Thank you so much for writing this, and calling so much of this out.
Even as an experienced designer, who’s been in this field for over 15 years, the job seeking advice I’ve gotten in the past year has been so inconsistent, so questionable… and it’s hard to tell what advice is realistic, and what advice is hyperbolic.
Like, sure, I’ll put my job search on hold to launch a business just to prove I’m capable of doing the Product Design role after a toxic employer reassigned me to a software engineering role. That makes logical sense.
But that means I have no idea where to look. The people who have accomplished the nominal level of success are too burned out to talk after work, leaving only the most ego-motivated mentors to fill the gap.
And to make matters worse, I don’t know if part of the reason why so much of the job seeking advice I’ve gotten is so unhealthy is, the people making hiring decisions don’t have a healthy understanding of their job or the business, either.
The software engineering world has the phrase, “a strong opinion, softly held.” I’d love to see some of this in the design world, too.
Beautiful post Lisa! Inspiring to see you writing again.
I enjoy writing and find it a way to process my thinking and ruminate on new ideas. For the last decade my work has been highly strategic and not very sexy. It's difficult to talk about and I don't use Figma!
I commented recently how my writing on LinkedIn seems to get buried. I refuse to take the same lines as everyone else. I'm not an AI cheerleader and think we need more nuanced and thoughtful conversation around technology. I really want people to think when they read anything I write.
Unfortunately, the algorithm doesn't appreciate this. And many people don't want to ask or answer hard questions.
But I'm going to keep going. Running a business there's a certain amount of visibility I need to maintain to be 'in the system". But most importantly, I believe writing makes me a better designer and strategist.
And we need people talking about the unsexy designing that often remains hidden.
I just turned 50, and I've spent half my life doing this work. And for half of that time I've questioned if I should be more visible, more popular, more well-liked. If my work hasn't met the bar, or isn't good enough, because I've chosen projects that aren't "viral" or "sexy". Projects that build foundations, and solve complex cross-organizational problems. Problems that don't demo or interview well. Offering proposals that sometimes get overlooked, back-burnered, or outright dismissed, only for the client to come back around once they see the "obviousness" of my initial work. It's mostly thankless, it's mostly under-appreciated, it's mostly boring (outwardly).
But, this (essay) has given me hope, and brightened my Monday 10x.
So true. And this piece of yours highlights perfectly a disappointing trend. Social media is working as an amplifier of capitalism and creates the same incentives, accelerated. Hamsters on wheels as you say.
To be honest, I don’t care much anymore about the nth social media discussion about another frivolous topic. Or even an important one, as it will get trivialized by whoever has most views or time to waste.
I strive for my time to have meaning now.
That game it’s not fun anymore. Its consequences have only one winner, and it’s none of us.
Always happy to read one of your articles :) Having done that content creator thing for a year and a half, and then steeply falling off due to work/life getting busy again, priorities changing, this resonates a lot. Most of the stuff I'm proudest of in my career isn't sexy design work, it's getting agreement on an API design that allows us to build things in a certain way, it's finding creative workarounds to messy internal problems that shouldn't exist, it's building a really flexible filter system, or organising a nab structure in a way that 'just makes sense' for an internal facing tool.
I've always had a healthy skepticism of 'industry figures' and try to both write authentically from experience, and then also be OK not writing if I don't have anything compelling to write about.
It's a shame the tools we use to talk about professional topics are on non-professional platforms, where algorithms are more tuned to highlight personalities than good ideas.
Thank you so much for writing this, and calling so much of this out.
Even as an experienced designer, who’s been in this field for over 15 years, the job seeking advice I’ve gotten in the past year has been so inconsistent, so questionable… and it’s hard to tell what advice is realistic, and what advice is hyperbolic.
Like, sure, I’ll put my job search on hold to launch a business just to prove I’m capable of doing the Product Design role after a toxic employer reassigned me to a software engineering role. That makes logical sense.
But that means I have no idea where to look. The people who have accomplished the nominal level of success are too burned out to talk after work, leaving only the most ego-motivated mentors to fill the gap.
And to make matters worse, I don’t know if part of the reason why so much of the job seeking advice I’ve gotten is so unhealthy is, the people making hiring decisions don’t have a healthy understanding of their job or the business, either.
The software engineering world has the phrase, “a strong opinion, softly held.” I’d love to see some of this in the design world, too.
Beautiful post Lisa! Inspiring to see you writing again.
I enjoy writing and find it a way to process my thinking and ruminate on new ideas. For the last decade my work has been highly strategic and not very sexy. It's difficult to talk about and I don't use Figma!
I commented recently how my writing on LinkedIn seems to get buried. I refuse to take the same lines as everyone else. I'm not an AI cheerleader and think we need more nuanced and thoughtful conversation around technology. I really want people to think when they read anything I write.
Unfortunately, the algorithm doesn't appreciate this. And many people don't want to ask or answer hard questions.
But I'm going to keep going. Running a business there's a certain amount of visibility I need to maintain to be 'in the system". But most importantly, I believe writing makes me a better designer and strategist.
And we need people talking about the unsexy designing that often remains hidden.
Thank you for writing this.
I just turned 50, and I've spent half my life doing this work. And for half of that time I've questioned if I should be more visible, more popular, more well-liked. If my work hasn't met the bar, or isn't good enough, because I've chosen projects that aren't "viral" or "sexy". Projects that build foundations, and solve complex cross-organizational problems. Problems that don't demo or interview well. Offering proposals that sometimes get overlooked, back-burnered, or outright dismissed, only for the client to come back around once they see the "obviousness" of my initial work. It's mostly thankless, it's mostly under-appreciated, it's mostly boring (outwardly).
But, this (essay) has given me hope, and brightened my Monday 10x.
Our filters are eroded.
We are tired.
So true. And this piece of yours highlights perfectly a disappointing trend. Social media is working as an amplifier of capitalism and creates the same incentives, accelerated. Hamsters on wheels as you say.
To be honest, I don’t care much anymore about the nth social media discussion about another frivolous topic. Or even an important one, as it will get trivialized by whoever has most views or time to waste.
I strive for my time to have meaning now.
That game it’s not fun anymore. Its consequences have only one winner, and it’s none of us.
Right on!
Always happy to read one of your articles :) Having done that content creator thing for a year and a half, and then steeply falling off due to work/life getting busy again, priorities changing, this resonates a lot. Most of the stuff I'm proudest of in my career isn't sexy design work, it's getting agreement on an API design that allows us to build things in a certain way, it's finding creative workarounds to messy internal problems that shouldn't exist, it's building a really flexible filter system, or organising a nab structure in a way that 'just makes sense' for an internal facing tool.
I've always had a healthy skepticism of 'industry figures' and try to both write authentically from experience, and then also be OK not writing if I don't have anything compelling to write about.
It's a shame the tools we use to talk about professional topics are on non-professional platforms, where algorithms are more tuned to highlight personalities than good ideas.
"authentically from experience" is exactly the type of writing we need more of. Please keep going 🙏🏼
All of this.