Well, I quit my job two months ago.
After leaving a toxic workplace, I needed to breathe. I am facing my portfolio head on and trying to learn the skills that I didn't take the time to polish while in school and certainly didn't have time to work on after entering the work force. Now that I am back in the job hunt, it feels like navigating the dating world. My skills aren't quite where they were two years ago, my photos aren't up to date, and thinking about interviews where I have to talk about myself? God, it feels like a nightmare.
Now, when I graduated college in 2019, I didn't have anxiety yet. I hadn't been holed up inside for a year, I hadn't faced enough rejection letters to publish a novel, and I certainly hadn't yet felt like, am I good enough to be an industrial designer?*
As I read post after post on LinkedIn about people I graduated with achieving their wildest dreams, I couldn't help but feel like a failure. SCAD gave me this false hope of 'I'm a better designer than that person, I'll be fine when I graduate'. Ha! Industrial Design is a TOUGH industry and I am BAD at interviewing, but doubting yourself while comparing your work to everyone else is only step 1. I know my talents and skills, and I know my portfolio won't show my impeccable music taste, my atrocious but unwavering karaoke skills, or my passion for STUFF (and designing it)- and that's okay.
Welcome to my blog. I quit my job, and I will be scrambling to find my way back into the design world one project, one post, and one rejection letter, at a time.
*If I had a nickle for every friend who asked themselves this question after college
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