Andy Laub

If you know me or you’ve read some of the ancient history posts, you probably know that I took a full-time job as a web designer at Eastbay rather than finish up the 2 years of school I had left. There was always a lingering doubt as to whether it was absolutely the right thing to do, but I felt good about it because I was finally self sufficient and making money rather than spending it.

In a way it feels as though today, my final day of work there, was my very last day of school. It’s not as far-fetched of a comparison as you might think. Everybody comes into the department relatively young (fresh out of school in many cases) as interns (freshmen) or associates (sophomores). A year later I was made a non-associate (junior) and another year after that, I was fortunate enough to receive senior status. With the time spent and the different types of projects completed, my design and technical knowledge transformed me from a greenhorn into a marketable, real designer.

Sure, this can also be achieved by going through more schooling, but I don’t think it was nearly as valuable as actually doing it. I don’t know that a lot of students learn to market their designs to people other than their professors - people who don’t necessarily care about design for design’s sake and who would rather just have you make the main message bigger and also red. When you’re going from one environment to the other, it can be quite startling if you’re not prepared.

For the two years I could have been in school, I instead had a steady income, job security, and received a ton of experience dealing with real-world situations. I learned about office politics, how to come up with an on-the-spot explanation of why I made certain design choices (even if they were arbitrary), and how to cope with total redesigns even though I gave the requester exactly what he or she asked for. Again, all of this was invaluable knowledge, and generally much more entertaining than school anyway. Additionally, you’re showing other potential employers that you are indeed employable.

Don’t think for a minute that I’m suggesting every aspiring designer should drop out of school and find a job. But I’m absolutely confident that it’s the best career choice I ever made.