Making CAREER choices WITH Lorraine
When deciding on what specific industry path to take when entering graphic design, self-reflection is very much needed. You should ask yourself what type of lifestyle you want to live by. And most importantly, how to differentiate between the willingness to want to do something because of an empty and ego fuelled motivation, or a reason that leads to true career fulfilment.
Sometimes, a hint of ego in our reasoning can help us go further, but it shouldn’t be the only determining factor. In fact, to be less cynical about human nature, the reasoning behind something that may look superficial to everyone else is for a very selfless cause. For example, if you were to align all your values into a pyramid style, starting with something you could not compromise on the top, and then two values under that that are still very important and three middle values underneath followed by three or four values that would be nice to have but not considered a ‘must’.
You would find that most, if not, many people would put ‘money’ at the very top. Especially in a design job, where art is not considered a necessity by many companies, when indeed it is especially important for human connection and positive psychological association with most products. Many will take for granted the amount of work that goes into a job that features any correlation with art. Making it harder to work in the field and sustain a life where you can meet your basic living needs.
Of course, in your pyramid, you would consider attributes such as the environment of work you would partake in or any behaviour factors. E.g., ‘flexible work hours,’ ‘social life,’ ‘working from home,’ ‘healthcare ‘.
When choosing a career, it is a fundamental part of any person’s happiness, so when making choices about what you should partake, essentially the top priority to look for is what will support your own personal well-being. Maybe money isn’t the top for many, but certain time schedules so you could look after a family member at home. Or even ‘company must align with my environmental values,’ so when you go to work your motivation is to help improve our world’s circumstances and that could really be enough to drive many. You may not know yet what path you want to go down, but figuring out yourself with time and experimenting will help you make the right choices for your own happiness, it is always important to keep reflecting and ask yourself why you’re really doing something and who are you doing it for.
