Your Career Path

Blog 2: Your Career Path

I agree with the author on several points.  However, I have decided to do freelance work rather than join a design agency, which the writer says not to do. 

I agree that joining an agency will give you several benefits.  It will help you learn to work as part of team, and that is important in every part of life.  It will help you learn to take criticism and critique of your work.  That is also an important part of being a business person dealing with clients.  A design agency is also a good place to learn about the inner workings of the design business as well as business in general. 

Some of the disadvantages to working with some agencies are that they are more “sell” oriented than “creative” and “design” oriented.  Some places also may not allow lower level designers to have contact with clients.  This will impede your experience in dealing with clients and directing your design in response to the interaction you have with them, and instead you will design based on instructions given by another team member or person in the company.  It is very important to learn how to interpret client requests based on your interactions, rather than designing by a set of instructions.

While I agree with most of what the article said, I will still decide to do freelance work, mainly because I have gained experience working under many different organizations in my work career.  Several of the companies did not have anything to do with design, but I got the experience that I needed.  I learned to work as a team player in the restaurant industry.  I also learned to listen and deal with clients and customers and respond to their needs.  In my sales position, I learned about having my work critiqued, and learned to take constructive criticism instead of get my feelings hurt. 

I have learned the inner workings of business and the design industry from publishing a Spanish/English language newspaper on my own.  I believe I have enough work experience that I can do freelance work quite effectively.