Zinzy

Yesterday, as I was going through what seemed like the most severe after-lunch dip in recent memory, I logged on to ADPList to meet a designer from Denmark. It’s miraculous, the effect unexpected kindness can have on the body. After 30 minutes, I skipped out of my meeting booth ready to take on the rest of the afternoon, which I did, and it rocked.

Here’s a summary of her booking request:

My long term goal is to work on broad product patterns that involve a lot of cross-team collaboration. How can I get there and figure out which skills to develop? Another topic is motivation and being a neurodiverse person in a work environment. I have ADHD and I’m quite emotional person. That means that my motivation easily changes between 0-100. I’d like to figure out how to manage it a bit better.

This designer, a computer scientist with a master’s in design, is about five years into her career. Currently in her second post-graduation employment, she has been gaining experience at sizeable companies where one in three or one in five people is a designer. Our chat touched on her career prospectives, on what gives us energy, and on adjusting our work to suit our brains.

I always get excited when fellow designers tell me about their problems. As designers, we often work in secluded settings, the only designer on the team, in the department, or at the company. If we can’t see ourselves in the people around us, it’s easy for us to forget that our problems are not uniquely insoluble.

A day later, I find myself still thinking about our conversation. Speaking with her reminded me that there are so many variables that go into finding a job that’s the right fit. It also reminded me that it’s very easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. In the next few days, I’ll share some key insights I discussed with her. They all gravitate around a single question:

How can we better connect what we need with what we think we deserve?