My (not so) midlife Design crisis…
Why at 40, I’m living my best days as a designer.
In January I hit the big 40, which myths lead you to believe usually means making some drastic life choices. Like quitting my job and travelling the world or buying that red super car (wonder where I’d find one of those). But don’t worry, I’m not quite ready to make those choices just yet.
Next year also marks my 18th year in the tech industry, after graduating from Salford University back in 2005. It’s been a big year for milestones. My daughter Lia turned 1 when I graduated (she definitely looked the part) and celebrates her 18th birthday next month. My Mum and Dad also celebrated their Emerald Wedding Anniversary (55 years!). It’s the family support and drive to build a foundation for my family which helped me focus as I started my early career as a web developer.
October marks my 2 year anniversary at Auto Trader and it’s here where I’ve been able to grow and learn a lot about myself and the type of designer and leader I’d like to be.
So above I mentioned I’m living my best days as a designer, but why you may ask? As you grow in your career the more challenges you can face, you’ll gain more responsibility and possibly management if you choose that career path.
On reflection, here’s the reasons why I think being a designer at Auto Trader has enabled me to be the best version of myself.
The team
At Auto Trader we work autonomously, we’re given problems to solve and are empowered to discover and learn. I’m very lucky to be surrounded by talented people with expertise in a variety of disciplines from product design, brand, research and content.
This also extends to our product and engineering teams. These relationships are key when building products. My early career as a software developer helps when communicating designs and bringing people into the conversation earlier.
Our ethos is to collaborate and solve problems together. By combining our expertise and diverse thinking and perspectives it ensures we’re broad in our exploration.
We support one another through projects and our wellbeing. Our mindset is to help each other grow, giving constructive input and feedback.
This keeps my morale high, helps me stay focused and gives me reassurance and stability.
Managing and mentoring great people
Managing people can be hard and often takes people out of their comfort zone. Leaning into areas we tend to steer away from, those uncomfortable conversations and fear of disagreement or dislike.
My experience at Auto Trader has been quite different and has made it a lot easier for me to organise my time effectively between management and projects. It’s also given me the appetite to explore more mentoring opportunities internally and externally.
I have lacked role models in my early career, so being able to offer advice and support to others is quite important to me.
The people I’ve encountered inspire me and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to help them on their Auto Trader journey. It’s a testament again to the environment that enables and empowers our people to be successful.
Support
Culture and values are the face of any business. It’s often the first thing you’ll see on a company site or through an interview process. Saying it is one thing, doing it is another. If there’s anything that sets Auto Trader aside from others, it’s the people and the culture.
The guilds and networks support our colleagues across the business. They give people purpose and enable you to bring your true self to work.
Our learning academy is full of opportunities to upskill, from personal skills to industry knowledge. There’s also a big onus on mentoring and coaching. Giving access to frameworks which help ensure you’re best equipped to mentor others and also offer support to guide you through phases of self development.
Community impact
One the most enjoyable parts of my role outside of my day-to-day project work is being able to contribute and help shape our design culture. The way in which we work, grow and learn is fundamental to our team health and our ability to deliver.
I’ve had the pleasure of organising external design meetups, running design clubs in schools and helping facilitate accessibility empathy workshops to colleagues.
Being able to advocate design, support the team’s growth and teach others about design thinking is thoroughly rewarding. It complements my project work and enables me to utilise different skills.
I’m very lucky to do a job which I’m proud and passionate about. There’s a famous quote — “if you choose a job you love, you’ll never work a day in your life”, and that’s so true.
Working as a Product designer can be very rewarding. Being user centred and making products that impact people and make their experiences simpler. Creating an emotional connection with the end user to ensure you’re helping guide them through your services and making it enjoyable along the way. That’s quite a challenge, but that’s what makes it such a great profession to be in.
One thing I’ve learnt over the past few years is to reflect on your achievements. Last year I wrote a blog about my one year anniversary at Auto Trader — Prototyping through the pandemic. This spoke about my onboarding and my project and community focus. Looking back now and reflecting on the software we’ve delivered and the multiple design clubs and accessibility workshops we’ve ran, I’m so proud.
As this year closes, I look towards 2023 with excitement. Through the areas explored above and the support from my manager and the Auto Trader community, there’s lots of exciting opportunities. The way in which people buy cars is changing, also the way in which we manufacture vehicles and people want more control. This brings more problems to solve and a need to connect and support the end-to-end service for our consumers and retailers.
2023 also brings more Design Clubs. With more volunteers supporting our workshops there’s plenty of opportunity to help shape and evolve the foundations we’ve built in Manchester, with an aspiration to build a thriving community in the North West. Watch this space!
Hopefully that gave a small snippet into why I’m living my best days as a designer. In summary, finding the right environment where you are valued and can continue to grow is more important than the number of candles on the cake.
Want to find out more about Auto Trader? Read about our latest product update.
Looking for a new role? View our open roles on our careers page.
