5 career secrets I wish somebody told me earlier

How to handle burnout and toxic workplaces

Hi, I’m Maureen and I work as a product designer and design content creator. The Cursor Magazine is my online publication on design, workshop facilitation and career.

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1. Bigger isn’t always better

Having worked in smaller, boutique style agencies as well as big name companies, I can tell you that in both of these you’ll find interesting challenges and frustrating challenges.

A bigger company doesn’t necessarily mean that they smoother processes, higher design maturity, more talented people or more interesting projects to work on. Bigger companies come with more complex landscapes. More people means more politics.

I’m happy with my choice to start my career in a smaller agency. This was an environment where there was time to learn from my colleagues, where I could just stop by my manager’s desk when I had questions and where I could learn in an supporting environment.

I would encourage everyone who’s in the beginning of their career to pick an environment where the scope of work and team is manageable.

2. Getting too emotionally invested in your job only leads to burn out

In the past years I’ve seen many talented and passionate colleague designers struggle with burn-out. It’s not a surprise this happens to the most passionate and talented people. They pour their heart and soul into their work and they’re good at what they do.

Setting boundaries and learning to push back to unreasonable requests has proven one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned the past years. Especially when you work in a fast-paced environment where priorities might change or work processes aren’t as smooth yet, it’s important to know when to say ‘no’.

3. Don’t chase titles

Titles used to be very important to me. I would chase that senior-title as soon as I could and still I see a lot of entrylevel designers trying to land a lead role in a start-up. I get it, having a certain title comes with a certain level of authority and compensation.

What (entrylevel) designers oftentimes overlook is that those senior-titles also come with a certain level of responsibility. You might be able to land a lead role, but do you have the experience needed to lead a team, balance strategic and administrative work with getting your hands dirty “in the field”.

Over the years I’ve noticed how arbitrary these titles are. What counts as a Senior in one company is seen as a Midlevel in another. On top of that, midlevel positions might be paid better in Company A than senior positions are paid in Company B.

Which leads me to the following point….

4. The best way to increase your salary is to change jobs

Yes, you can get a raise or be promoted while staying at the same company, but in my experience changing jobs leads to way bigger (10-20%) salary increases. Looking back at 6 years of working as a UX/Product Designer my salary has tripled over time. This would not have been possible if I stayed within the same company.

Now I don’t think a salary increase should be the main reason to change jobs. More important reasons for me are learning something new, finding a better fitting culture or doing work that feels more meaningful to me. However, it’s good to be aware that changing jobs also means a new shot at negotiating better benefits (compensation, PTO, working hours, daycare for your children etc.)

5. Good work doesn’t speak for itself

You can do good work, but if you don’t know how to get visibility on your work it will not speak for itself. It seems like most designers just ‘want to do good work’, but part of doing good work is making sure you understand who you’re doing the work for and getting that work in front of them. I don’t just mean your users of customers, but also your stakeholders.

The past years I’ve focused more on sharpening my stakeholder management skills and it has brought me a lot of benefits. I’m by no means an expert and I still need to remind myself to get my work seen, but investing in getting to know my colleagues and stakeholders better has been detrimental in getting salary raises and promotions.

What are thing you wished you learned earlier? Share them in the comments below so others can avoid making the same mistakes