There’s something I’ve seen in so many UX/UI/Product job postings over the last few weeks: X years experience in UX/UI in a Y environment working on Z products. And it’s a little unnerving for someone looking to make a lateral move in design.

And it’s forcing me to look back at my life and think “Am I nuts for even applying for these things?”

The answer is no, but not because of all of the LinkedIn posts that say you should apply anyway. With the last few jobs I’ve had, I’ve realized I’m most successful working in the deep end.

Here’s what I mean.

When I started at Rebox in 2014, the company was made up of a Creative Director, a President that also served as Account Director and Business Development person and a bookkeeper/office manager. Seemed like an ideal situation, I could get my feet wet with a small team, learn under a creative director with 20 years of experience, make some connections and gain some experience. Six weeks later, I was the only designer in the company. The creative director and the president split their partnership, and I was left to figure out how to do my job more or less on the fly.

Within six months, I’ve designed a sock and sourced a sock manufacturer in South Carolina for a Movember promotion; I’ve started design work on an enormous 30+ SKU CPG packaging project  requiring calls to printers in Winnipeg to understand everything I need to know about flexographic printing; and establishing my voice on a team that didn’t always understand the importance of design in our business. Stressful? Sure. Doable? Definitely.

Here’s another example I’ve needed to remind myself of. In 2010 I started a job as the manager of Air Canada’s Ground Support Equipment parts facility in Calgary. The revolving door of managers in the previous six months had left a mess on several fronts and meant that Air Canada was ready to fire my (new)  employer for not doing it’s job in managing inventory. It took six months, but with a bit of support I was able to turn it around, clean up all the outstanding billing and inventory issues and make Air Canada happy. And my employer. So much so that they flew me out for the launch of a new branch in Detroit before offering me the job managing the (much) larger brand in Vancouver.

This isn’t an exercise in back-patting, (I hope) I’m more humble than that. But these are good and necessary personal reminders that no matter what comes down the pipe, I got this. I’m going to be successful at this. I’ve done it before and I’m going to do it again. And again. And again. My curiosity is my superpower, but my desire and stubbornness to get good at something I’m interested in, even if I don’t know every part of the job, has always paid off.

So I need to reassure myself: why would this new adventure and growth into UX/UI/Product Design be any different?

Photo above by Ivan Bandura on Unsplash