#journey_to_success

[dhanushch]

How I became a UX Designer!

(Yaar! It’s not easy)

Part 1 – First Class to Failure

Once upon a time a boy was born to a certain couple in Andhra Pradesh, India who happen to become a designer 18 years later. Growing up as a kid I was very bright in studies and other extra academic activities. Once, my teacher asked me what I want to become I said “Aeronautical Engineer”(…… big pause, ahem🤫), TBH I don’t actually know what exactly Aeronautics was at that time, all I knew was it has something to do with aeroplanes😂. But you never know, it’s kinda nice to sound posh😎.

Just like that life passed by, I studied my way through to the top. 10th grade school first, +1 and even +2 I topped my intermediate college🤓. Trust me, I even received Chief Minister's medal twice one for 10th and the other for 12th. Aeronautics was still my plan before my university counselling and I discussed with my career counsellor from Intermediate college about my dream about Aeronautics and how I planned to take Mechanical in Bachelors and Aeronautics in Masters. I had it all planned it out🤠, and always used to think about me building aeroplanes(LOL😂) and seeing stars🤩. But obviously it didn’t happen that way.

Somehow I got manipulated into taking computer science that too at National Institute of Technology, Warangal (damn you career counsellor😑, I don’t even remember her name). Apparently my career counsellor’s both children are doing CS in some NIT and it is pretty good. Maybe she just was being considerate🤗, but still, she should partly take blame for what I have become. And I got my seat at NITW and there, me being a bright student streak ended🤧, and my life changed forever. But you know I was like, “be optimistic you can handle CS”. And believe me it got worse😭.

On the second day of college, the first period was 8 in the morning and a class of PSCP(Problem Solving and Computer Programming)😳. PSCP was like a killer shark😱. Believe me It was a like a nightmare😨, I had the feeling of watching Korean Horror movie without subtitles😵 and that day I decided, or I should say my fate decided that I can never be a Software Engineer😶. But I don’t give up that easily, I tried hard, harder and hardest and the result was the same🤕. I don’t know if it was me or if it was C++, our affinity was worst. To my surprise I got a passing grade on that subject which I thought I was gonna to fail ruthlessly. Somehow I got through the first year and came to second year😪.

Then in second year came DSA(data structures and algorithms)😱. If PSCP was a killer shark then DSA was a dementor(it slowly sucked life outta me)😓 and along with that came the psycho professor, life couldn’t get any worse than this and I was still trying to get a hang of it🤧. Then things happened and I stayed home for two months🤒 and I completely lost interest in Computer Science, that was the lowest point in my life and a failure that I have never experienced before😞.

I was in pieces, I lost my identity😣.

Part 2 – And to Kinda Success Again

So things were getting pretty ugly around me and I thought I should get a hold of myself and started searching alternate career options. And while I was at that time, Graphic Design🤔 lit a spark in me🔥. I found it interesting, I took my very first Graphic Design lessons from Gareth David Studio. His youtube channel, the content is like liquid gold for anyone who want to start in Graphic Design🔑. My top picks from his channel are

1. Beginner's guide to Graphic Design, 45 episode series where he explains all the principles of graphic design crystal clearly.

2. Learn Adobe Photoshop, 33 episode series where he explains the fundamentals of how to use Photoshop by doing a project. For something free on youtube, it's so well organised.

3. Learn Adobe Illustrator, 19 episode series where he explains the fundamentals of how to use Illustrator by doing a project. For something free on youtube, it's so well organised.

So, months passed by and I slowly got the hang of these softwares and doing some design work to keep me occupied😇. Slowly 2018's summer vacation came for sophomore year and loads of free time. The first book I read was The Fundamentals of Graphic Design Book by Gavin Ambrose and Paul Harris, the book was one of the best books I have ever read(given that I've only read less than 10 books😉). So, to raise my game further I took up Adobe Photoshop Masterclass and Adobe Illustrator Masterclass from Udemy🔥. It was very much worth it, after the completion of the courses I can play around with those softwares🤗. While all of this is happening I barely remember the time when I was at the lowest point in my life but could never forget it either🤫.

Then I started applying to internships, I had the skillset and attitude to become a Graphic Designer😇 and before I knew I landed with two internships. User Experience and Graphic Design Internship from Appswise Technologies, Bangalore and Graphic Design Internship from Draftss, Mumbai(remote). I felt like a phoenix, I felt like I rose from the ashes🔥.

While I was doing my internships, my mentor from Appswise Technologies pointed out that "User Experience Matter" when you are using a product. That was the foundation of my career😍. I looked up what UX and Product Design is all about and found out that is another field of design and interesting too. I took a membership from The Interaction Design Foundation, Denmark in August 2018, which is like a gold mine🔑 of resources for UX Designers. It's so abundant and well-structured. I looked up courses that I need to learn, picked them up and started doing projects on UX Design🤓.

Things started to add up even more together and as time went I was more and more into UX and that's the only career path that I can think of🤗. The free courses I did were Udacity's Product Design course and The Design of Everyday Things course, Gymnasium's Beginner guide to User Experience Design course and Rapid Prototyping course and Udemy's courses, wherever they existed for free🤩.

One such course and one such books were The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman. Over the course of time I tried Game Design and 3D Design but left them for hobbies and continued to pursue UX full-time😂.

At this time I was like… CS who?! PSCP who?!?! DSA who?!?!?!😎

The UX learning and implementation went on for over an year and I got the hang of it and I thought I was job ready in September of 2019.🤓 Started applying for various jobs, networking thru linkedIn, whatever means I can do to get a job. Interviews went on till November end thru Mid-December, I used to get rejected in the third or fourth rounds. And I slowly started to lose😣, this is where supportive friends come into play and played an important role in shaping my career😍.

My 8th company interview was Nuclei, the first two rounds went on like any other company I got through them😀, I know I'm that much talented. Then comes the dreadful design challenge😱 which will spread over a week. But for Nuclei, the design challenge was just 5 hours for both UX and UI. It was one straight task and one goal and one screen design. So I spent and panned my 5 hours carefully and submitted the task with iterations🤩. The final round was in Bangalore which was Design Critique of Paytm and Book My Show's movie booking experience and design assessment of the design challenge given earlier which went pretty well. I was very positive with the whole process😇.

"I got the job! Hurray!"

Again I was like… CS who?! PSCP who?!?! DSA who?!?!?!😎

And I started my job as UX Designer at Nuclei from Jan 2020😇, an aspiring young man who wanted to become an aeronautical engineer became a designer☺️, quite the turn of events. Things were pretty great since then and I'm waiting for more exciting opportunities in the future.

"More importantly, I found my identity again😍."