Design career

Re-starting a career as a new joiner

and how to survive your first three months

Image credit to Unsplash

4 months ago, I left my previous career as a Design Manager and moved to Amsterdam, where I started working as Senior UX Designer in one of the biggest tech company in the country. Starting over as a new joiner was a bizarre feeling, especially after settling down for so many years with a job that you love (in my case, 3+ years). During those 3 years in my previous job, I have successfully mastered the product knowledge, the business direction, the stakeholders, and the my roles and responsibilities.

But as I started my new career, I opened a new blank page where how much I knew about product design didn’t matter. Everything felt new and strange. There’s no longer familiar faces or informal conversation that I usually had with my colleagues, but rather days with big question marks and constant feeling that you might’ve made a mistake by starting over. I guess it’s the same reason why people stayed for so many years in a company, even though they no longer grow: the fear of starting over.

If you made that leap of faith of moving somewhere and chasing that career growth, you have successfully conquered your own fear. The fear might still be there, but after 4 months in my new job, I came to a conclusion that there…