I have some news!
(If you’re in a rush, here's the TL;DR: I quit my job as designer + jack-of-all-marketing-trades to focus my full energy on design. If you want to collaborate on a project, get in touch.)
Ready?
I quit my job.
* Slightly panics *
To clarify, I quit my job without having another job. I’ll be honest, it’s not something I ever pictured myself doing. That would be risky. And aren’t risk-takers those people who climb to really high places and then yell, “YOLO!” as they jump off? For fun?
Hard pass.
Actually, it turns out that—according to Merriam-Webster—”risk-takers” are people who are “willing to do things that involve danger or risk in order to achieve a goal.”
Setting and achieving a goal? Now that I can get behind.
So… What’s the goal?
The purpose of this change is to blend the life I want to live with the work I love to do: design really* cool things and travel to interesting places. This means focusing my career solely on design (instead of the mix of design and marketing I was doing before) and pursuing work that is location-independent.
But I didn’t feel I could properly make this change while still in a full-time job. There was a lot of time-intensive work ahead: redesigning my website (tada!), studying all of the tutorials and resources I’d been amassing, and seeking out roles that more closely align with my new goals.
So I decided to do something risky: quit.
Of course, this decision didn’t come without a lot of prep and research. As I laid the groundwork, it was encouraging to see how many people and companies are building a culture to support completely distributed teams.
Writing about this change was another step I wanted to take (thanks for being a part of it!). Publicly shared goals can be very motivating, so here’s what I’ll be doing to turn this dream into a reality:
- Pursue excellence in design
- Say yes to unexpected opportunities and new places
- Stretch the limits of my comfort zone
- Blog about what I’m learning through this process
- Add new design skills to my wheelhouse (like motion graphics!)
I don’t know exactly what the outcome of this change will look like. There may be an opportunity just around the corner, or I may have years of freelancing ahead of me.
I do know that I’m looking forward to teaming up with some amazing people, traveling to new places, and producing designs that are really, really ridiculously good looking.
And lastly, my thank-you speech…
I want to say thank you to everyone I’ve had the pleasure of working with over the past five years. During that time, I went from copy editing blog articles as an intern to overseeing all content creation: the website, print material, guides, blog posts, student interviews, advertising creative, email content… the list goes on, and I couldn’t have asked for a better place to grow. I wouldn’t be able to start the next phase of my career without the experience, confidence, and relationships that I gained in the last half decade.
I’m also so grateful to the many people who have been willing to answer my questions around freelancing, give design feedback, and share advice and encouragement. You know who you are and you have my sincerest gratitude.
That’s it!
Thank you for making it to the end of The Big, Grand Announcement: Part 1*! You’re the best. 😘
*Part 2 coming someday. Until then, please enjoy The Best Gif of All Time:
