Filing to Fabrication: A Career Story
The summer after my freshman year of high school, I started my first part time job. I was fifteen years old and working at a law firm — kind of a weird job for that age, right? But the firm was owned by my best friend’s mom, and she was paying me a quarter above minimum wage, so it was a pretty sweet gig. I spent that summer filing, copying, and begrudgingly answering the phone. Throughout the rest of my high school years, I held many different jobs from burgers to babysitting to frozen yogurt to a few more offices. I think the only type of job I never worked was retail. The summer after I graduated from high school I was a counselor at a summer camp, a job I went back to the following two summers because I loved it so much. These jobs taught me the basics of what it meant to be a responsible human being. I had to learn time management skills to balance work and my very important social life as well as learning how it felt for other people to depend on you in order to do their jobs. As a teenager, I think it’s important to try out different jobs just to see what’s out there and to help yourself become a more well-rounded individual. However, I think it’s also important not to take these jobs too seriously. Teenage years should be spent focusing on being a teenager.
I began college majoring in Business Management and intending to minor in photography; I wanted to open my own photography studio. It didn’t take me long to realize that I really hated business classes, and for my second semester, I changed my major to Visual Arts with a concentration in photography. Over the following three and a half years, I worked one of the easiest jobs I ever had; I was an RA in the campus dorms and apartments. This job was essentially babysitting a bunch of adults — unlocking their doors when they forgot their keys, solving problems between roommates, and hosting events to encourage them to hang out with each other. I made pretty much no money working this job, but I did get free room and board, which was a major plus. The best part of this job was that it allowed me plenty time to focus on my schoolwork, and as an art major, time was a very precious commodity. I spent most of undergrad covered in charcoal, paint, and other substances, and pulling all-nighters locked inside my darkroom. I look back on those days quite fondly. Lessons learned here? If you’re going to have a job during undergrad, just make sure it’s one that gives you plenty time to focus on school.
Upon graduating, I knew I wanted to eventually go to grad school for my MFA and then become a professor, but a few of my professors highly recommended taking a few years off to really develop my portfolio first. So now I needed a job. During my final semester of school, I had begun working at one of those places where people go to drink wine while being taught how to paint something. I am so thankful I found that job when I did, because after graduation I hit a major rough patch. I spent so much time on various job board websites trying to find some sort of job that would allow me to actually utilize my degree, but I was finding absolutely nothing. I saw my fellow graduates going through the same thing, many of them resorting to taking any job they could find, even if it wasn’t the least bit creative. I really didn’t want to settle for that though. I spent the next five months being extremely anxious and distraught. The only upsides were that the painting job at least covered my rent, and I was still young enough to be on my parents’ insurance, so I didn’t have to worry about that.
One day I had a random encounter with a friend who had been in my photo classes, and all my luck changed. He was getting ready to move to California and was trying to find someone to take over an internship he had had for a while. He was working at a nearby wetlands center, doing a job that was part menial office tasks and part graphic design. I had learned a little bit about InDesign and Illustrator while in school, so I thought it was worth a shot. I interviewed and was hired pretty immediately. I can’t say I loved the “office tasks” part of this position, but I was very quickly enamored by the design tasks. One of my first projects was to create an educational activity book, and I absolutely fucking loved doing it. I felt so lucky; I was working a job that let me use my artistic skills, and it paid around $3 above minimum wage. A little over a year into this internship, I was struck with more good fortune. The guy working on our team as the Media Specialist was leaving, and everyone really wanted me to take that position. So I applied, interviewed, and got it! I now officially had a salaried position with benefits as a government contractor.
The best part of this job was that I was able to mold the position into what I wanted it to be. The guy who previously held the position was managing the social media accounts and doing a couple other tasks. I was able to turn it into a mostly graphic design position while still also maintaining the social media side. This was an interesting time for me. Sometimes I felt like I was making things that weren’t all that spectacular, but the team had never had a designer before, so they thought everything I did was amazing. It ended up being a great opportunity for me to really enhance my design skills and learn things at my own pace. I learned two big lessons from this job. 1. Don’t be afraid to try new things and offer up ideas; sometimes you can create your own position. 2. I never want to work for the government again; it is extremely slow and unorganized.
So even though I was working this job that I didn’t hate I hadn’t forgotten that I wanted to go back to school and pursue my actual dream job. During my first year as Media Specialist, I was also renting a studio space to work on my photos. But it was really hard to find time to work and be inspired while also working 40 hours a week. I made new work, but I wasn’t exceptionally proud of it. Still, I applied to five schools, most of them only accepting 4–6 students each year…and I was rejected from every single one. It was a little disheartening. I kept telling myself I would make more work and apply again the following year. But if I thought I was uninspired before, it was even worse at this point. I was also starting to get bored with my job, trying to deal with a long distance relationship, and wondering if it was just time to move.
I began to reanalyze what I wanted to do with my life. I figured if I was so uninspired about my photos now, I wasn’t likely to become instantly more inspired just because I was back in school. I then realized how much I was really enjoying graphic design and began to wonder what more I could do there. I also knew that it was time to get out of Louisiana. So I began looking into visual design programs that were located in places I definitely wanted to move to. I eventually settled on a program in Boulder, deciding that even if I didn’t get in to the program I would still move to Colorado and start fresh. This time, I got in!
When I started the program this past August I thought I might want to be a UX designer, focusing on education technology. And now I’m about halfway through my second semester, and I’ve completely changed my mind. I’ve gotten the opportunity to learn so many amazing things that I never could have imagined, and I realize I’d like to be less “behind the scenes” than originally intended. I would very much like to combine my visual arts background with the new technologies I’ve learned. I’m hoping now that I can find a career in the realm of fabrication, creating physical pieces and environments that implement technology, and that’s what I’m striving toward with all the work that I create this semester. I feel like my grad school experience thus far has taught me the best lessons. I’ve learned not only to stop fearing failure but to strive for it in order to be successful. I’m also learning to keep discovering my passions and finding ways to join them together. The best part is that since I’m in a new place surrounded by all these wonderful, creatively charged people, I’m feeling more inspired than ever.
