As designers, there's a lie we live with and it's interfering with our work.
There is one big lie designers live with but it’s undermining our work and confidence.
So, I made it, the big leagues! My first real design job. The year was 2012 and I got a gig at a furniture company as a graphic and web designer! I had done freelance for 2 years prior and was so excited to get my first "real" job. I had a cubicle (next to a window), a new computer, and a badge. We were a small team and every day was some sort of 'sale' at the furniture stores so the work never let up. I learned a lot a that job, which only lasted just over a year. I was on contract and when they offered me a salary position I felt a huge bomb of disappointment. On contract I was making a good chunk of change, but the salary offer was $12,000 less! I was appalled, so naturally I turned it down. Little did I know at the time that this is what contractors have to deal with all the time when they take a new gig. But I was moving up.
My next gig was with a big AD agency in a posh downtown office. Now I'd made it. I spent the next 2 and 1/2 years building emails for a client. Can't say that it was life-changing or challenging work, but again it paid the bills. for the next 5 years I hopped around from gig to gig, honing my skills and focusing my craft and incrementally getting more and more pay with each new gig. Some were great, some I couldn't wait to get out of, but all-in-all, it was preparing me for what was next.
In 2019 I decided to exclusively focus on User Experience Design. Up to that point I did front-end development, graphic design, and digital design. I interviewed for a UX specialist for a big recruiting company. I was going to be the only UX designer on the team, working as a liaison between design and development. I called the shots when it came to making sure the devs were building to my specs. I was in a lead role. So why did I feel like such a fake?
I had heard of Imposter syndrome from other design blogs, but now I was experiencing it.
Was I good enough?
Could I handle the task at hand?
Will they find out I have no clue what I'm doing?
We all feel like that at some point in our careers. The lie comes when we tell ourselves that we are alone and no one else feels like we do.
The big lie that we tell ourselves is that WE ARE A FAKE!
But guess what? I'm not the only one. You are not the only one. So let's drop the act and be nice to ourselves. Let’s show ourselves some grace, because the guy or girl in the next cubicle over probably also feels like a fake and they need our grace too.
Stay tuned to find out where I have come to in my journey and what I am learning about myself.