How to “Level up” in your creative job
Cost-of-living crisis or not, you likely want a promotion, raise, or the confidence to start your own venture, at some point.
However, up-levelling can feel overwhelming. Whether you’re a UX designer like me, or something else, there are so many niches within an industry to specialize in — where do you even begin? As a creative person, a lot of what makes someone more ‘senior’ can also feel quite subjective and varied company-to-company.
Thankfully, I’m blessed to be part of a strong design community that always helps each other. I help those earlier in their journey than me, and those more established help me grow too. Through this regular guidance, I’ve compiled some of the best advice I’ve received around progression in the world of design. Designer or not, I think this advice can be applied to most creative jobs— and work in general, really. Hope you find it helpful too!
Seek mentorship from those further along; regardless of your level there will always be someone who has done it before. I have met great people through ADP List and cold messaging on LinkedIn. You would be surprised how willing people who work at your dream companies are to help you get your foot in the door (at least in the world of UX design).
Meet new people in your field; I learn so much from designers at other companies — what salaries are ‘normal’ , how they approach certain situations, certain apps they are loving etc. Through networking you not only practice pitching yourself and your work, but you can also put eachother forward for opportunities. Additionally, having people to talk with at events about industry-related topics helps the information stick more in your brain. I love going to events which I usually find through Eventbrite or tech schools like Brain Station.
MAKE time to read more about business; I post articles daily on LinkedIn as a way to hold myself accountable to reading more. Ever since I started doing this, I noticed how much better I became at sharing well-informed perspective and new modes of thinking. Through this reading, I have also gone back and been able to improve my portfolio. The return isn’t immediately obvious, but after a few month it’s a big change I noticed in myself. I recommend asking your company to cover an HBR subscription or a Medium subscription if you haven’t already. HBR is great because understanding business and strategy = key to levelling up regardless of what your job is (sooo many people keep telling me this).
Find what makes you YOU; I LOVE Jennifer Brick, and her content has made me really keen on deepening my UAQ (unique awesomeness quotient). It sounds corny but it’s so much more motivating than thinking about how you need to improve in everything you aren’t great at (or become just like everyone else at work).
Mastery of people skills mastery; ‘conflict management’ , ‘assertiveness training’ and ‘confidence’ are key things that keep being told to me again and again as game-changing for your ability to progress. A lot of juniors know the text book ‘best practice’ in their field, but the challenge is conveying this in the right way, to the right people, at the right time. Through strong understanding of psychology and self confidence (some) senior-level people seem to do this.
Figuring out what matters to you; a former colleague told me that the best way to uplevel my ‘craft skills’ as a designer is to work on a side project for something that really matters to me. Watch this space ;) .
The beautiful thing about life is that I have not figured this out perfectly, and a lot of the time, the people who have given this advice have not either. That being said, life is about enjoying the journey — as they say. You don’t need to be ‘perfect’ — as long as the car is moving forward from where it was before, that’s what matters.
This week…
I challenge you to try one of these pieces of advice for a few weeks. Did you notice any difference at work or with how you feel? Let’s continue the conversation over on LinkedIn 👋
