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I’m 30 years into my working life as of 2024 (still find it weird to even write that number).
It honestly doesn’t feel like that many, and maybe that’s a good thing. The truth is I don’t like to stand still long, so my curious eye is looking to the future again.
My kids have also just left home this summer (one graduated, the other is starting university), so I think I can be excused some personal pondering here.
Those years of work have covered everything from brand, marketing, digital, web, product, and UX design. I’ve also taught myself lots of technical skills along the way, being able to plan and implement many low-code website builds and integrations.
So what have I learned from that? I’m a born generalist, motivated by curiosity and the challenge of solving varied problems. That much has been obvious.
Also I just don’t like to only do one thing, every day, for years. I found my way through those 30 years by being adaptable. We were only in web 1.0 when I started, and nobody talked about design as UX/UI.
That all said, I’ve stuck at design in general for all those years, so there’s a common theme where I like to create.
One realisation I’ve been fighting for a while is that I don’t want to specialise in one tool or discipline anymore.
What I have is broad knowledge and experience, and a problem solving attitude.
Isn’t that a good thing? I think so, even though it feels like it’s going against trend.
With the current rapid changes in tech (yes, I mean AI, among other things) I’m betting on it being more useful to be a dot-joiner, a specialist at figuring stuff out, in the coming years.
I think that fits in nicely with where I’m at myself too.
In real terms, I’ve already been doing this for a few select clients, behind the scenes. I give them fractional, part-time design support and coaching.
What I aim to do differently now is focus on that service more.
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