This is the kind of a breakdown of a no-junior-designers-roles problem that quiets one's anxiety and rethinking the whole design career choice. Agreed, it is structural, not personal. I'd qualify it as a mini-wicked problem.
Many things discussed resonate. I personally found early start-ups opportunities approach *fruitful (*if you don't mind getting paid in networking, real-wold problems etc. only).
Aside from that, really niching down and genuinely contributing/expressing your expertise really do help.
My biggest ache is How to develop the kind of networking that one would get when working within a bigger design team? Since start-ups design teams tend to me non-existent/AI design builder.
Yeah the networking and mentorship piece is really hard to replicate, even for me! It's part of why I started writing 3 years ago and putting myself out there in the broader design community. I just couldn't get the kind of support and connection I was seeking from other people in my company because so few of them shared my role.
A problem I have is when we do hire juniors we don’t allocate time for training with mentors or senior designers. They have to fend for themselves and get advice when there is a 30 minute gap in someone else’s agenda. A sub-problem to this is the seniors who take the time to train juniors don’t get recognition or credit for doing so which in turn demotivates them to continue training.
This is the kind of a breakdown of a no-junior-designers-roles problem that quiets one's anxiety and rethinking the whole design career choice. Agreed, it is structural, not personal. I'd qualify it as a mini-wicked problem.
Many things discussed resonate. I personally found early start-ups opportunities approach *fruitful (*if you don't mind getting paid in networking, real-wold problems etc. only).
Aside from that, really niching down and genuinely contributing/expressing your expertise really do help.
My biggest ache is How to develop the kind of networking that one would get when working within a bigger design team? Since start-ups design teams tend to me non-existent/AI design builder.
Thanks for reading!
Yeah the networking and mentorship piece is really hard to replicate, even for me! It's part of why I started writing 3 years ago and putting myself out there in the broader design community. I just couldn't get the kind of support and connection I was seeking from other people in my company because so few of them shared my role.
A problem I have is when we do hire juniors we don’t allocate time for training with mentors or senior designers. They have to fend for themselves and get advice when there is a 30 minute gap in someone else’s agenda. A sub-problem to this is the seniors who take the time to train juniors don’t get recognition or credit for doing so which in turn demotivates them to continue training.