I remember perfectly the moment when I decided to move out of business analysis and fully immerse myself in the field of design. I simply stopped fighting with myself at one point and decided to do something that I really enjoyed and enjoyed doing. At that moment, my new beginning was Design. I completely changed the vector of my movement from numbers and analytics to research and pixels. I remember this time with great warmth and awe because from that moment I started doing things that really drove me and allowed me to absorb new knowledge like a sponge.

It was only later that I came across Steve Jobs’ wonderful phrase about “connecting the dots” and the realization that this journey through business analysis gave me a knowledge base that has come in handy in my work.

Steve talked about a seemingly random and unrelated chain of events in his career, starting with a willful decision to drop out of college, which had become boring and uninteresting to him. The one exception was his calligraphy classes, for which Jobs had a particular affinity, not realising at the time how useful they would be in his future life. And while he was hard at work on a new line of Macintosh computers, his knowledge of calligraphy paid off -Steve and his team created some of the industry’s first scalable fonts for Apple. Jobs said that while he could not have imagined such a combination of events in the past, now, years later, he sees a clear-cut path to success.

From the podium, Jobs opined that one cannot “connect the dots” and needs faith in oneself and trust in life to move forward. Steve’s speech resonated strongly within me, and it was then that I realised that I had been moving with a love of design all along, just on different planes, as my favourite subjects at school and university were geometry and calligraphy. But that is not the point at the moment.

In this article, I would like to share with younger designers or just people who during the pandemic have decided to change the sphere or plane of their movement. So I’ve put together some suggestions for you on how to make your transition more conscious.

1.When you change your job profile or find a hobby, you must first sort out what issue/problem you want to close with this change in your life. When deciding to change, there is an expectation that there will be no stress, no stressful situations and everything will go according to plan. But the adaptation process is very individual and depends on self-attitude and self-discipline. We must accept the changes as they area. Otherwise it will be a never-ending search.

2. Don’t be afraid to try more directions. I know a lot of people who have changed more than one direction in their life and in spite of that they never stop looking for themselves. I think that this attitude comes to adulthood from school/education in adolescence, when parents put the burden of responsibility on you to decide what to do in life and that there is only one chance/ticket to decide what it will be. But the events of the past year with the world pandemic have shown that this is not the case. There is no other way than to try more activities to find your own.

3. Ask yourself is what I do really not my thing? Maybe the specialty is the right one, but in the wrong field.

4. Ask yourself is what I do really not my thing? Maybe the specialty is the right one, but in the wrong field. The advantage of this approach is that you understand not only what you like, but also what you definitely won’t tolerate and do, so you form your own “filters” and, one might say, narrow down the search for the dream case)

5. Start a diary and write down 5 criteria — what you do, actions / what environment you are in / whether you interact with people and with whom / what objects you use at that moment / whether there is a person/client to whom you help. You can use these criteria to assess situations/moments where you feel energised and where you feel disgusted and disillusioned. In this case, you can track which direction of work is better (UX research, interviewing, creating UI components and so on)

6. Allow yourself to take small steps towards your dream job, to start recognising the nuances and difficulties. I recommend that you find out more about “romantic” professions — is it that cool. The 3/3 principle is to talk about the job with 3 people who are happy in that field or direction and 3 people who don’t like what they do. The result will be an objective overview with the pros and cons of a “romantic” profession

7. Our brains are very lazy — we need to be constantly rocked to new unknowns. You have to let your brain take on new directions and spheres. Because we are grounded in permanence and our body and thinking moves on “old” rails that are hard to turn in another direction.

The 3/3 principle is to talk about the job with 3 people who are happy in that field or direction and 3 people who don’t like what they do. The result will be an objective overview with the pros and cons of a “romantic” profession

8. Write down all the ideas that come up. Even the most unexpected, over time looking at this list can come “insight” about a new direction. Plus, there will already be a large list of ideas. Don’t get hung up on the idea that my business should be a big deal, and constantly think that if your business is not global, you’re just wasting your time. Constantly think that you don’t need to get lost in the small stuff and look for the global business of life. To stop thinking through the prism of life’s occupation/ business of life. Work through ideas on a paper level. Reduce the level of critical thinking to the viability of the idea.

9. Eat the “elephant” piece by piece. Don’t give up everything you have and go headlong into something new, but gradually learn about a new field, try it out and analyse what responds and what doesn’t. There is no magic pill — you have to try everything. We need to constantly work on hypotheses of things we think we would be interested in. If it seems interesting to be UX researcher, try to do something in this field.

There is no magic pill — you have to try everything. We need to constantly work on hypotheses of things we think we would be interested in.

10. Just go ahead, knowing that it will be strange (it’s a natural process — everything new is stressful). But after this start, in the future you will be grateful to yourself for having taken this step.

Peace for everyone ✌🏻

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