Katelyn Hassett — Year Review
Design Intern Katelyn found she has a talent — and passion — for web and social media design through her work with the Little Taller team this year. In what’s been an unusual year, she’s started her design career working almost entirely remotely. On her one-year anniversary, we sat down with Katelyn to reflect on the ways she’s grown and the challenges she’s overcome in her time so far at Little Taller.
Little Taller: What is your title, and what is it you actually do every day?
Katelyn: My title is design intern, so I do a lot of website and social media design. I do a lot of other miscellaneous items, too, like marketing collateral documents and template creation.
Little Taller: How do you explain your job to other people who don’t quite understand design?
Katelyn: I normally say that I’m a designer, so I create websites. I do print design. I make social media posts. I’m the person behind-the-scenes that designs those things.
Little Taller: You recently passed your 1-year anniversary. What’s been your biggest takeaway?
Katelyn: My biggest takeaway is that real professional design is so different than they make it seem in school. In school, you do everything from the creative brief to the final design by yourself, but this is more collaborative. We all work on different sections of a project and move on to the next project.
Little Taller: Going off of that, what has been the biggest learning curve you’ve experienced between working and going to school?
Katelyn: Definitely time management. I’ve had to learn how to dedicate specific time to school, work, and homework. I had to rethink how I spend my free time to make sure I get all my tasks done.
Little Taller: I feel like that’s a big learning curve for everybody. At school, you’re given a schedule and when assignments are due, but with work, things can change at any moment. How do you feel you’re doing balancing work and school?
Katelyn: I think I’m doing pretty well. I only have three classes this semester, so I’m able to dedicate a little bit more time to work. But I do have another class coming up, and I’m a little bit nervous about how I’m going to balance that because it is an accelerated course online. But I think I’m doing pretty good so far.
Little Taller: How are you balancing remote working in your everyday life?
Katelyn: I mean, I pretty much started out working remotely, so it’s not too big of a change for me. School has been the bigger adjustment. Just because I have to get used to, “Oh, am I going into class today? Or am I going to be on zoom?”
Little Taller: Do you feel like it would be weird having to work in an office since you’ve only worked remotely so far?
Katelyn: It would be a little bit weird, just like how going from being in in-person classes to online was a little bit weird. But it’s something that you can adjust to. I’ve been in the office a few times to work. The biggest thing was just trying to figure out the bus schedule, to be honest.
Little Taller: Do you have any fun projects you do on the side?
Katelyn: Not currently. I’m just trying to get finished up with school right now, I don’t really have too much time for passion projects. I’ll start thinking about things like that once I graduate since I’ll have some more time.
Little Taller: What would you be interested in learning?
Katelyn: I don’t know. I think painting can be really fun. I’d like to learn how to paint with watercolors or acrylics.
Little Taller: What is it you like most about working with Little Taller?
Katelyn: The work environment is a big thing for me. It’s a super casual environment, which I really like. I don’t have to worry about being in a really strict, high-stress office environment, which is something I was worried about going into the workforce. I feel like everyone’s really friendly with each other and we’re all connected. It makes the company culture a lot better, for sure. And the variety of projects is nice, too. Since we’re an agency, I get to work on a lot of different things and use a lot of different tools, which is fun. I like that variety.
Little Taller: How did you get connected with Little Taller?
Katelyn: Through Kyle’s class — I was in his Web One class and it was the first time I had ever done anything web-related. Kyle ended up asking me to be his Teacher Assistant for the next semester, so I ended up helping people figure out how to code their assignments and answering their questions about design. From there, Kyle asked me to help out with a project for SciTech Institute. It was just supposed to be a two-week project, but it went well, so I kept working with Little Taller.
Little Taller: Before you were doing web design, what kind of design were you doing?
Katelyn: I was pretty set on going into print or layout design. I still really enjoy it, but I’ve started to enjoy web design more. It’s pretty cool seeing how I’m able to bring my layout design skills into web design, even though my heart was originally set on print and advertising.
Little Taller: Do you feel like Little Taller helped you figure out what you wanted to do?
Katelyn: Yeah, without Little Taller, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into web design or social media design, which is also kind of fun and something I’d never considered doing before. So I’m glad that I explored the opportunity. Working here has definitely helped me figure out what I like to do.
Little Taller: How do you make a point to continue learning while in this position?
Katelyn: Being in school, of course, helps me keep learning. I’m definitely going to be thinking about how I can keep learning after I graduate, whether it’s design-related or something new, like learning new languages.
Little Taller: What’s one professional skill you are currently looking to develop?
Katelyn: I’d like to get better at web design since it was something new that I jumped into. We use Figma a lot too, and since I’m newer to the program, I’d like to get to know more of the ins and outs of it.
Little Taller: So, this last one has nothing to do with a Little Taller, but if you could be an expert at anything, what would it be?
Katelyn: Honestly, I think being an expert at playing the piano would be so fun. It was something that I did throughout high school. Obviously, that’s not a significant enough time to actually be a great piano player, but I think it’s such a cool thing to be able to play an instrument. I’d like to be an expert at that — or painting. I’d love to be an expert painter.
Little Taller: If you did go back to the piano, would you play piano in public, or is it just a private hobby?
Katelyn: I don’t think I would ever really open it up to public view. When I did lessons in high school, my teacher asked me so many times to do recitals, but I always turned her down. It’s a very relaxing, therapeutic thing for me. Adding on that level of, “Oh, I have to be good enough to perform,” would add stress to it, and I don’t really want that.
Interning helped Katelyn find new ways to translate her creative capabilities into a career in design. As she prepares to graduate, she’s looking forward to finding more free time to explore passions both old and new.
At Little Taller, we’re always on the lookout for bright young minds ready to discover new talents — and maybe cultivate some old ones. Now, how can we convince Katelyn to play piano at the office?
