From being an Architect to a UX UI Designer
If you are are an Architect from India looking to switch careers and thinking to become a UX UI designer , I would suggest you to do two things if you want to do the switch careers and sustain.
Before jumping into the two key points , let me tell you how and why I made the switch and how do I feel now, two years after making the switch.
To cut long story short, my story falls under these four chapters (Dont worry all chapters are kept short)
- Life as an architect
- My (first) big leap
- Life as a UX Designer
- Is the future bright?
- Life as an Architect
It’s been amost 10 years since I took the decision to study Architecture . Not that I was really interested in becoming an Architect, but I din’t want to become an Engineer since most of the people around me were Engineers and I din’t want to do the same. While I was looking for other options Architecture sounded interesting and also heard through my relatives that one can make huge money after completing Architecture(wish I find that relative now XD).
Believing that I joined Architecture with joy and hope. 5 years of Architecture study wasn’t that bad though nobody knew why one has to study for 5 years as you won’t be able to put into practice most of the stuff you study and do in college.
After 5 years of education with no proper future plans started practicing at a Chennai based architecture firm Mancini Enterprises.
Everything went good the first two years of practice with
- Amazing set of friends
- Huge learning curve (thanks to the place i worked)
- Long working hours (perks of being an Architect)
Along with it came a downside
- Projects not getting executed as you wished.
- Projects that just stays on the design table for months
- Salary that doesn’t justify the quantity of work that you do.
2. My big leap
With things not moving forward even after almost 2 years and no positive outcomes from the projects I worked on (due to various reasons) by the end of the 2nd year I decided that it’s time to quit.
With no proper plan of what I am going to do next I quit my job and sat home to figure out whats next.
Months went by as I was still figuring out what to do next. Though I din’t find Architecture as interesting as I thought it would be, my mind was still wondering if I should go find another job in an Architecture firm or learn something new. Meanwhile my parents were going crazy as I was at home for months without any job.
It’s not even right the time to apply for Masters as it was way behind the usual intake period.
Then I came across this 12 day course on product design which said UX UI Design which I had not idea what it was before. But it sounded interesting so I joined that 2 week course on UX UI Design in Bengaluru.
Those 12 days was really great. Got some fresh perspectives on Design and met some awesome new people. This 12 day course is what that actually made me think about a career switch even though I wasn’t completely sure of what kind of work a UX UI Designer would do.
Though I found UX UI Design more interesting than practicing Architecture in Chennai, there was something that held me back in taking that next step to give UX UI Design a try, explore and see if it will be a good suit for me.
While this uncertainty was there in my mind is when I got an opportunity to work on a live UX UI project, thanks to people at uxmint. This project actually helped me understand more about the scope of UX UI Design and what would one do as a UX UI Designer.
With this project happening as a learning is when I got my Job opportunity as a UX UI Designer which I took it without any big thought as I liked the work that I did. To look back at how I made the career switch
- It was totally unplanned.
- I din’t jump into UX UI Design because I wanted to but I liked the kind of work the domain offered.
- A live project opportunity was key in giving me a glimpse of what kind of work that I would do as a UX UI Designer.
3. Life as a UX Designer
With just 12 days of learning UX Design I had no confidence that I could be a better fit among other UX Designers.
From being an Architect to a UX Designer though it looked easy at the beginning it was challenging and more interesting as there is a lot to learn where you come across new concepts and ideas as you start practicing.
The domain of Product Design offers a wide range of opportunities, even in UX UI Design there are a lot of umbrellas that one can specialise in. To know which is best for you, one will identify only if they jump into it and start doing things which is what I am doing at present.
4. Is the future bright as a UX Designer?
If you want to know if there is a good future as a UX UI Designer for an Architect I would say not just as a UX UI Designer there is always good future in any field for Architects in fact for anybody.
Here I would like to add a famous quote that I came across which says ‘There is no future in any job. The future lies in the man who holds the job' said by George W. Crane which is exactly true in a way but I would also like to add to it by saying look at what majority of the people in the world want and find a job that does that and also make sure you love doing it.
And finally,
The two key things that I would like to say to any Architect who want to become a UX UI Designer,
- Learn from the best minds who can motivate you and can ignite a spark that gets you interested in that particular Domain.
- Look out and grab opportunities to work on any realtime project which can show you a glimpse of what the field might look to work in.
After doing this you yourself might know whether if a career switch is needed for you or not. ✌🏻
