If I may be permitted to say so, most of the articles I write about, focus on Design centric operations improvements, Design centric process refinement or establishment and generally speaking, on how Design as a discipline can impact the output of Product Solutions. I have not particularly focused on behaviors, aside from my article on Ego in Design, since behaviors in general are not limited to Designers but also to all the team members they interact with, and who are as deeply invested in the Design process itself. The idea for this article came about as a result of a few conversations I had with friends and colleagues in the field, who expressed their frustration with certain aspects of their careers, namely career advancement (or lack of) and also the somewhat tortuous narrative that at times revolves around the Design career path, getting hired and dealing with rejection.

Career Growth, Longevity and EQ. At the time I’m writing this article, August of 2021, we are collectively in somewhat of a challenging situation, socially, economically and environmentally. We’re navigating a dramatic pandemic, but we’re also adjusting to newly instated work habits, particularly when it comes to remote work and also hybrid work paradigms. On top of all of these events, this year has also become well known as The Great Resignation, since so many professionals have stated their intention to leave their current jobs, not to mention those who have had to leave their current jobs due to business shortcomings, layoffs or have had their own business impacted by the general shift in the economy. This wave of new opportunities, but also of new candidates on the market has definitely fueled quite a few conversations with my fellow Designers, on topics ranging from career paths and strategy, to frustrations stemming from less than transparent hiring processes (which I also have alluded to in my article in hiring for Product Design). This has in turn allowed me to reflect on my personal career, and how I navigated prior recessions, how I shifted career paradigms, and how I have navigated a career path which at times isn’t as linear and straightforward as many would expect. Here are some things that I’ve learnt & distilled, which I’m itemizing and hopefully will generate some fruitful conversations.

Always be prepared — remember your teachers in high school and how they always said, if you’re prepared, whatever is thrown at you won’t come as much of a shock. Well, turns out it’s true. As a Designer, independently of what level you are, and how you want to be perceived, being prepared means tackling three important aspects of your career and personal brand: your portfolio, your social media, your continuous education. One doesn’t have to research much to uncover and realize that many Designers on the market, particularly as they become more seasoned, have portfolios which seemingly haven’t been updated since 2005 (ok, since 2008). Don’t fall prey to the inner voice that states your case studies aren’t strong enough, or that you can’t write well enough. Reach out to friends, network, ask for advice from mentors, but always remember to keep an online presence that is relevant, pertinent, detailed and provides insight into who you are, what your point of view is, and how you communicate those previous points. On that same note, always have the materials that support your application ready and updated, specifically resumes and cover letters. These items are something which should be maintained much like an ongoing software package, where you constantly update or refine the output. Even if you’re not looking for new opportunities, or if you’re solidly installed in your current position, always remember your personal brand is your own product, and as such, should always be kept alive with constant attention and careful upkeep. And as reality has proven over and over time again, life changes very quickly, and what you expect to be a stable, long lasting engagement, may turn out to be something else.

Social Media has become part of almost everyone’s life, and for Designers in particular, it can be a powerful tool in creating exposure, and also an opportunity to expand on a network of contacts. Using tools such as Linkedin & Twitter, allow for Designers to showcase their career journeys, but also and just as importantly, craft and fertilize relationships within those networks. Those relationships can be informed out of sheer respect for peers, or shared interests, or shared perspectives. Independently of the motivation, Social Media can be leveraged when a Designer is thinking about career path, longevity or even in some situations, uncovering new opportunities. The same way it uncovers potential, it also has its downfalls. When it comes to Social Media, I personally like to label it “Quicksand of Opinions”. For Designers, I always recommend to keep in mind the following adage: “Is the post worth reading, revisiting at a later date, memorable, or simply fluff, with rather inconsequential content”. Just because one may think something is humorous or harmless, it can take an interpretation of its own. Always reflect before posting, because chances are, people will read that post at some different time, and may fail to understand context, timing and intention.

Continuous education is another aspect to a Designer’s arsenal that is fundamental in our day and age. Constantly refining and improving one’s skills, allows us to not only keep our minds active within concepts and tools being crafted for the industry, but also it enables us to understand where processes can be improved and refined. While solid Design solutions aim to have a long shelf life, or long life periods, everything has an expiration date, therefore finding constant ways to stay educated, motivated, engaged is crucial to stay relevant in this field.

EQ & Character traits worth keeping in mind — if you look back to my article on Ego in Design, you may notice how I mentioned that in the past, I worked with Designers who focused solely on their Ego and crafting what they thought was a product or solution with their identifiable fingerprint. Egocentric professionals, particularly in a deeply collaborative and socially engaging discipline as Design is, can be a serious shortcoming. Design Thinking, Design Processes in general, are all about convergence of efforts and points of view. Ultimately Design as a discipline is all about crafting solutions that are usable, useful and pertinent for its users, with considerations on aesthetics, innovation, ecology among others thrown in for equal measure. All of this to say, that in order to build resonant solutions, professionals in this arena need to be able to listen, ask the right questions, document their findings, and be able to share them. Much like an investigative reporter, find the thread, understand the problem, the players, and finally figure out what leads down to a solution path.
If you put ego before solution and client, chances are you’re more focused on your own path, which of course is not a wrong option — it probably just means that your ability to look beyond yourself is diminished, and what you and your team craft, is tainted by an ulterior motive, that isn’t solving problems for a particular consumer or group of users (invariably you’re building something for yourself, or for your interpretation of what and how an actual user behaves). This is also where your Emotional Maturity comes into play. In the past I’ve mentioned that Designers’ careers should be treated as long lasting brands, and that is still the case. Principled, Self Aware, Focused, Adaptive and Deliberate, are the staples for long lasting brands. Those principles are also the ones that should govern one’s career. Being self aware, should always mean that we as professionals and individuals, are able to look to ourselves, and understand where our shortcomings are, how we can improve ourselves, and provide contributions to the teams we work with, groups we interact with, and ultimately society itself.

When it comes to Designers, and particularly personality traits that I believe suit this type of profession, those include: communicative, inquisitive, humble, persistent, good listener, not to mention organized . The title of the article was originally going to be “Don’t be an a*&$@!#”. And that’s another way to think about career paths in Design and in the professional world in general. Author Dan Savage, author of the podcast “Savage Love”, has a quote that is quite fantastic: “Leave Someone Better Than You Found Them”. The same is applicable for Designers, their teams and how they all collectively relate to each other. Always leave them feeling better than how you found them, or at least as satisfied as they were. Be more open, less biased, listen, and never be the toxic individual no one wants to be around.

Rejection, career paths and navigating uncertainty — while discussing career paths and interviews, one of my very good friends expressed some frustration, when she mentioned one of the positions she had applied for, didn’t have a good outcome. She mentioned the potential employer explained in more detail she wasn’t being chosen, since she didn’t have enough experience in management. She in turn asked me “how can I get experience in management, if no one really allows me to step into these roles”. It’s a very fair observation, one that warrants a straightforward answer. However, before we go down that path, let me just point out that this conversation had quite a few aspects worth highlighting and keeping in mind, particularly when it comes to finding jobs, career advancement and dealing with rejection.

Firstly, no matter where one is in their career, whatever their path and accomplishments have been, chances are, you won’t be a good fit for every position that is on the market. Not even for ones you think you’d be perfect for. While we as Designers hope to be self aware, and recognize our own self worth and wealth of our experienced path, one has to consider there’s quite a diverse pool of very talented people on the market, all of them with journeys just as equally interesting and relevant. Much like casting a film, it’s not just about talent, ability and experience, it’s also about making sure there’s a fit with the people you’ll be interacting with, and sometimes it’s all about timing (one only has to remember the classic case of Tom Selleck as the original Indiana Jones, versus Harrison Ford who eventually took the mantle of the character, when Mr. Selleck became unavailable). All this to say, rejection is part of the process of looking for new opportunities. Hiring managers focus on different aspects of one’s career path, and they go by what a resume states and hopefully by what a portfolio evidences, but that in itself is at times a big question mark (what do hiring managers actually focus on). I always tell my friends, that often enough, recruiting and hiring Designers isn’t the easiest thing to do, particularly for individuals who are not Designers. A few things Recruiters and Hiring Managers typically do is look for key words on a resume, and noticing if people enunciate the right buzzwords during the interview process. Hopefully, one expects that when it’s time to actually identify competence, insight and point of view, they use the information provided by the omnipresent Portfolio, but that process isn’t always linear. Organizations have different hiring processes, some focusing on interviews that are more conversational, where there’s an assessment of the candidate based on a discoverability process which includes conversations with multiple stakeholders, paired with a Portfolio analysis, some even including tests (and this is something I’ve alluded to in a past article, where one should be very mindful of this situation, both as a recruiter and as an applicant, since while this mechanism may be useful to understand someone’s thought process, it’s also not entirely ethical to ask people to work for free). Other Organizations are more regimented, discarding the conversational tone, focusing instead on making sure certain parameters, which are defined internally, are identified (and this process is ultimately all about people/talent categorization, which while it may be efficient and quantifiable, it also removes the conversational aspect of the engagement, not to mention in the process reduces people to archetypes & labels, which don’t represent the wealth of their experience nor does it accurately represent what a candidate truly is about). All this to say, Rejection is part of the process, but for Designers in particular the focus is and should always be, learn from the experiences, refine your own brand presentation, and continue pursuing your ambitions.

These days with so many roles popping up on the market, and applicants going off in so many directions, at the end of the day it’s important that Designers remember what they’re looking for, what their motivation is, and keep focused on where they want to be. Mostly because these processes can be lengthy and at times not very transparent, particularly with numerous interview requests, or journeys that are started only to be seemingly abandoned without a justification, and at times, feedback or outcomes that are never communicated. That is where self awareness, resilience and the aspect of being deliberate comes into play: knowing who you are, understanding that not every situation will have an outcome as originally expected, and that there is indeed a new opportunity waiting to be seized. Always remember to lead by example, be alert to what is happening in the market, and be generous in sharing your wealth of knowledge, experiences both in the working field and through hiring processes.

Much like I mentioned in the article for Hiring for Product Design, the staple for candidates should always be: practice responsiveness, courtesy, and above all, professionalism. In order to wrap up this point, and circling back to the original question from my friend: managerial experience doesn’t have to be attained because you’re promoted internally or because someone finally decides to invest in you. Keep in mind that Management & Leadership, are qualities which can be practiced in the Organization where you currently are, by being ingenious, by volunteering to shepherd initiatives, by sharing insightful experiences. If management is the goal of the journey, remember to learn from the different stopping points where you go through, and also what you built in terms of relationships, knowledge base and measurable outputs. And finally, management is just as importantly about people: craft relationships, build trusting and lasting relationships with your peers. Only by creating these relationships can you actually support your team members, and in turn be supported and empowered to be successful.

Reality Check. Right now we’re in the midst of The Great Resignation, in 2008/2009 we were in a Great Depression. Truth of the fact is, the world is always shifting, in ways that our regimented selves are sometimes completely oblivious to. A few important facts remain though, independently of the opportunities or crises we face. Being prepared, focused, adaptive, cultivating a receptive stance on how we relate with others, while also nourishing our point of view, is fundamental for a career that is built for longevity. Rejection, less than optimal processes when it comes to hiring, all of those are part of the journey one embarks on. The secret is not letting a particular chapter of the narrative, entirely define the arc of the story you are building.

I’ll conclude this article with a quote on the topic of journeys from Marcel Proust:

“We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.”