A compilation of notes, thoughts, and reflections of a junior designer, from 2014–2016. Revised in 2019; tidied up in 2023.
One of my goals for 2023 is to write more. Simply take all the thoughts living in my head rent-free, and type them away on the white Medium paper. Funny enough, the younger self did write a lot, but never pulled the “Publish” trigger, unbeknownst to the older me.
But better late than never.
The early years of my design career was an explosive growth of learning, taking risks, and going after anything that could accelerate my hard skills. I was hungry to be a great designer. Upon retrospection, my actions could be categorized in 4 distinct themes —learn to code, teach to learn, network, and self care.
Learn to Code
At my time at General Assembly, Ruby on Rails was a popular language and framework to learn. It was the only topic that everyone talked about — it was a language that was easy to pick up and create an application in minutes. And that piqued my interest. Because if there was one thing that could make a junior designer stand out in the job market, then that was a designer who can code.
I did everything that I could to become familiar with web development. I used Codecademy, Treehouse, and Code School to become familiar with HTML4, CSS3, jQuery, and JavaScript.
To this day, having some knowledge of web or software development is advantageous for a designer, especially when designing for developer tools.
Notes from 2014:
Think of code as another tool in your tool kit. You got Photoshop, Illustrator, Fireworks, and Axure in your belt, so why not consider HTML & CSS as tools as well?
But at the end of day, this is entirely up to you. Some people are better at coding; others are not. But if you still want to learn, then what’s stopping you?
Code your ideas, and share to the world!
Teach to Learn
In 2014, I had the privilege to be a Designer-In-Residence at General Assembly’s User Experience design course. This professional course provided a platform for me to teach students the basics of UX design.
In a way, teaching shed light into the gaps of my skills, my thinking. Most importantly, the silly notion that teachers knew everything and that they had all the answers. That is not the case for all instances because of the constant change in trends, tools, and thinking.
And it’s okay to say, “I don’t know.”
Notes from 2014:
Learning is applied to everyone, not just students. Break out of [the] fear and be a teacher. A mentor.
Lose the ego, but keep the confidence. Be confident in what you know, and be open-minded in what you don’t know.
Help people, build a network, and be a valuable asset to community.
Network
In 2015, I attend Speak Write Code conference at Pace University in New York City. There, I got to meet other women who had a breadth of knowledge and experience, and wanted to share that through speaking and writing. From this conference, my main interest was to learn aspects of contributing to the community through writing, but walked away with another valuable lesson — to network with incredibly smart, ambitious, and kind women who could be good friends. And I still do keep in touch with them to this day.
Notes from 2015:
Work, share, inspire, and empower other females and young girls to be more active in the tech and design industries.
Help people, build a network, and be a valuable asset to community.
Self-care
In 2016, I went through a gradual decline, that I now realized was a slow burn out. I was emotionally and physically exhausted, which took a toll on my mental health too — I was unhappy. Without knowing what I had, I pulled through anyway, thinking it was a phase. I worked 50+ hours, organized Meetup events, volunteered at conferences, mentored junior designers and still kept up my social engagements.
As much as I wanted to keep up with these responsibilities, my mood altered; I became more bitter and irascible which affected my work and post-work obligations negatively.
Out of necessity, I paused. I focused on self-care, through writing, facials, and sleep. Retail therapy also helped :)
The biggest self-care was building friendships. Because I was so busy building my career, I didn’t have time to build meaningful friendships. But over time, through the years, I made investments on people that I now call my dearest friends. And through tough times, I am now in a solid position because I have friends to lean on.
Notes from 2016:
Be on the road to create a better version of you. Fail fast, learn faster. Seek for feedback; offer help. Do your homework, and write your reflections.
Do yourself a favor — treat yourself! Take great care by sleeping more, eating well, and enjoying the good things in life.
