hmmm. Honestly? No. I mean, I probably could, but I don’t want to. And I really think that if you’re doing it for any other reason other than wanting to, then you’re probably wasting not only your time and money, but everyone else’s too.
I definitely have great plans for my career which I’m looking forward to. But having said that, I also have great plans for my personal life, which means that I can’t wholeheartedly devote years of my life to being responsible for others, taking big risks and living at my work day in and day out. I want to travel and pursue my hobbies. Change things up every once in a while. And I can’t do that if I have a business baby to take care of.
However, I am aiming for a position one day that one could perhaps consider to be a happy medium: And that is to be a project manager. A good friend of mine in the coding side of the technology industry pointed out that he thinks I’d make a great project manager. My initial response was: “Uh, Keags, what does a project manager even do? I’m studying Interaction Design!” But after he explained the position to me with reference to his own project manager, and after some research of my own, I think this is a position I’d like to work towards in a company one day.
But starting and owning my own company/agency/business? mmm no thank you. I’d rather be a part of the team than the one who starts it. :)
Sinek’s explanation of the Golden Circle just makes sense. The Golden Circle is the brilliant secret that’s always been right under our noses. Every time someone asks me “why did you choose to go with Apple?” (mostly my dev friends when they occasionally crawl out of their coding caves) I’ve always found it difficult to answer. Usually because any argument I have regarding my MacBook’s hardware and software specifications is immediately shot down with various other brands with machines of equally impressive specs. Then come the “mmmm looks like someone is a brand girl” comments. And yeah, I’ll admit, I’m an Apple fan. But why? I don’t think I’ve ever been one to follow brand trends in any other aspect of life, be it clothing, cars, music etc. Why am I all of a sudden devoted to Apple products?
Sinek explains it beautifully, and now I know. It was Apple’s why that I became devoted to, not necessarily their products (though I will admit my MacBook is a lovely machine). They know their why, and their market strategies push their why before their how and what. I’m not a materialistic person, I never have been and probably never will be. But when I bought my MacBook, subconsciously I felt like I was buying something that aligned to my personal philosophy, my ideals, my lifestyle. I didn’t feel like I was spending money (a lot of money) on just another product.
And the more I think about it, the Golden Circle applies to pretty much everything I buy. When I succumb to inevitable consumerism, the words that encourage me to buy include things like “innovative, pushing the limits, green, sustainable, give back, recycle, because we care” and so forth. Things that make me feel as if I’m not being a consumer, things that make me feel like I am indeed making a difference, being a good and wholesome human.
How clever the Golden Circle is. It all makes sense now.
When I first began studying design at a tertiary level, the idea of free-lancing and being able to travel and work really appealed to me. It still does, however throughout the course of my studies thus far I’ve realised that I’d actually rather prefer to work for a design firm. I’d still love to work remotely sometimes, however I’d like to belong to a company while doing so.
I’ve realised that I’m wholeheartedly a team player, and need the social aspect of working with people. It’s comforting to have people who I can go to for advice and who I can learn from, and it’s motivating for me to be a part of a team. Also, working with people allows me to gauge if I’m overworking myself or slacking, if I’m overthinking things or need to engage more and overall really just helps me feel like I belong somewhere - something which is very important to me on a personal level.
Although having said all this I think its important to also clarify that I am an introvert so I will need time to recharge alone (that’s why flexi-hours or remote working could also suit me) and can be socially shy so it could take me a while to feel comfortable within a new team, but just the comfort of having others working on the same project as me or working for the same company as me is comforting and worth the nerves while getting to know them.
I don’t think I could freelance, I think I would feel too isolated and would suffer from performance anxiety without being able to gauge where I am against colleagues.
I’m definitely a team player and will be happiest working in an environment with people.
Reading 5 was a contract between a designer and a design firm. The idea of having to one day read and sign a contract has always been daunting and honestly reading through this contract has made me realise the importance of asking someone else, or even a few knowledgable people, to read over it for you. Because I had to read it a good few times to figure out what exactly was going on, and even after that I feel unsure as to if I’ve missed, or misunderstood, anything.
Thanking my lucky stars that my friend Jess is studying law.
Reading 4: Build a Network - Even When You Don’t Think You Need One
Networks are an interesting topic of conversation for me. At the beginning of the passage, I resonated with typical qualities of a lone wolf - such as being busy, introverted and feeling socially anxious at planned gatherings.
But as I continued to read the advice that Dorie Clark gave for lone wolves I realised that maybe I’m not as bad at at networking as I thought I was. Networking has kind of just happened to me - and seeing as I’ve lived in Cape Town for my whole life I suppose it’s not surprising. Between highschool, college, music/festival scenes, various service industry jobs and the horse riding community I’ve realised that one can meet important people in various different ways. Everyone has hobbies and I’ve met a large variety of people through mutual hobbies. Opportunity to network is around every corner. And so far as a result of this I’ve been blessed with many part time jobs so far - without having a CV (making one is currently on my To Do list).
However it’s time for me to start focusing on networking within the realm of interaction design. Which is daunting, however I should be okay if I keep in mind both Clark’s advice and remind myself of my networking skills in other paths of life.
A recap of Clark’s advice:
Identify people you truly respect
Recognise how a lack of networking may be holding you back
This position appeals to me because I felt personally summed up in the job description. I resonated with majority of the required characteristics and felt excited at the prospect of being involved with this company.
The description does however mention a program, Balsamiq, which I am not familiar with and this is intimidating. However I’ll definitely be looking into this tool.
There is no mention of experience level in the requirements, so I’d need to double check that. There is also no mention of whether it is full time work or part time.
This position sounds like it would provide me with not only experience but with confidence too, and perpetuate my passion in the industry.
This position sounds like it has lots of room for creativity which excites me. One of their listed duties is to “Simplify complex concepts through intuitive designs” which appeals to me greatly as I love using design to solve problems, simplify situations, organise data and provide information in a simple, easily understood way.
The preferred experience in print design as well as webdesign does make me nervous as I definitely feel I’m more suited to webdesign although I’m happy to be versatile -I just hope my print design skills would be good enough.
This position would enable me to manage projects for the company’s brand, which would give me some of the necessary experience in order to become a project manager one day, which is something I’d like to eventually achieve.
This position appeals to me because of it’s clear focus on UX design (which I think I may prefer over UI design) as well as the fact that I’d be an extra pair of hands to the head UX designer, meaning I would learn so much directly from someone with an immense amount of experience. I love that I’d get to focus on user psychology which is something that greatly interests me. The fact that the project is a global product also could enable me to get to know what the industry is like overseas.
The experience requirement does make me nervous, however I noticed that they did not require any tertiary education in the field so perhaps my 4 years of studying and year of interning (while finishing part time) would be sufficient experience.
I wonder if this position would require any travelling as the project is a global product.
This position would give me an incredible amount of experience in working with large remote teams and allow me to really focus on UX and user psychology. I think I’d learn a lot which would really enable me to excel in the field.
Reading 3: How to be a Graphic Designer without Losing your Soul.
This week’s prescribed reading really taught me, and reminded me, of a lot of key points in the design world. One thing that I really resonated with though was Shaughnessy’s advice on time management.
My heart sinks at the word. My spine gets all tingly and my throat suddenly feels very tight. Time management has always been my arch enemy. Not because I’m unorganised - on the contrary my planner is kept up to date with precision, decorated with a variety of To-Do’s, reminder’s, lists and important dates to note. Google Keep is one of the most opened apps on my phone. I plan each day, each week, each month to the T and well in advance. So why is my biggest complaint always “I’m running out of hours in a day”?
Shaughnessy hits the nail on the head. Anxiety. What a rude little un-paying tenant in my brain. Shaughnessy’s tips for dealing with performance anxiety were wonderful, but the one that really stuck out in my brain was that we should never stop working on a task when we’re doing a difficult or not so tasty part of it. The “oh” in my head was so loud I think my sleeping dog heard it from across the room.
This is something we were, funnily enough, always taught in horse riding. You never end a training session on a bad note. If you can’t get something right, you do something easier that you can accomplish and leave it on that. If you fall off, you get back on (unless you’re really hurt and physically unable to of course) and do something simple before ending your session for the day. Because it’s important for both you and your horse to end on a good note in order to prevent leaving a bad taste in either of your mouths, giving either of you anxiety for the next training session. And now, this is something I’ll apply throughout my career. I’m so glad this reading pointed out the correlation.
Shaughnessy‘s points on combining strategy and creativity linked so heavily to Interaction design that I had to double check what subject this reading was for! This is, in essence the whole aim of UX and UI design. How wonderfully well he explained it. A good little reminder.
Writing. As a bibliophile from the age of 3, this is a section that really caught my attention. I love reading, and I love writing. English and AP English were two of my strongest and most loved subjects in high school, respectively. I love being an english tutor. Essay’s excite me. Poetry excites me. The idea of creating my own reality through words excites me.
I made a mistake however. Matric was intense and then I jumped straight into a full time degree while working part time and I thought to myself “reading doesn’t serve my visual future and I definitely don’t have time for reading for pleasure. My library awaits me, post graduation.” How incorrect I was. Firstly, because I missed it terribly, but secondly because I didn’t realise that a whole new section of literary awaited me that would be essential to my future career. It’s taken me a while and some encouragement from many people and angles, but I’m back with my nose happily stuck in a book every night. And for someone who’s wholeheartedly a fan of a well written novel, this new genre isn’t exactly boring either. In fact I’m looking forward to getting back to Malcom Gladwell’s “Outliers” after I finish up with writing this.
I’ve realised that my background in English and literature is more useful in the design world than what I ever gave it credit for. Not only is Albert Camus’ “The Outsider” helping me understand our current work in Contextual Studies better (and vice versa to be honest) but my general love of books is starting to pay off. In fact, the other day someone advised me to do a copy write course alongside my studies. And you know what, I think I just might.
Let’s spot some opportunities: Every evening I will write down three positively impacting things, whether it’s something good that happened to me that day, a compliment someone paid me, someone or something I’m grateful for, or something that I’m excited for. I’ll record this in notes on my phone - no excuse of “oh well I don’t have my journal with me.”
It’s time to gain value from learning: listen to one relevant (to my career/studies) and educational podcast per week and try read for at least half an hour everyday (again, the book should be industry relevant)
Benefit from the unexpected: Say yes to one thing every month that I’d usually hesitate to do. Whether it’s plans with friends or posting a personal artwork that I’d usually doubt and decide not to post/share. We never know what could lead us to new opportunities.
I need to start putting my big girl panties on and feel brave in the face of (internal and external) pressure and expectation by: laughing off mistakes - or even just forcing a wavering smile if that’s the best I can do - and finding and writing at least one lesson learnt from the experience.
oof. Reading the first few paragraphs of the excerpt was the biggest personal attack I felt all week. The critic in my head can be really cruel sometimes. Brutally cruel.
But I’m learning to drown them out. I’ve always been a perfectionist, an idealist, a person passionate about being the best version of myself possible. But my idealistic tendencies often entice me to create a perfect version of myself that I aspire to be that is quite frankly, unobtainable. And the thought of that version being unobtainable makes me really anxious. It makes me question my worth and doubt my value.
However I’m learning that the best possible version of me is an all embracing version. Because slowly but surely I’m learning that life exists through negation. happiness cannot exist without sadness, for happiness is the absence of sadness and sadness is the absence of happiness. I cannot know success without first knowing failure. I cannot know how it feels to be proud of myself if I never feel disappointed with myself.
And with that, I’m learning that it’s really all about attitude. I can be pessimistic and give in to the torment of the critic in my head, or I can be hopeful and rise above it. I can allow my failures to shatter my self confidence, or I can chalk it up to experience and allow it to help me grow and evolve.
It’s easier said than done. But I’m making a conscious effort to change the way I view myself. And this reading was definitely helpful in reminding me of this journey and handing me more tools to use on it’s path.
In an exploration of important attributes that make up the graduate I want to become, I realised that confidence really is going to be the key for me. There were a few other attributes that stood out to me, such as resilience (which I rated myself 9/10), curiosity (6/10), passion (7/10) and authenticity (5/10).
However, while looking over the list of attributes made available to us, I realised that the one most important is probably confidence (3/10), because due to my lack of confidence I’m constantly selling myself short and not being loud and proud about the positive attributes I do have, nor am I providing myself with the encouragement to improve on the attributes I feel I’m lacking.
So after a bit of research and ideation (mostly thanks to youtube) I have complied a list of things I will be challenging myself to do over the next week:
1. Keep a list of all my small wins. Whether it’s completing my daily To-Do list or having the dog I run into on the street be excited to greet me - it’s a win and it’s being noted!
2. Dress to impress - “be confident from the outside in.” Take a photo of each outfit I wear over the next 7 days and take note of what makes me feel good, empowered and confident and what makes me feel like I’m hiding from the world in plain sight.
3. Exercise. I keep promising my body I’ll go to gym more but now it’s really time to get those endorphins going. I will take note of my exercise efforts over the next week and reflect on it.
4. Take note of the beautiful attributes my friends and family have and let them inspire me. And let them know too! Building up each others self confidence will form a community of encouragement and positivity that will benefit everyone. We should voice our appreciation of each other more.
5. Take note of the compliments and appreciation surrounding me. Even if its just someone thanking me for stopping my car to let them cross the road, or someone’s appreciation for me providing them with a lift to work or college, - that’s still a win and something someone appreciated about me that should be noted.
6. Note one thing I appreciate about myself everyday. This one will be the toughest but that’s the point of a challenge.
Glei, J. “Maximize your Potential: Grow Your Expertise, Take the Bold Risks and Build an Incredible Career.”
As a third year student, the future of my career is something that clouds my everyday thoughts and induces a fear based anxiety as well as an excitement based euphoria. I’m almost there. But where is there? What am I trying to reach? When will I know that I have arrived at my destination? What if I don’t get there?
A million questions swirl around my head on the daily. And this reading didn’t answer any of them. Instead, it taught me that those types of questions cannot be answered because they are the wrong questions. The future is abstract. Nobody knows what they will be in 10 years time because that job hasn’t been invented yet and neither has the technology for it. And the job you’ll have in 10 years time wont be the job you’ll still have 4 years after that.
The career field is no longer definitive. And while that may be scary (mostly because when Aunty So and So asks what I’m going to be I can’t really provide a straight answer, which usually leads to a sympathetic smile and a “that’s nice dear” which really covers up the thought of “shame, another lost artistic youngster.”) it’s also exciting.
It’s like backpacking around Europe by yourself without a set itinerary nor a solid plan that turns out to be the best adventure you’ve ever had, instead of that strict tour run by the scary tour guide lady with a deep love of her whistle and matching tour shirts (canary yellow of course) that your parents thought was a great holiday idea back in 2002.
Things I found in this reading that brought me comfort:
Nobody knows where they’re headed.
I won’t be stuck in one career/job forever, so it’s okay if I suck or secretly hate my boss.
I have choices.
My mentality regarding learning new skills is more important than my skillset itself. It’s okay if I still can’t stand my Wacom - doesn’t mean my career is over because there’s other options available that’ll suit me better and there will be plenty of even better options in the future.
My characteristics are more valued than my skillset. And this means having a life beyond the walls of college is important. Waitressing isn’t a waste of time - it teaches me patience, juggling and time management that someone will one day be looking for in a designer. Taking that road trip, learning how to hoola hoop, or teaching myself a new language will all come in handy one day, whether it be the actual skill itself or rather the resilience, perseverance, open-mindedness and creativity that these tasks will teach me. In other words, feeding my soul and branching out beyond my studies is actually a good thing that I don’t have to feel guilty about.
What a relief. Sorry Aunty So and So - despite your heavy sighs and “in my day” stories, it turns out I am actually on the right path. And with such an abstract future ahead of me, it’s time to start breathing easier and realise that “you can’t be lost if you don’t know where you’re going.”
After taking the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument test, I discovered that I was predominantly Accommodating (10 points) followed closely by being Avoiding (9 points). This honestly came as no surprise. As someone who is rather afraid of conflict and who would go to the ends of the earth to avoid it, I anticipated my results looking something like this.
However, recently I’ve become more and more aware of how being soft and overly-considerate (some would say self sacrificing) ends up with me being taken advantage of. But more importantly, I’ve realised that most people just don’t realise that they’re taking advantage of me because they’re just so used to me complying with a smile on my face that it never occurs to them that I might actually be feeling otherwise. I recognise that this is MY OWN DOING. (Capitals because I’m being stern with myself).
My good friend Tamara’s results after taking the same assessment were of the type Competing. This makes sense to me as Tamara has been a huge influence in my life over the past few months. Tamara gives great advice when it comes to conflict and has encouraged me to say no, put myself first, and speak up. Their positive and calm assertiveness really inspires me and has helped me ease my anxiety over conflict many times. I think that by being the opposite of one another when it comes to conflict, we balance each other out. I’m grateful for the lessons Tamara has taught me!
Applying the NVC method was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. However, what I did get frustrated with was how few people actually abide by it. Fair enough, not everyone knows about it and how to go about implementing it, but it was frustrating for me to, for example, focus really hard on not interrupting someone and then being interrupted every 3 minutes when I tried to talk. However, after calmly explaining this to the person at hand, things immediately improved and they admitted that they had not realised their poor communication habits and were intrigued to learn more. This was a lovely experience.
However, not everyone took to it, and I had to really bear in mind that my emotional reaction is a result of my interpretation of the other person, and not necessarily what they are actually trying to put across. I have a terrible habit of taking things personally, and throughout this past week I’ve realised that this is a direct result of assuming that the other person intends to make me feel the emotions that I feel, instead of admitting that my emotions are my responsibility and that its my interpretation that causes them. After this realisation, I immediately found to be a lot calmer in many dialogues that would usually make me nervous or feel personally attacked. I’m going to really make an efforgt to continue working on this, because I feel it will really help improve the communication within so many of my relationships with others.
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