How to Land Your Dream Job as a Self-Taught Designer
My leap of faith and how I tackled the challenges that followed
Had you asked me five years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined myself as a user interface (UI) designer at a startup in Delhi. I had a background in economics and business studies. As expected, I started with a job in the field of economics and had a promising career to look forward to. But, I was always passionate about designing and wondered if I could ever be part of the design industry. I quit my job to give commit to a career in designing. Despite many hurdles, I was successful in my journey to become a professional designer.
While I’m only a year into this exciting professional chapter, I hope sharing the steps I took to become a hireable self-taught designer will help others do the same. It’s been a challenging, exciting and incredibly rewarding journey.
“Allow your passion to become your purpose, and it will one day become your profession.” — Gabrielle Bernstein
The leap of faith
Initially, you may face a lot of fear and self-doubt. Entering a field in which you know little can be a daunting task. But you have to ask yourself, ‘Does this really excite me? Is this something I can enjoy doing as a full-time career?’ If your answer is yes, then you probably have the motivation it takes to make it. While short-term goals like money and job security may seem like distractions, having a roof over your head is obviously important. If you need to stick with your day job, think about the long-term benefits of switching to a job that you love, and spend your hours outside work focusing on becoming a designer. This will keep you motivated to go through the ups and downs of these early stages without giving up.
“Design is a journey of discovery.” — Derek Parker
Research
To start off, collect designs that you admire and note down exactly what you like about them. Study different visual design styles and find out all the tools you may need to build off these designs. In the early days, try to complete as many simple designs as possible. Once you have gained mastery over tools like Photoshop and Illustrator, you will be able to attempt more complex designs. It may take you take lots of time to complete a design at first. You may get stuck on a small issue and end up taking hours to figure it out. This may frustrate you, but remember that you are on the toughest part of the learning curve. You need to be patient and give yourself ample time to improve.
Create a portfolio
The next step is to create a portfolio. I personally work the most on Behance, which is a buzzing community of designers and artists, and a great place to share your designs. You may want to set up account on Behance and start adding your designs to it. Once you have a basic portfolio, you can start pitching for small projects on freelancing portals. While finally getting paid for all this hard work can make you feel like you’ve finally made it, there are so many more exciting steps to go; getting projects can be difficult at first too. You should keep improving your portfolio with personal projects while you pitch for new projects. A good, dynamic portfolio will drastically improve your chances of getting a project to work on. Once you have a few projects under your belt, it definitely feels like you’ve finally made it as a professional designer.
Slow and steady wins the race
As a designer, you never stop learning. Once you have a few good projects under your belt, you might have the option to land a full-time designing job. But it’s possible to get a full-time job too early, lacking the time needed improve on your craft as much as you still need. Despite a few job offers, I kept working on freelance projects, and spent the rest of the time researching. The Internet has every resource to help you grow as a designer — including books, podcasts and YouTube videos on subjects like typography, basics of color, making/breaking grids, harmony, and more.
“There are three responses to a piece of design — yes, no, and WOW! Wow is the one to aim for.” — Milton Glaser
My Experience at Kite
Once I felt comfortable and knowledgeable enough, I was ready to take up a full-time designing job where I could work on exciting projects. I applied for the role of UI designer at different companies across India. I was worried that companies may not be keen to hire me, since my education was different from the role I was applying for. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how I was treated by the recruitment team at Kite. They appreciated me for the courage it took to pursue my passion, leaving behind a comfortable job in economics. At Kite, my unique background was (and still is) seen as a benefit, not a risk. Kite values employees who do what it takes to do what they love. I couldn’t have found a better place to start my designing career.
While working at Kite, I discovered that I was not the only one who had come with a such self-taught background. There were others who had done the same. There were business analysts who had studied biochemistry, product managers who left the fashion industry and recruiters who worked on Urdu language festivals. For the first time, I saw and belonged to a workplace where employees were having so much fun at their jobs. They were doing work that they really enjoyed and would have done even if no one was watching.
So it doesn’t matter if your educational background and your work experience are aligned for you to work at Kite. All you need is the guts to pave a unique path for yourself. And Kite can boast of a number of employees who have done exactly that.
