It's no secret that you must practice to be good at anything. But what if practice isn't enough? What if you need more than just practice and skills - you need industry knowledge?
I consider myself a well-rounded individual. I have had over 14 jobs in my 30 years of existence. That might seem like a ton of jobs, but not to me. Most of the short stints I did when I was in my teen years and early 20s. From door to door sales to hustling people to change service providers at
Sam's Club to building dream vacation packages at Universal Orlando Resort and being a construction administrator - I have done it all.
I have had a rule that I never quit without taking knowledge of some kind. This rule served me well in the later years of my twenties because I retained much more information from my previous career moves. I learned how that business operates, how people who interact with said business make choices, and how they view the company. Understanding people and interactions with that particular industry allow me to have practical conversations with my clients. Instead of being completely lost in the client's vision and language, I speak their language. There's no need for complicated, long, drawn-out emails because I simply get it.
Since starting my design business earlier this year, I have had clients contact me from every industry. I spend a great deal of time researching if I don't know something. This time spent learning about various industries is the difference between myself and loads of other "brand designers" and "web brand specialists."
Take, for example, the travel and tourism industry. I spent years creating vacation packages for Universal Orlando Resort. This knowledge of vacation packages and living in a tourist area - have made me a damn near expert at travel agent websites. The same can be said about construction websites as well! I spent four and a half years as an Office Admin and Webmaster for my last employer. So there was no surprise that my first client was a construction company!
I say all of this to make one point: If you leave a job feeling like you gained nothing - consider what knowledge you took from that place and apply it elsewhere.
- Laters.
