To be happy challenge yourself.
When I started my career in design I graduated as a visual communicator. I got a job and began to label and box myself into the job. I worked in-house and focused on print. After a while, I began to only think of myself as a print graphic designer. Because of the recession, I felt stuck in the job and began to feel unchallenged and bored. You would think that for someone that was bored with their job, would jump at the opportunity to take on new exciting projects. Nope, I was interested but fearful of getting it wrong. This was ridiculous. I wasn’t motivated and my confidence was totally evaporated. I was a shell of a designer. Some jobs are like that and it’s very important to realize that you are in this situation. In order for me to develop as a designer, I needed to jump ship.
Discover your career path
It took a while to decide on a career path that I would be happy with. While working as a visual communicator in a large retailer I began to have an interest in digital and web design. I left the security of a forever job and moved to a small digital company for six months. I began at the bottom of the ladder and began designing for web and e-learning projects. It was great. I was interested and motivated. What happened is that I began to learn again, I rediscovered my interest in design and learning. This motivated me to explore new mediums and think of other design areas. It also gave me a better understanding of what I wanted and the path I was on.
Where do you see yourself in five years?
If you feel stuck in a job, think of ways to progress or move. When that interview question comes up, where do you see yourself in five years? Answer it, not for the interview but for you.
For any designers that are thinking of moving towards web design but feel intimated. I would suggest that you try some online courses or evening courses. It’s a lot to take on-board if you haven’t worked with code before. But it’s just like learning illustrator or InDesign for the first time. It takes time to get confident and good with the tools you have. Be persistent, practice and it will become second nature to you. The web design field is huge and there are plenty of areas to specialize in. It will take time before you find your preference. In the meantime be curious and explore. Follow YouTube channels and blogs, this will give you an insight into the trends and what other designers are doing. I always liked the dev tips channel when I was learning code.
Learn from other areas of design
I am now a UX designer and teacher. I prefer the term designer. The continuous labelling of what position you are in pigeon holes designers. I think it is important to specialize, but I also think it’s important to look at other design practices. It’s good to continuously learn and develop from other areas of design.
The key for me was realizing that it is up to me to progress my career. It was up to me to realize that I would be more suited in a challenging environment. And it was up to me to realize what I wanted. If you aren’t happy with your job, then do something about it. Don’t wait another year, start planning now. I’m not saying leave your job, but decide what you want to do and start developing those skills by beginning projects. Once you start working on projects that you are interested in you will find that your creativity, interest and happiness will increase :)
