How are you delaying your career growth in the design field?
By: Edward Chechique
Tags: Professional Development, Product Design, UX, UX Design, Careers

How are you delaying your career growth in the design field?

Life is like a Ferris wheel, Sometimes we are on the top, and sometimes we are on the bottom. Edward Chechique Follow Jan 21 · 5 min read

In most cases, the problem is that when we are on the top, we don’t care what will happen when we are on the bottom. But when we are on the top of the Ferris wheel, it is necessary to think about the bottom.

In this article, I want to illustrate how designers waste precious time on the top of this Ferris wheel.

I am fun of podcast books and conferences, and most of my knowledge in the last years comes from these sources. At one of the conferences, I heard two successful chefs (Assaf Granit and Uri Navon) talking about their restaurant business experience and offering some advice.

One of the points mentioned was to be ready and initiate action for things you know will/can happen. They called it:

“Turned on the heat and put a pan.”

They explained that in the kitchen, the machine prints the dishes that the people ordered. one person reads it to the cooks. When a cook hears that he needs to prepare a dish, he immediately turns on the heat and puts above the pan, so after he finishes prepares the previous dish, the pan will be ready for the next dish.

I like their example very much, and I want to illuminate some cases from the designer’s world.

I don’t have time to complete all my tasks.

Let’s talk about something very familiar to designers (and maybe to more professionals). Do you know a moment when a designer said: “I don’t have time to complete all my tasks?” It is happening, but let’s face it, You can work on a be a big project or a small project, but you eat the time and don’t focus because you think you have time. In the end, you are stressed and do all the job at the last minute, sometimes without sleep well at night.

The reasons you didn’t sleep well in the last week is:

You take a lot of breaks in your day.

take a lot of breaks in your day. You are thinking about other topics.

are thinking about other topics. You are lazy to work on the user story.

are lazy to work on the user story. You are not asking the questions you want to ask.

are not asking the questions you want to ask. You postpone design reviews to a later date.

postpone design reviews to a later date. You are waiting for you to get inspired.

are waiting for you to get inspired. You are looking for inspiration on the internet for many hours.

All these things lead you to deliver at the last minute, and I am sure you don’t like to do things in a rush.

You knew that at some moment, the time would end, but you didn’t prepare yourself?

One day you will work in another company.

Today designers change positions every two years (more or less). It can be that you feel you want to move to the next challenge, or you get fired from the company (shit happens or corona happened, call it as you wish).

Finding a job is not easy because there are many talented people the compete for every position. At this point, people are starting to be stressed and work in a rush. They need to prepare their CV, perform on their portfolio, talk with people, do interviews, do tests for the positioning, prepare a presentation, speak about themselves.

But:

Why is your CV not ready?

Why didn’t you prepare your portfolio six months ago?

Why don’t you have a pitch to sell yourself?

Why you didnt work on your presentation skills?

You need to realize that it is necessary to be prepared to change position at any moment, and it is easy to work on it when you are in a safe place.

Why s/he promoted, and I am staying in the same position?

I met some people who always wanted to move forward in their careers inside the company. Some of them succeed, and some didn’t, but why one person promoted and some people no?

In most cases, the people who promoted worked continually to get it, and in the moment the opportunity came, the first person who makes sense to be announced was them. In other words,

“If the goddess of fortune knocks on the door, you should not be in the bathroom.”

Both came every day to the office and wanted to be promoted, so what makes the difference?

The person that did not promote thought that only the time he works in the company will help him, but the person that promoted prepare himself for this moment and s/he

Came with ideas and pushed them

Made an impact on the product

Shared knowledge inside the company

Studied and used new techniques inside the company

Took ownership of the process

helped junior designers

The designer that his future is in the past

I am sure some of us know a designer who said that he uses photoshop to design applications. I can’t understand why people use Photoshop to design this type of product. However, I assume they think they’re smarter than other designers, or maybe they are lazy to study new programs.

A designer who doesn’t study new programs and techniques stuck in the past may think he is smarter, but it can be late when he realizes the mistake.

I do not consider programs to be a critical part of the UX designer world

But what do you think when you see a designer that works without symbols in Sketch? Is it looks professional to you?

You may work in a company for many years, and you are comfortable, and you feel confident with your knowledge, but think about these situations.

You talk with a person with more expertise than you and feel he knows more than you.

A young designer comes to your team and has more skills than you.

You lost your jobs because your skills are not enough anymore.

So be sure you acquire new knowledge to be always at the top of expertise.

I hope this article illuminated a little bit how we can think about our time. Feel free to share it with your friends or team members, and if you have any questions, Feel free to share it with me.