The Perfect Job

Posted on September 16th 2011 under Blog

As a lustful work-hungry Junior Designer I spent an absurd amount of time searching for a perfect job – one that fulfilled quite a laundry list of demands; superstar award winning-work, satisfyingly beneficial for human kind and my soft fragile ego, short (or normal) work hours, basic benefits, fun co-workers (digital, animal, or both) and etc. And over the past 4 or so years I’ve been on the hunt looking for that ideal job rather relentlessly. I burnt out, re-inspired, became bored, became entrepreneurial, became disillusioned, and finally achieved a modicum of satisfaction on an almost endless cycle where I felt my efforts always felt short of my true goals.

I started a business because I wanted to prove to people that a) I could run a business successfully and b) I had hoped to work less hours and do better work. And while only the latter was my only failure from starting a business – a lesson which now seems forever seared into my noggin – I learned a few things about goals, realistic expectations, and unrealistic expectations.

Hard lessons from reality

Mostly I had learned that I had been devoutly following the few exceptions of this world. Designers who successfully made it on their own, doing it their way. I was brainwashed into thinking I could fit myself into the mold that they seemed to pilfer out as advice. What is often not acknowledged when talking about this select group of folks is how hard they had to work and how specialized they became. Long hours and a razor-sharp focus helped this group become the awesomeness of the design community.

As a human being I am neither of those things. I am scatterbrain when it comes just about everything in my life and I have a deep love of trying new things and experimenting.

When you look at the few who have made a living doing experimental work, the success rate drops significantly.

Oh and I absolutely loathe continuous stretches of working overtime. I was scarred early on in my career by overtime burn-out and it’s months of my life and countless gray hairs that I’ll never get back. Sadly, I’ll always look back on those days and feel used. I still have a great relationship with that employer because my situation was only a result of a failing economy and cutbacks. After that job I vowed to never work overtime like that – to never be used like that again. A salary doesn’t mean you give up any resemblance of life for an employer.

Yet in the design field it seems to spread like wildfire. As a junior designer, you’re expected to put in long hours – to pay your dues.

Well I paid my dues in college and I’m still paying them but not to an employer.

If you truly love your job to the point where you can put in an 80-hour work week without hesitating, then you badly need a hobby. It’s bizarre to think that any one thing can take up so much of your life or day when there is so much out there. There isn’t enough time in this lifetime to truly enjoy it all. So my advice to any new designer is to stop thinking about being the most famous designer or to stop wanting to work for the most famous shops in town. Stop wanting what everybody else does and do what makes you happy. Achieve some balance in your life and everything else will fall into place.