My 2020, The Year Of Transition, The Year Of Opportunities

2020 is such a big year for me. The keyword for me for this year is OPPORTUNITY. First I graduated from UofT Architecture Faulty in 2019. Then I spent a year looking for jobs and getting my diploma in Marketing. Now I am working as a UXUI Designer and Digital Manager. First, I found out the main reason I gave up on architecture is I did not “see” myself in my designs. I did not gain any positive support from others or it would be such a long process and I can not wait to see the results. After I do marketing, I can see my result from the sales data. My work of UXUI is proofed by the marketing needs.

I got my first UXUI Designer work from a start-up company and I built up the entire e-commerce system and helped them to sell online. This OPPORTUNITY is given by my friend and the company was only looking for a personal seller at the beginning. Then I found my strength and proofed my ability. I was addicted to social media when I was in school.

All these efforts may seem meaningless to others, but for me, they are the power to help me catch this OPPORTUNITY.

Although there are a lot of difficulties with the start-up company, there are only 3-5 employees in the company and there is no rules and regulations, the company does not have that many benefits like other companies. Even though I still hope to get in a big company, people always saying, you want something we will lose something. Being in a start-up company is like finding myself a job all the time. The owner will not tell me a lot about what to do. I need to find out what I can do to help the company grow better. This is also the reason why the owner chose to hire me. There is a lot of freedom in the company, that people would not judge much what you are doing. But sometimes no regulation would drive me crazy too because I was hoping somebody can help me with how to do it or that.

To be honest, as a start-up company and we only sell online now, the environment now also provides the OPPORTUNITY for the business to grow. It is also tricky because we were planning to open a retail store this year. The environment did change our plan but also helped us to grow.

My other UXUI Designer job is for a non-profit organization called “Digital Main Street”, I am under the program called “Future-Proof”, which is born due to Covid-19 and helping the small business to get efficient online presents. The hiring story is full of OPPORTUNITY too. I was applied for the other program first and that program is closed for hiring soon after. Then they opened this program and saw my application files for the previous program and asked me do I want to join this program. When I applied for the job, most of my applications did not get a response and the job board changed once a week. So I assumed there was no more job in the market and we gave up on applying. But the fact is there are jobs like this program that they want people urgently and they may show up on the job aboard one day and the job is full the next day. So do not find an excuse for our laziness. Keep finding the do not miss the OPPORTUNITY.

We have five members which are Web Developer, UXUI Designer (Me), Copy Writer, Graphic Designer, and Digital Marketer, and one team leader in one team. The whole program is throughout the Ontario province. This is another story of OPPORTUNITY. I was asking for Digital Marketer when HR called me. But the position is full and she said I can choose between a graphic designer and UXUI designer. Since I have a background in architectural design so these choices are reasonable for me. I was swinging between these two positions as I was learning UXUI courses and I am not ready for a job as a UXUI designer. I am ready to be a graphic designer because I was using all the skills when I was studying architectural design. I was concerned about how my skills would be applied to these two roles, but the more important thing is what I would learn from different positions. So I would say UXUI designer would be the right choice because I am learning a lot from my job. I am so ready to apply these new skills to the coming year.

I caught all these opportunities, but do not forget I gave up 4-year study in architecture. Our lives are full of OPPORTUNITY, the fact is when we see them can we identify them and are we ready to catch them. When we making a big decision, we may not recognize this would be a critical time of life, until we look back. So treasure every moment of life, and keep busy.

What is your keyword for 2020? Share with me.

Thank you for reading~

Yanfei