Thursday, December 27, 2007
Nerd or Designer... can I be both?
In all my previous jobs, my title usually involved something along the lines of web developer or HTML programmer or something similar. This new job is the first one I’ve had that was an actual design position. Web Designer. It sounds kinda glamorous, doesn’t it? Any kind of designer automatically has some cool points associated by default.
In all honesty though, I do feel a little out of place. The other designers are more than 6 years younger than me and are so much better at what they do than I am. They also like to drink and party. At the Christmas party they each had at least 10 gin and tonics and were wasted by the end of the evening. Is this where creativity stems from? Being wild? I am so not wild, and when it comes to web design I am not very creative or fresh. I never got any formal training in design or graphics, so maybe that’s why. It makes me feel a little insecure sometimes, like maybe it was a fluke that I got this job.
I’ve learned more about new web technology in my first 3 weeks here than during the entire 3 years at my last job. I think the company will see that I’ve been putting in the effort to catch up and be a team player. They pay for training, so maybe I can finally get that formal design training so I too can design cool things despite my ability to draw only stick figures. The nice thing about these web designers is that they are not trend-setters by any stretch of the imagination. They may be able to design circles around me, but they’re still nerds and can talk about video games all day long. I dress better than they do too, believe it or not. All is not lost.
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Categories: • Office Hijinks • Random acts of geekery