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• Distractions: When designing it’s important to acknowledge the potential threats that are around your working space, even the smallest sound can become a hazard, for example: having the Facebook page open while you are working can prevent you for finishing the work on time. Making sure to have a ‘safe’ working space can help you to be more successful in your future design projects.
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• Working Safe: Having the fear of making mistakes? Well don’t! Making mistakes is very human natural, even more if you are a student. Making mistakes, taking chances is what will give you that adventure, that experience to not make the same mistakes again and with that will come the confidence over what you want to achieve in the future.
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• Criticism: A true designer puts away his personal feeling and starts to accept the criticism that other people offer to him. Nobody is perfect, but you can try taking some tips from other people, even if is not your style. Just trying to embrace the bad side of thing can change your perspective over the way you see the work that you have produced. If you will let other people break you, they will take you down, because out there is the real world.
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• Boredom: It’s easy to lose interest in a specific project that you might be working on today or even this month and somehow you lose that spark you had at the beginning of the project, but that doesn’t mean you have to quit. You have to continue it and have in mind that other people will give anything to do what are you doing, so don’t let others come over your projects because you did not feel like doing it today. As soon as you finish it, a new project will come, that can be more like what you desire to do.
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• Low Percentage of
Confidence:
For most designers the starting point is embracing the complexities of having a very low percentage of confidence but to pass this you have to experiment within your field to gain more experience and more ideas. Even making new friends can help you get more confidence by just trying to have different activities outside your comfort zone. Anything can be of some help if you just try it and see what it will happen.
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• Over Stressed: Working over night to finish your project or your idea can lead to something that you might not wanted to happen from the beginning. Not sleeping at least 7 hours per night can cause a lot to your designs. You will start to make more mistakes; your mind will be all over the place and you will be thinking even at different things that are not related to what you are doing. This happens very often to a lot of designer out there. Prepare yourself because with this comes stress, one of the biggest enemy of a designer. Being stressed can make your mind to be very chaotic, to be busy with things that are not even related to what you are supposed to think about and in the future this cause a lot of problems to your reputation as a designer.
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• Team Player: “Lone Wolf ” might sound good at the beginning, but it will come a day when you might have to join a pack, which could not work for everybody, so just keep yourself prepare for the worst. Help your team, listen to them, to see what they have to say and do the work that is needed for you to be done, are the most important things that you can do to be a good team player.
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• “Joining the pack is not such a bad idea” But some of you might want to become the “Pack Master”, keep in mind that this could transform you in a control freak, even if you did not feel like you are a control freak. You are in a team, so act normal, don’t take the lead if is not needed and try to socialize with them more, because in some cases this team can become your second family.
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• Life Management: Taking the time you have and making sure you can divide it properly to obtain all the goals that you set to achieve it’s the biggest obstacle that designers encounter, but not impossible to conquer it. Time managing is the most important skill that you need to have in your skill book, because sometimes you will be asked or have to do out of personal interest some office work even if you think now that this can’t be related to design, but it will become a problem if you don’t deal with it now.
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Everything that is around you is related to design, starting with your health; you can’t really work that good if you feel ill, so make sure you eat healthy, exercise and have at least a 7 hours sleep. Another thing can be the way you dress, sometimes you have to invest in a smart look just in case you are called up for an interview, trust me that will score you some extra points with your employer.
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• Be Friendly Being good at what you are doing doesn’t mean you will succeed out there. You need to act properly for the environment that you will engage. Some employers will hire people that are more friendly, with more respect for people and less experience in the software than somebody that is not to good at people skill and with great software skills. You need to have a good image of being able to communicate easy with people around you and maintaining that strong connection over time.
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• Extra Skills: Having a separated skill, or a full set, beside the main ones that your employer is requesting, can really help you to have a better advantage over other designers. Trying different experimenting techniques, having an outside hobby, trying an internet course or even just a separated part-time job that is not directly related to your dream job can be a help.
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• Tools: Trying to keep up with the speed of this new arising era of technology can be a bit of frustration and also an expensive experience. It’s true that this can help you in making the job easier, but having the best technology is not what design is all about. Making your idea to be easy understand and having the necessary resources to sustain your idea is more important. Then you can use your high tech tools to give that professional look that you want.
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• Student Life: Student life is one of the best things that a designer can have before going into the industry. Imagine this journey as being a collection of knowledge that you learn from different people, meeting new people maybe some from different countries and that amazing fun you have going out.
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• “Work hard and have fun” Taking this time can be very useful because you grow from inside by developing your skills, your mind by traveling to see new things and then making all of those mistakes that will lead to that professional style you will start to have at the end of this journey.
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• Building Ideas: We are all just a form of architects, where we build our ideas from the ground base to the highest clouds in the sky. Putting together all the necessary parts to build a strong structure takes time and patience. For some this might be just a walk in the park, but for others this can cause some tension when problems start to appear. Don’t worry too much about it, just try to take it as a challenge to pass that obstacle that you have encounter on your path to success.
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• Curiosity: Still having those urges inside you that tells you ‘What is that?’, ‘How can I do that?’ and ‘What does that do?’ ? Well this can be the best thing that a designer can have. This kind of urges can take you in new journeys, new quests for more information, for more knowledge and more skills. Just keep in mind to be prepared for what it will come after this. Some people become stronger and some just become more confuse before they started the journey. 30
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ŠAdrian Stefanescu