5 Steps The Short and Sweet Guide to Switching to a Design Career

1. 5 Steps: The Short and Sweet Guide to Switching to a Design Career In typical Asian households, it can be difficult for a student to take up design right off the bat. Parents usually require us to go for trusted fields like engineering, medicine, law, finance, etcetera, but turn their noses up at allied design careers. Therefore, it can often be a while into your ‘trusty’ degrees/professions that you feel the need to give the design field a shot. Old love dies hard! Designers are also known for the freedom they leverage in their professions, with maximum allowance to be your own boss and get out of the corporate 9-5 (or 10-8, more accurately) lifestyle. If that’s the life you wish for yourself, then this is a short guide to how you can go about switching to the design field. Let the initiation begin! [Read: Be Future Ready: 5 Reasons You Need to Upskill to Be a Better Designer] Step 1 | Assess Your Skills: The design field is vast, ranging from Urban Design, UI/UX, Automotive Design, to even Visual Communication, and Graphic Design. What floats your boat? Where have you always felt your skills lie? What does your experience in your current field bring to each of these careers? Take stock of your skillsets and interests, and then select one or two closely related fields to target professionally. Step 2 | Network:Now that you know where your interest lies, it’s crucial to talk to designers in that field. A profession can often seem rosy from afar, but the reality of it can be quite grim. Ask them about their job prospects, design salaries, growth, hours-per-week, Step 2 | Network: Now that you know where your interest lies, it’s crucial to talk to designers in that field. A profession can often seem rosy from afar, but the reality of it can be quite grim. Ask them about

2. their job prospects, design salaries, growth, hours-per-week, among other relevant questions. Make sure that you are at least 95% convinced before embarking further on this path! Step 3| Upskill:Regardless of how good you feel you are, in most cases, you’re not going to get a design job without proper credentials. The amount of upskilling you need to do depends on the technical knowledge the field requires. It may vary in time from Architecture, which needs a 4 to 5-year long degree, to a 3D-modelling Consultancy, which would require concrete software skills. Assess the kind of time and money you need to invest, and if it’s doable, go for it! Get that degree, diploma, or an online certificate course! [Read: The Assets of Success: 13 Golden Skills in Design to Master] Step 4 | Gather Experience: Internships, fellowships and volunteer work are your best friends here. This is the first true step of your design career, and it will give your resume the weight it needs to fly in the design world. If you want to hold on to your current job until you feel secure, you can even pursue freelance work or a part-time internship. Put yourself out there, the world needs to see what you can do! Step 5 | Be a Designer! This is where you let go of your fears and step into being a designer, truly. Design as a career will be slow at times, even frustrating, and it’s not for the faint-hearted. But it can also be intensely freeing, rewarding, and meaningful. So, if this is your jam, put your worries aside! You got this, my friend. Switching to a design career? You may find certain online design coursesto your benefit at Oneistox. Give it a look!