Better Late Than Never
This post is from an aspiring professional revealed during user interviews. The name and images have been changed due to privacy issues.
Moving into my Bachelor’s degree, I was sure about pursuing B.Tech as my course of study. Still, I wasn’t confident about the specialization within the course, as it has a wide range of disciplines to choose from. After some thorough research, consulting, and personal interest, I was able to narrow it down to 2 streams. One being Electronics & Communication and second, being Computer Science.
With recommendations from seniors and industry people, I went with the former stream. I was happy jumping into the stream with a fully motivated attitude and a bright future ahead. Less did I knew what was in store for me. In the last year of my 4 years long course, a job opportunity came within the Computer Science field, which was different to my course of study. Giving it a second thought, I jumped onto that opportunity. I was able to secure an offer with a leading multi-national organization. Due to my personal interest in computers, I started the job with great enthusiasm. Little I knew how much more is there to computers apart from some basic programming concepts that we were introduced to earlier in our course. It was altogether a new world to me though somehow, I managed to complete my training in first class. Training is a part of the onboarding process. It lasts for 5 months and you are introduced to different programming languages, one of which you will be using in real-time projects. Training is marked and passing it with 50% is a must else you have to reappear. Failing to pass in the third attempt, you are handed over your termination letter.
First job always feels exciting until..
Into my job of working as a software developer, I was pretty satisfied with my decision of not continuing with the Electronics field. Seeing the vast scope and demand for IT came as a morale booster. Things were moving pretty good until slowly towards mid of my second year as a professional, I started doubting my decision. I wasn’t enjoying it anymore and felt I was in a field that is not aligning with my core interest and won’t take me where I want to be in future. Though, I was doing good for myself within the role and used to receive appreciations from my Managers. Appreciations could never satisfy me so much that it would align my interest with the role itself. For a year, I kept on looking for career options that would be more related to my area of interest. My area of interest was more aligned to a profession which apart from giving me independence at work would help me bring out my creative side. I looked at it as a professional that would serve me a different set of challenges each day.
Keep looking there are always clues
One fine day I bumped into a common friend who was a Product Designer and talked me through his profession. It was something I was looking for, something I wanted to move to. After thorough research for months and some initial learning, I was sure about Design career being the one. Though with a second thought, I quit my job to move to London from India to pursue masters in User Experience Design.
Though it sounds a simple sequential set of events, it took me 26 years to decide what I wanted to do. Not because I didn’t know my interests but because of my unawareness about different fields with my domain. Had I known it earlier, I would have been much ahead of where I am today. It was because of unawareness along with lack of knowledge, mentoring, and resources that a few years from my life were put to waste. Waste of years was also accompanied by a lot of stress and sleepless nights.
The conclusion
Now almost 3 years in Design, I believe I am doing good for myself. I have come along way from being a noob designer to working with 4 clients at the same time. I am now more happy at the end of my day, even when I have to work thrice compared to my previous profile. I feel satisfied and always curious about growth and improvement.