MegKaylor

hmmm. Honestly? No. I mean, I probably could, but I don’t want to. And I really think that if you’re doing it for any other reason other than wanting to, then you’re probably wasting not only your time and money, but everyone else’s too.

I definitely have great plans for my career which I’m looking forward to. But having said that, I also have great plans for my personal life, which means that I can’t wholeheartedly devote years of my life to being responsible for others, taking big risks and living at my work day in and day out. I want to travel and pursue my hobbies. Change things up every once in a while. And I can’t do that if I have a business baby to take care of. 

However, I am aiming for a position one day that one could perhaps consider to be a happy medium: And that is to be a project manager. A good friend of mine in the coding side of the technology industry pointed out that he thinks I’d make a great project manager. My initial response was: “Uh, Keags, what does a project manager even do? I’m studying Interaction Design!” But after he explained the position to me with reference to his own project manager, and after some research of my own, I think this is a position I’d like to work towards in a company one day. 

Sinek’s explanation of the Golden Circle just makes sense. The Golden Circle is the brilliant secret that’s always been right under our noses. Every time someone asks me “why did you choose to go with Apple?” (mostly my dev friends when they occasionally crawl out of their coding caves) I’ve always found it difficult to answer. Usually because any argument I have regarding my MacBook’s hardware and software specifications is immediately shot down with various other brands with machines of equally impressive specs. Then come the “mmmm looks like someone is a brand girl” comments. And yeah, I’ll admit, I’m an Apple fan. But why? I don’t think I’ve ever been one to follow brand trends in any other aspect of life, be it clothing, cars, music etc. Why am I all of a sudden devoted to Apple products?

Sinek explains it beautifully, and now I know. It was Apple’s why that I became devoted to, not necessarily their products (though I will admit my MacBook is a lovely machine). They know their why, and their market strategies push their why before their how and what. I’m not a materialistic person, I never have been and probably never will be. But when I bought my MacBook, subconsciously I felt like I was buying something that aligned to my personal philosophy, my ideals, my lifestyle. I didn’t feel like I was spending money (a lot of money) on just another product. 

And the more I think about it, the Golden Circle applies to pretty much everything I buy. When I succumb to inevitable consumerism, the words that encourage me to buy include things like “innovative, pushing the limits, green, sustainable, give back, recycle, because we care” and so forth. Things that make me feel as if I’m not being a consumer, things that make me feel like I am indeed making a difference, being a good and wholesome human.

When I first began studying design at a tertiary level, the idea of free-lancing and being able to travel and work really appealed to me. It still does, however throughout the course of my studies thus far I’ve realised that I’d actually rather prefer to work for a design firm. I’d still love to work remotely sometimes, however I’d like to belong to a company while doing so. 

I’ve realised that I’m wholeheartedly a team player, and need the social aspect of working with people. It’s comforting to have people who I can go to for advice and who I can learn from, and it’s motivating for me to be a part of a team. Also, working with people allows me to gauge if I’m overworking myself or slacking, if I’m overthinking things or need to engage more and overall really just helps me feel like I belong somewhere - something which is very important to me on a personal level. 

Although having said all this I think its important to also clarify that I am an introvert so I will need time to recharge alone (that’s why flexi-hours or remote working could also suit me) and can be socially shy so it could take me a while to feel comfortable within a new team, but just the comfort of having others working on the same project as me or working for the same company as me is comforting and worth the nerves while getting to know them. 

I don’t think I could freelance, I think I would feel too isolated and would suffer from performance anxiety without being able to gauge where I am against colleagues. 

Reading 5 was a contract between a designer and a design firm. The idea of having to one day read and sign a contract has always been daunting and honestly reading through this contract has made me realise the importance of asking someone else, or even a few knowledgable people, to read over it for you. Because I had to read it a good few times to figure out what exactly was going on, and even after that I feel unsure as to if I’ve missed, or misunderstood, anything. 

Networks are an interesting topic of conversation for me. At the beginning of the passage, I resonated with typical qualities of a lone wolf - such as being busy, introverted and feeling socially anxious at planned gatherings.

But as I continued to read the advice that Dorie Clark gave for lone wolves I realised that maybe I’m not as bad at at networking as I thought I was. Networking has kind of just happened to me - and seeing as I’ve lived in Cape Town for my whole life I suppose it’s not surprising. Between highschool, college, music/festival scenes, various service industry jobs and the horse riding community I’ve realised that one can meet important people in various different ways. Everyone has hobbies and I’ve met a large variety of people through mutual hobbies. Opportunity to network is around every corner. And so far as a result of this I’ve been blessed with many part time jobs so far - without having a CV (making one is currently on my To Do list).

However it’s time for me to start focusing on networking within the realm of interaction design. Which is daunting, however I should be okay if I keep in mind both Clark’s advice and remind myself of my networking skills in other paths of life. 

A recap of Clark’s advice:

Identify people you truly respect 

Recognise how a lack of networking may be holding you back 

Taking a look at 3 potential positions that I would consider applying for post studies:

This week’s prescribed reading really taught me, and reminded me, of a lot of key points in the design world. One thing that I really resonated with though was Shaughnessy’s advice on time management.

My heart sinks at the word. My spine gets all tingly and my throat suddenly feels very tight. Time management has always been my arch enemy. Not because I’m unorganised - on the contrary my planner is kept up to date with precision, decorated with a variety of To-Do’s, reminder’s, lists and important dates to note. Google Keep is one of the most opened apps on my phone. I plan each day, each week, each month to the T and well in advance. So why is my biggest complaint always “I’m running out of hours in a day”?

Let’s spot some opportunities: Every evening I will write down three positively impacting things, whether it’s something good that happened to me that day, a compliment someone paid me, someone or something I’m grateful for, or something that I’m excited for. I’ll record this in notes on my phone - no excuse of “oh well I don’t have my journal with me.”

It’s time to gain value from learning: listen to one relevant (to my career/studies) and educational podcast per week and try read for at least half an hour everyday (again, the book should be industry relevant)

Benefit from the unexpected: Say yes to one thing every month that I’d usually hesitate to do. Whether it’s plans with friends or posting a personal artwork that I’d usually doubt and decide not to post/share. We never know what could lead us to new opportunities. 

oof. Reading the first few paragraphs of the excerpt was the biggest personal attack I felt all week. The critic in my head can be really cruel sometimes. Brutally cruel. 

But I’m learning to drown them out. I’ve always been a perfectionist, an idealist, a person passionate about being the best version of myself possible. But my idealistic tendencies often entice me to create a perfect version of myself that I aspire to be that is quite frankly, unobtainable. And the thought of that version being unobtainable makes me really anxious. It makes me question my worth and doubt my value. 

However I’m learning that the best possible version of me is an all embracing version. Because slowly but surely I’m learning that life exists through negation. happiness cannot exist without sadness, for happiness is the absence of sadness and sadness is the absence of happiness. I cannot know success without first knowing failure. I cannot know how it feels to be proud of myself if I never feel disappointed with myself. 

And with that, I’m learning that it’s really all about attitude. I can be pessimistic and give in to the torment of the critic in my head, or I can be hopeful and rise above it. I can allow my failures to shatter my self confidence, or I can chalk it up to experience and allow it to help me grow and evolve. 

In an exploration of important attributes that make up the graduate I want to become, I realised that confidence really is going to be the key for me. There were a few other attributes that stood out to me, such as resilience (which I rated myself 9/10), curiosity (6/10), passion (7/10) and authenticity (5/10). 

However, while looking over the list of attributes made available to us, I realised that the one most important is probably confidence (3/10), because due to my lack of confidence I’m constantly selling myself short and not being loud and proud about the positive attributes I do have, nor am I providing myself with the encouragement to improve on the attributes I feel I’m lacking. 

So after a bit of research and ideation (mostly thanks to youtube) I have complied a list of things I will be challenging myself to do over the next week:

1. Keep a list of all my small wins. Whether it’s completing my daily To-Do list or having the dog I run into on the street be excited to greet me - it’s a win and it’s being noted!

2. Dress to impress - “be confident from the outside in.” Take a photo of each outfit I wear over the next 7 days and take note of what makes me feel good, empowered and confident and what makes me feel like I’m hiding from the world in plain sight. 

3. Exercise. I keep promising my body I’ll go to gym more but now it’s really time to get those endorphins going. I will take note of my exercise efforts over the next week and reflect on it.

4. Take note of the beautiful attributes my friends and family have and let them inspire me. And let them know too! Building up each others self confidence will form a community of encouragement and positivity that will benefit everyone. We should voice our appreciation of each other more. 

5. Take note of the compliments and appreciation surrounding me. Even if its just someone thanking me for stopping my car to let them cross the road, or someone’s appreciation for me providing them with a lift to work or college, - that’s still a win and something someone appreciated about me that should be noted.

6. Note one thing I appreciate about myself everyday. This one will be the toughest but that’s the point of a challenge.  

Inspired by: 

Glei, J. “Maximize your Potential: Grow Your Expertise, Take the Bold Risks and Build an Incredible Career.”

As a third year student, the future of my career is something that clouds my everyday thoughts and induces a fear based anxiety as well as an excitement based euphoria. I’m almost there. But where is there? What am I trying to reach? When will I know that I have arrived at my destination? What if I don’t get there?

A million questions swirl around my head on the daily. And this reading didn’t answer any of them. Instead, it taught me that those types of questions cannot be answered because they are the wrong questions. The future is abstract. Nobody knows what they will be in 10 years time because that job hasn’t been invented yet and neither has the technology for it.  And the job you’ll have in 10 years time wont be the job you’ll still have 4 years after that. 

After taking the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument test, I discovered that I was predominantly Accommodating (10 points) followed closely by being Avoiding (9 points). This honestly came as no surprise. As someone who is rather afraid of conflict and who would go to the ends of the earth to avoid it, I anticipated my results looking something like this.

However, recently I’ve become more and more aware of how being soft and overly-considerate (some would say self sacrificing) ends up with me being taken advantage of. But more importantly, I’ve realised that most people just don’t realise that they’re taking advantage of me because they’re just so used to me complying with a smile on my face that it never occurs to them that I might actually be feeling otherwise. I recognise that this is MY OWN DOING. (Capitals because I’m being stern with myself). 

Applying the NVC method was surprisingly easier than I thought it would be. However, what I did get frustrated with was how few people actually abide by it. Fair enough, not everyone knows about it and how to go about implementing it, but it was frustrating for me to, for example, focus really hard on not interrupting someone and then being interrupted every 3 minutes when I tried to talk. However, after calmly explaining this to the person at hand, things immediately improved and they admitted that they had not realised their poor communication habits and were intrigued to learn more. This was a lovely experience.