“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
~ Steve Jobs
One of the greatest gifts I was ever given early in my career was clarity from a mentor I had. He sat me down one day and had me list out, in great detail, what my ideal life looked like.
I wasn’t to list superficial things like, “I want a million dollars!” Instead, I was to detail every aspect of a lived day for what I wanted from a successful life. What would be important to me?
As you create your design career, this clarity can be your guiding light for deciding what opportunities to pursue.
Below, I’ve captured the questions I had to answer that helped me immensely.
Think carefully and honestly about these answers. Don’t be intimidated by them or allow outside influences to affect your decisions (like what other people will think). Also, don’t think your answers will lock you into one particular direction. You should consider this line of questioning often because the answers will likely change through the years along with you.
It’s important to have these in mind as you consider your design career. Different answers lay out different paths and may be illuminating for structuring who you work with, where you work, and why you work in a particular career.
If you want to be the big boss of a company, or your own company, there are certain avenues that will be harder to obtain. For instance, when you are a leader, your time is almost always heavily taxed. Grab a drink or lunch with someone who is high up in their company. They will often have a difficult time putting their phone down as critical emails and phone calls come up constantly. Being higher up means more demand for travel, longer stretches away, and often late nights resolving issues. It means having to look good people in their eyes and telling them they no longer have a job. Greater influence, greater compensation, and greater autonomy equals greater responsibility and greater requirements. It also means that you will have much less time to ever output actual design.
A manager hardly has any time to ever complete any design work themselves as they are responsible for their team and representing them to the company. If you really enjoy the craft of design, being up on the latest trends and advancements, participating in the output and receiving accolades for your great works, know that it may disappear all-together with certain career paths.
If you want to work for a large, big-name firm, know that there may be requirements put on you for where you live. A country life may not be possible if you’re working for a big-name company. Additionally, your individual impact will be reduced for a good part of your early career, as you are one designer out of thousands who is putting time in (many of whom are all competing for those same larger roles). Contrast that with the potential flexibility of a smaller company, where you are moving mountains for them with greater responsibility but have less compensation and clout.
There’s no “right” answer for a career path, only your answer. It’s folly to simply want to be a “Director of Design,” whatever form that takes, and not think through what you truly want.
Put yourself ten to twenty years in the future and walk through an entire ideal day. Absolutely ideal-you’ve gotten everything you wanted. Be honest.
Where Are You?
Do you wake up in a penthouse in a bustling metropolis? Did you wake up to the gentle sounds of a farm? Are you in a small, cozy suburb listening to a mower cut grass?
You Go to the Kitchen. Who’s There?
Are there some friends from the night before? Is there a tablet and screens with the news on and breakfast at the ready? Is there a long-term partner there? Are there kids gathered around the table?
How Does Your Day Start?
Do you walk around your yard and feel the sun? Do you walk into the garage and fire up the Porsche? Do you walk with your kids to their school and listen to their stories? Do you walk into a waiting car, ready to whisk you away to the airport?
Where Are You Going to Work?
Do you walk back into your cozy home office and fire up your laptop? Do you take the elevator to your corner office and fire up your computer? Do you jet off to an off-site client meeting to discuss a new project?
What Type of Work Are You Doing?
Do you quiet all distractions and dive into your craft, applying your expert hand to a piece of work that will delight everyone? Do you get into the boardroom with other high-level executives to fight for your vision and hash out the larger direction? Do you meet and greet with clients to determine what they actually need and how to deliver it? Do you sit with a small, tight-knit team to collaborate and solve problems?
How Does Your Day End?
Do you drive hard into the night and come across breakthrough after breakthrough in an adrenaline, rush-filled evening of progress? Do you head out to bars after a hard-won day with coworkers to try an amazing new restaurant and laugh away the night? Do you bike to the soccer fields to participate in your evening soccer game and unwind with your team? Do you arrive home to little ones running for a hug as you prepare for dinner and a bedtime routine?
Have an honest conversation about what you want, and make career decisions accordingly.
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