The mistakes I made in my career as a web designer

I started my career in 2008 as a web designer. From a web designer to head of design and now head of marketing, I did many mistakes.

Today, I’ll share what mistakes I did as a designer when I started my job. So you can avoid those to grow in your career.

I wish I would have known all these back in the days.

Let’s go through 5 mistakes you should avoid.

Did not learn non-technical skills

I was aware that I need to grow. But my definition of growth is limited to technical skillets.

I was learning all the required skills that web designers needed to grow. However, I was not getting a chance to apply those learning at a company. But I was still learning it.

Non-technical skills like blog writing, communication, presentation, and most important business skills are very important for your career growth.

Learning all these skills will help you grow faster in your career. If you can’t learn all at once, start one at a time. Keep adding more skills to your portfolio.

Did not network with fellow designers

Networking helps everyone to learn more.

If you network with fellow designers, you can learn the new design concepts, new trends, how they work, how they communicate, and many more things.

It’s up to the individual, how much they can learn from networking. Overall, it makes you better at what you are doing. And one of the biggest impacts I have experienced that I have changed my career path via networking learning.

Did not start working on the side

Being in any field, you must do something on the side related to your work.

A side hustle can bring great things in your career.

I am speaking this from the little experience I have. I am writing this because I decided to write daily after my working hours.

If I would have started this early, I might be at a different place today.

Did not build my separate portfolio

As a designer creating your portfolio is very important. A portfolio helps you get feedback from others. And you can improve your work based on the feedback.

If you build something on the side, you learn a lot by experimenting with it. You can spend more time on your side project and experiment as much as possible.

You can even be in front of your community and people will get to know you via your work. It’s an amazing feeling. It helps you build your confidence.

Not focusing on overall growth

I never thought of growing in totality. I was only focusing on design and whatever is happening in the company.

I was following some best people from the industry. But, I never thought of growing like them.

I was learning more about design and trying to apply it to my work. Which was good but not enough.

Being in a 2-tier city, I had limited exposure. I was very much in the comfort zone too.

So, think about overall growth and not just about your job profile.

Do not make the same mistakes I did. Boost your career growth from this learning.