In the year 2022, this year I have also reached the age of thirty. Among the friends I have contact with, they say that I have grown up very fast. In fact, before I was 25 years old, I was also living a muddled attitude towards life. At the age of 25, I realized. What should I be like if I am 30 years old. It was just then that I read an article on 5-year planning that inspired me. Finding the career goals I wanted. About to start the next 5 year goal.
So I've taken the lessons learned from those past 5 years and written this article, which is centered on the 5 year plan. The front is to make the design easier to find the direction of their career goals. If confused students, you can communicate in depth.
Since the career planning, that is certainly to achieve the ultimate goal of the career, so this time not to talk about how to learn a software or how to complete a design project, or even a customized learning plan, this time only to talk about the designers have a few ways to go, and how to reach the goal.
Designers do three years, five years, ten years later there will probably be three major directions : technical, management and management.
Obviously, the technical type is to continue to specialize in technology, focusing on visual presentation and software proficiency. Professional design ability, excellent visual performance, high quality to complete the product or operational needs. According to the visual creative content, conceptualization, creation and implementation, can be developed from the concept of ideas through the visual expression of specific design; and find their own areas of specialization, vertical development to become a "I" type designer.
Technical: 1, Senior Designer 2, Design Specialist of medium and large enterprises 3, Freelance Designer
Some people say that design is so tired, really roll, to the age of 30 must be to management direction. If the management is so easy to be, then also need the significance of managers? There are a lot of small A company to stay up to the end, and finally promoted because of the familiarization of the company's business processes and time. But in fact, most people do not declare is to your current comprehensive ability, it is difficult to find the same job in the same market. Therefore you are more afraid to change, over time you will be less and less competitive in the design talent market, so that they are invincible is the first. Many managerial designers, before they are also in a field of vertical development, ability to excel. At the same time also has a multi-disciplinary design knowledge, except there are communication skills, interpersonal relationships, team management skills. These are all character strengths that need to be in place. Make yourself a "T" talent.
Technical: 4, design director 5, design partner 6, independent studio].
PS: There are a lot of people told me why you do not come out to do it alone, your current level of the project is comparable to many design companies. My own answer said, according to the current flow. There is no way to support the idea of opening a studio. Can not take into account both project execution and business development capabilities, if there is a resource partnership type of person companion will be more suitable to do such a thing!
The level of business type is too high, is my current level of designers do not dare to evaluate too much, briefly share my views on it. In addition to excellent skills as a must, it is more important to learn to package themselves. Speak resume, speak awards, speak cases. I know some of the operation is constantly to participate in awards, and paid to write to promote themselves.
[Technical: 7, design master 8, design company founder 9, design lecturer]
[Technical type - self-cultivation of big brother]
There are also some designers who have been working for two or three years find that the workplace has reached a bottleneck, and the level of design has stagnated, and they are always dissatisfied with their own work, but there is no way to improve it, and they feel very depressed. This time need to make a proper breakthrough, breakthrough their own. Work can give you the opportunity to improve is very little, and the company invited you over, itself is from the perspective of economic benefits, and not for you to learn. The company only wants you to be more efficient, more cost-effective design tasks. And the market with the same level of other types of designers, his other areas of efficiency is several times that of you, if you are the boss you will try to give this trial and error costs to you? At the same time you have a variety of field experience, you will be thinking of jumping ship or up higher salary package. And you can't stay when your growth rate is greater than the company's. If you were the boss, I'm sure that's something you wouldn't want to see. So in this case, the time outside of work is actually easier to grow and make yourself more competitive.
For becoming a technical designer I summarize three must-haves
1. Software breadth, and proficiency
2. Higher design aesthetics
3.Years of experience in the industry
Management type - design efficiency manager
The responsibility of the management position lies in the management of the design as well as the management of the designers. To the project, control the progress of the project, for the company's profit. For the company, we must take the company's interests as the starting point. For subordinates, give accurate design direction and instill experience. For the design team management, make the same behavior of one of the breathtaking design cases, that is only to the designers of this group to look up with. Enterprises don't care about this, the ultimate design is to carry the value of business, is to sell goods. This is not the same as personal art, for a manager, the enterprise assessment of your team's overall efficiency, and the enhancement of production value.
Specific performance such as: other people spend 1 million manpower team costs, you spend 200,000 manpower costs: others in the process of design due to the lack of experience in the judgment, which led to the waste of 5 days of the team's manpower costs, and your experience to avoid; 8,000 designers, according to your methodology and guidance, the ability of the market needs to be 12,000 treatments of the designer's effect is comparable to; these are all measures of you as a manager Specific value in the enterprise. Then how to be a good director?
For becoming a managerial designer, I likewise summarize three points
1. Project management ability
2. Clear logic ability
3. Good communication skills and workplace emotional intelligence skills
[Management type - run yourself with brand thinking]
In fact, no matter what stage you are in, you also have to have this realization exists, in the career development of the career, can bring you additional positive feedback, is from your word of mouth. Thinking back, I've had great comments from both coworkers and supervisors. Thinking back to the previous company, cross-departmental colleagues to the demand, I am very positive to complete, regardless of whether it will take up the private time, or the demand is not clear, I will still go to improve the demand did not mention the point. Over time, the demand side of other departments will naturally find me directly to raise the demand, but based on the workplace environment, I will say, this demand you should inform my leadership. And I'd be happy to fulfill it. It's just that it's a bit easy for me to overstep my authority if it comes directly to me. (And who knows if a supervisor might be wary?)
This is something I always share with my friends as well, don't have that mentality that I'm at a disadvantage if I do more than I should. Because of a certain issue, I antagonize my colleagues. A face I'm not convinced attitude, this for your career development is not a little good. Now is a good job, the past colleagues will recommend, give high praise.
Back to the main topic for becoming a business-oriented designers, I summarize the same three points:
1, your differentiation
2, fame and traffic
3, your channels of realization
I was lucky enough to come across the IDP (Individual Development Program) 4 years ago and it showed me the way forward. It made me think deeply about what my future career would look like. I hope after listening to my sharing, you can also get out of the confusion like me.
So what is an IDP?
IDP is to build a bridge between the present and the future, based on your current situation and finding the real needs of your heart.
The following are all the core of the core of this post, the top is all about getting you to find your way, and the bottom is all about telling you exactly how to do that.
01 Status quo analysis: what workplace status are you in?
Here to give an example, there are three colleagues: Colleague A lack of work objectives and their own thinking, usually work by the supervisor or operational needs to complete; Colleague B do not know what they are suitable for the work, can not find the positioning of the workplace, due to the market or the company's needs, learn a lot of design software, but each ability is limited, but time and energy are scattered; Colleague C has been deeply cultivated in one field for many years, but there is no obvious improvement, feel that the pay and gain is not proportional to the high cost of change.
02 Core Idea: Determine Your Ideal Career Status
I listed all the ideal states I want to achieve, and picked out high income, interest and self-improvement as my core concepts.
(Pick the core idea of the best not more than three Oh, must be relevant to the actual, not false and empty, what more money, less work, less responsibility, this I can not help you).
From the following positive selection of the ideal state, or do not want the negative state can also.
Positive: high income, security, stability, creativity, fulfillment, autonomy, challenge, routine, social value, equality, interests, etc.
Negative: high stress, long hours, interpersonal complexity, repetitive, unchallenging, limited development, etc.
For example, my ultimate goal is to have my own studio and become a freelance designer. If possible, become a designer who can influence others. Realize self-improvement.
According to your ideal state and the above list of designers final state, pick the final goal for yourself, not necessarily the highest goal for the best, in the selection of the final development goal to give two suggestions: one is to choose the right development goal for yourself; the second is to try to choose the development goal is closely related to the current work.
03 Setting long-term goals
Have you found a suitable goal for yourself? After setting a goal we go to realize it, and we should think about three points before the concrete landing. Definition of goals; goal evaluation; goal dismantling.
According to the core concepts of high income, interest and self-improvement mentioned above, and the development goals of your own career direction, initially formulate a personal development plan
04 Goal re-quantification, can be implemented
After you have your own 5-year long-term plan, and after you have formed a preliminary understanding of the key conditions of the goal. We have to split the key conditions to complete the steps to form a specific quantifiable, enforceable, measurable objective conditions.
Perform a time-reversal exercise based on the final 5-year state. Set goals for each year or each milestone. Develop a development methodology that is specific to you based on your strengths and weaknesses. This will give you a clear picture of your goals.
Below is a 5-year IDP planner for designers that I have designed as a 5-year master table that allows you to create a yearly planner for each specific year.
05 Time Management
The goal is set, the next step is to "do", after all, do not say fake.
Here you can recommend the tomato work method, or to see "let your time is more valuable" (by Zhang Meng), sorry, I can not be like those big bosses accurate to 5 minutes for the unit of time management capabilities. Let's just use weeks as the unit and be done with it.
First of all, you can take 30 minutes at the end of each week to make a work plan for the next week and divide it into core tasks and non-core tasks based on the principle of prioritization;
Secondly, detailed records [time record list], remember to record according to the real.
Here is an analogy, of course, more than so few tasks a week!
This record, you can effectively monitor their own time utilization, to protect the disposable time; thus consciously reduce the event switching, to protect the attention.
After all, human attention is limited, only to apply attention to important things, so as not to cause a waste of attention.