About not walking a straight line
Within the first two years of graduating in Product Design from the Glasgow School of Art, I worked in India, Australia, went back to the UK before heading off to the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium. Constantly on the go, back and forth, working with different people in different cultural contexts.
More or less exactly a year ago, I had the opportunity to try a more steady lifestyle — I started a permanent position. Life took me to Berlin to work for Fuxblau, a small service design agency.
Looking back, what have I learned from taking this step, committing to one company? How has it influenced and shaped me as a designer?
Overcoming the internal Imposter
During my placement with Meld Studios in Melbourne, I came across the term “Imposter Syndrome“, which describes people who are unable to internalise their accomplishments and are in persistent fear of being exposed as a fraud.**
As many others, I was suffering from the imposter syndrome and working in a permanent position has definitely helped overcome it. It boosted my confidence as a designer and I see multiple reasons for this.
One is the constant practice and expansion of skills. I started coaching and facilitating workshops, practiced my skills in building digital products, from concepts over wireframes to user flows, experienced different ways of co-operating with clients, and discovered my joy in illustrating. Working in a smaller company — we are currently 6 people — means that everyone has to be able to do a little bit of everything. Thus my learning has been like the ripples from a drop hitting water, growing in every direction.
Staying in one position for longer is rewarding as you get to see the fruits of your work. Especially in Service Design, where implementation often seems to be a rather slow-moving process. Seeing my first project come to life, was a hugely rewarding experience for me. Experiencing what my input led to, and realising that I could actually create an impact, has been fulfilling.
Additionally, working in a fixed team has been immensely beneficial. I learned a great deal through being exposed to other people’s working and thinking habits and the outcomes they lead to. It enabled me to reflect more on my own method of working. Learning through the dynamic within a team as well as experiencing what I could add to it, helped me find my place within it.
Throughout the two years prior, I could have compared myself to my course mates (and I did), thinking about them having their second anniversary in their job and having a proper foot in the industry. I am sure it is the right way for them. Nevertheless, I would still do things as I have done them up to now. The way I did it was the right way for me, it may have taken a little longer but I now have a job that I genuinely enjoy.
Look back and reflect on what you have accomplished up to now. There is, and always will be, space to learn and grow. Celebrate where you are right now and believe in yourself. You need to walk the path that is right for you. You can choose which parameters you want to compare yourself with.
Reality Check for our Concept Creating Minds
During university we learn how to create the most amazing, out-of-the-box concepts for designs that will create revolutionary experiences for users.
Working with a company for a year now came as a reality check regarding the implementation of services. Being exposed to the business structure within our company, as well as to those of our clients, gave me deep insights into the workings of the structures we need to tweak to make our concepts come to life.
I have always been a dreamer, a realistic dreamer, and have been passionate about my so-called heart projects. I would love to work on projects with people with disabilities, or develop self-sustaining services to help the homeless. Nevertheless, I see the challenges of getting this kind of work off the ground and the even greater challenge of actually making a living by doing so.
I hope that the paths Service Design is making in the business world will trickle through to more social organisations as this could greatly benefit them. I would love to see this happen, partially to make it easier to promote more projects within the social sector, but also to create more self-sustaining business models behind those services. If this happened, people could make a reasonable living working in and providing these services.
Enjoy university and use that time well, it is the time to allow your creativity to go crazy and think outside the box — it is where visions are created; visions of who you could be and what you want your principles, as a designer, to be.
Contracts do not mean Imprisonment
I have strong work-life-balance ethics. During university, the way time was divided, suited me well. For nine months a year I was a designer, pushing projects I was passionate about. The other three months I could dedicate to interests outside of work, such as travelling, exploring different cultures, going surfing, being in nature and whatever else happened to cross my path. There is so much to see and to experience.
This shaped the two years after graduating, hopping around the world designing in different continents. (I still have a few to go — so if you have a fun project, call me!)
For these reasons I was anxious about signing a permanent contract, worried about feeling imprisoned, limited, stuck in Berlin. At the beginning it did take me some time to get used to having to coordinate my plans with others. I felt like a little child again, asking my mother for permission.
Fuxblau soon showed me that this does not have to be that way. They believe that if they enable their employees to do what makes them happy, they will stay and if they don’t, they will leave. Working a four-day week, with a semi-flexible day off, enables me to do weekend trips easily. This summer I asked for one month unpaid leave, to go surfing, and it was granted to me. Yes, I still have to discuss and arrange it with my bosses, but I am able to do what makes me happy in as well as outside of work. It took away the fear of “missing out“ on the fun aspects of life because of work.
As I know these working conditions are not standard, I cannot see myself quitting this position for just any other job.
Even when starting out, you do not have to put your life on hold in order to start your career. There are companies that think about the user-experience of their own employees. When applying for a job, ask about the working conditions, about a four-day week, about the regulations on unpaid leave and about what the spirit in the team is like. You will be spending the majority of your week there — you should enjoy it!
Coming to an End
So wrapping up, what do I want you to take away from this article?
Believe in yourself and choose your parameters.
Do not rush into some shitty job just to get work experience. Take time to find what actually suits you. At the same time don’t be overly picky — you can learn anywhere, even if it is a lot about what you do not want. But learning is always more enjoyable in surroundings that supports you, so pay attention to it. At the end of the day we designers design experiences for users, so why do we not apply that to our own working circumstances?
Life does not always take the most straightforward path, but only because it has something else for us to learn on the way. Sometimes, just sometimes, surrender to it and let yourself be carried to where the stream of life takes you!
*Photocredit: Fabian Siefert — fabian-siefert.de
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
