Hi Dear👋, I started my career without a senior designer in the team 6 years ago. I want to share my story that can help you to be the lead UX UI designer.

1. We feel more pressure when we take responsibility for the first time.

Image credit: Warner Bros. Pictures / Alfonso Cuarón, from the movie Gravity.

A few days ago, I got a chance to watch the movie Gravity again. In the ending scene, the main character, Sandra Bullock, wandered through space and managed to land on a beach somewhere on the Earth, and tried to stand up with her two feet hard on the ground against gravity. Because of the difference in gravity, she might felt the gravity much greater. Watching the last scene, I’ve thought maybe gravity is the weight of life? We live every day feeling that weight from the responsibility as a subject of our life. And, work is a pretty big part of that responsibility.

In the entry-level job postings of startup companies, I can see often ‘self-driven environment, entrepreneurship, and ability to lead a team in design decisions.’ Even they require 2–5 years of experience sometimes. Six years ago, when I looked for my first job, it was the same, but the level of qualification seems even higher now. Especially in a small start-up, you need to be a self-driven designer who can lead yourself. Starting a career as a lead designer without a senior designer in your team makes you learn a lot, but also many difficulties are following.

2. We often become a lost children in space. 👩‍🚀

Illustration on Freepik

When we start our first career as a lead designer without a senior, there are often chaotic times, as if floating in space without a goal. A question mark arises deep in my heart about ‘Is the right way?’ or ‘Is this what I’ve wanted to do?.’ I would metaphorize this status as being a lonely, lost child in space.

I had experienced it sometimes, 6 years ago when I started my first work as a lead graphic designer. I worked in a start-up team to launch a new smart home product, and I graduated from university while I worked there. After that, I have gone through some positions like web designer, UI designer, UX UI designer. But, none of the teams that I’ve joined, there was no senior designer who could train me right next to me.

Illustration on Freepik

During the journey, sometimes, I totally failed a project. Sometimes, I fought with pressure and anxiety to make design decisions. I reached out to people who could be my career mentor, and I trained myself with online courses and books. Fortunately, however, I knew what I liked and had strong motivation to seek it. Above all, I enjoyed those adventures of navigating through the jungle without a map but make my own map. The past five years have been a period to learn about ‘Me’ as a designer and ‘the environment I want.’

It doesn’t matter if it is from my innate personality or I got trained from that environment, but I found it fun to exploring that I never experienced. And I have been working in Canada since 2019 to add another adventure to my career.

3. What should we do to finish wandering in space without purpose? 👽

Illustration on Freepik

I often imagine a tree rooted deeply under the ground when I do meditation. We need to keep reminding ourselves what we ultimately want to pursue to avoid wandering without purpose.

In my case, making people happy with my ability and knowledge was what I am pursuing, and I developed my skill sets to achieve it in a concrete project. There was always a small gap between my expectation and actual role depends on the company and position. In order not to be swept away by the storm, ultimately, you need to know what you want to achieve and be firmly rooted in it.

However, It doesn’t mean doing only what you want. The work environment for software requires creativity and teamwork. In other words, you need to be able to flexibly approach it according to the situation, out of the familiar way. Markets always change, and new technologies emerge.

I used to read home IoT-related books for the smart door lock project, I took a web accessibility program to design a standardized interface, now I’m learning google analytics for e-commerce projects. We need to recognize that it is also my role to learn new skills and perform necessary tasks according to the changing environment.

In this sense, ‘being rooted deeply’ means not only accepting the changes and meeting what business demands but also stepping forward to the future that I want. If there is at least one thing that I can learn in the aspect of teamwork and leadership and skills, I can step forward with confidence even though I’m unsure about something else. That will be the start point to feel my gravity.

📌 Tips summary

• Knowing and keep reminding what you ultimately want to pursue in your career yourself. (Updating your resume can be helpful.)
• Find your career mentor. (ADPList, Linkedin)
• Read books related to your project.
• Take online courses, programs to learn new skills.
• Build your case study when it’s fresh in your head.

4. Hands out to your colleague right next to you. 🤚

You don’t need to worry too much even though you are still floating somewhere in space. In fact, you are not the only one who is wandering in there. In your company, in your team, there can be some people like you. You just didn’t notice it due to the darkness.

After the work environment has been changed to remote, the opportunity to have a tea time or share jokes with the team has also decreased. We sometimes need to look beyond the screen and talk to them with empathy. Those positive emotional interactions can be the power for the long run. If you break the ice with some warm words, that will come back doubled size.

Image credit: 20th century studios from the movie The Marthan

Nevertheless, if the way to return to earth seems still far away, like Matt Damon in the movie The Martian, acknowledging reality and finding a small joy of the harvest can be helpful. I’m rooting us who will step forward with the gravity of our work life.