Stay Educated

Someone told me this stupid shit one time, not necessarily those exact words but very close to it. At a previous job I found myself wanting to learn more about motion graphics, so I thought it would be a good idea to learn After Effects. Super excited about my newfound animation career I downloaded the program and started playing around with it.  Fast forward a senior leader asks me why I downloaded After Effects. I let him know that it’s a trending need in the design industry and that I was simply just interested. He informed me that I should not download the program but move my focus to programs like Keynote, something that's in my "craft".  Even though that's a program I used on a daily basis. Immediately I thought....this is dumbest shit ever, who would ban education at the workplace? 

Guess what one of the qualifications was for the next job I went into? You guessed it, After Effects. Luckily I knew not to listen to that senior leader and went ahead and started learning the program. That same leader told me that being a Jack/Jill of all trades would never be good enough and that I should focus on one thing. I'm always trying to be a better designer but I firmly believe that learning how to do other things (animation, photography, etc.) definitely help my design career. So there are two points to this story 1.) Always educate yourself outside your general craft 2.) Don't let someone (even a "senior" leader) talk you out of doing something to further your career.

xoxo.sll