Henry David Thoreau on the topic of following your path and direction, which is, in retrospect, one of the topics of this article:
“If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”
