Dear Marki:

One of the things your teachers tell you is “You think this is hard? Wait until you get in the job market”- they mean the industrial design job market, correct?

But notice this: your teachers are not in the industrial design job market, they are in education market, teachers at a university. Maybe when they were in the industrial design job market, or if they weren’t, when they tried to get into that market, it was very difficult for them.

Often people who give up on succeeding in the market of their subject-matter go into teaching, be it high school or college or university. This option will be available for you too, if you graduate design.

I read your first thread of five years ago. You were 18 then, Feb 2015.  You wrote there that you “went to a college where they give you classes in every field possible”. You studied sciences, arts, social sciences, history, math and more.

“I went through all possible careers in my head and none, none interests me!!”, you wrote. “I’ve been taking hundreds of tests, went to career counselors”.

You were told that you were more of a “creative girl” and you wrote that you do think that you are “more artistic than let’s say science-y”. You then thought of an art school. But you wrote that people say “you know you want to go in arts when all you do is drawing all day”, but you don’t draw all day.

You wrote that your brother dropped out of university not knowing what he wants to do, and your parents were pressuring you to “know what I want to do right away”, and not follow your brother’s footsteps.

You wrote that your friends told you that “If I really wanted to go in arts I wouldn’t be hesitating at all to go to that school. But I’m scared I’ll be missing something if I go. But what if I’m missing something if I don’t go?”

My input: the issue is your anxiety. I think you got the wrong advice when you were told the above (italicized). They suggested that maybe art school was the wrong choice for you because you hesitated. But an anxious person hesitates about everything!

Another thing you were told, that “you know you want to go in arts when all you do is drawing all day” is not true. You can go into arts even if you don’t draw all day.

I think that no matter what the subject matter that you study, you’ll be distressed. And I suppose if you dropped out of school, following your initial relief, you’d be distressed too.

So the anxiety needs to be attended to, maybe in quality psychotherapy, incorporating daily aerobic exercise into your day, ex. a fast long daily walk, and yoga or tai chi, practices that help a lot with anxiety.

What do you think, and what happened with your brother since he dropped out of school more than five years ago?

anita

Hi, Marki

I don’t know about the field of industrial design.

I’m a software developer. There are possibly hundreds of men in my city who want to become game developers because they feel that they are passionate about the field. These “passionate” kids seem to be oblivious to the fact that game companies make no money, they don’t know about the fact that game developers don’t get paid, nor do they know about the amount of overtime work they have to do.

Based on your descriptions on your studies, it seems like industrial design might be a field that’s similar to a game developer’s career. Are you sure that you know what you are in for? Do you think that working in that field will give you a happy life?

I did encounter negativity among my teachers during my studies. One of them told the students that software developers have a poor employment rate. I later learned that he was wrong. You should really research about what an industrial designer’s careers are like. Are there some who work moderate hours? Who make a decent living?

My job isn’t stress-free. As a non-game-developer-coder, I have been able to keep my hobbies, make new friends, eat, sleep and exercise. Now I am very much happy in my job.