Coach
Related Posts
McKinsey & Company Any advice to help prepare for data science analyst role at top consulting firms (McKinsey & Company EY Boston Consulting Group etc)? Any materials, open source platform recommended to take on freelance data science project? When should I start actively looking and applying? I am a new grad who is working in tech as a marketing analyst I’m looking to pivot to marketing& sales data science consulting next year. Would like someone with similar backgrounds offer some practical tips.
More Posts
Visual Storyteller
Why does Newark close tsa pre lanes? Terrible
Is the DC DMV finally open? 👀
Additional Posts in Designers
Figma: frames or groups?
Enthusiast
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
How can I follow this thread, I will merely comment this "I've been there".
I see the bookmark ribbon. I have tapped the bookmark ribbon. My goodness, I've followed :)
I don’t work at Oliver Wyman anymore but this is exactly where I ended up after the last “once in a lifetime recession”. Being pigeon holed into a ppt monkey role ruined my career and I would have left sooner if I had known better at the time and wasn’t desperate for a job after just having quit an even worse situation. No amount of aggressive strategy or tactics worked and I was surrounded by toxicity. Hopefully your situation isn’t as bad because getting jerked around in the backwaters of the creative industry has not been good for my career or my sobriety.
Mentor
I hope it doesn’t end up that way too! The lack of good managers being a team-wide shortcoming is very concerning, but hopefully the talk with my manager on Friday should help clear up these issues.
Is the role within a design department or is your manager not a designer? Couldn’t tell based on your feedback. What I can offer as a designer working on primarily non-designer teams: I had to very actively seek out feedback from my manager. A lot of people who are managers are not taught how to manage properly, and just were promoted without the proper training. You might need to constantly seek out feedback and say things like, “I think I did X well, but I want some feedback about Y. Would appreciate your experience and insight on this.” Some managers aren’t bad people they are just bad managers.
Ahh good to know. I think a lot of people in managerial roles end up in a higher up position without the training to be a good manager. It sounds like you are doing the right things with seeking out advice from past coworkers and team members. You might need to be really direct and ask how it is best to get feedback from them. I would definitely offer up some solutions or suggestions so it doesn’t seem like you are dumping a problem in their lap with no possible direction. If you work well receiving feedback one way, I would mention it to them. Good luck!!!
How long have you been in this new role? This is exactly where I was a year ago when I started a new position, and after being very aggressive about asking for one on ones with my team lead, essentially demanding feedback, finding colleagues that felt similar to me and slowly learning how these new clients worked - it’s better now. I find the first year on a new job is always rough for me.
Coach
6 weeks - I actually just texted a former coworker who is on the team and asked for advice and she said what you said: be aggressive on getting appropriate management, don’t take it personally, go to others for feedback if necessary, make him give you feedback.
Apparently this is a team wide issue and has been for months. Didn’t realize I was walking into a huge dumpster fire after escaping another one but here I am 😂
My coworker agreed to help me tho since she also wants to mentor people to gain those skills. And there’s a more junior designer who wants mentoring as well so I think there is a solution in here somewhere. Just hurts to be treated that way regardless of the situation.
Idk what you can do but I understand how you feel...you should check out NFT’s. I’m still getting the hang of it but basically you get paid in crypto for your artwork. Reading your post you sound like a talented artist that’s stuck in the corporate world. That’s kinda how I feel. But yea, your not alone someday things will be different.
Be careful with NFTs, and do your research. The fee to mint even one piece can go up into the hundreds, and the VAST majority of artists sell virtually nothing and don't recoup the cost. Only a tiny % of artists sell their work and have the platforms to broadcast NFT drops, you need a serious following to make it worthwhile. Market is currently being flooded by randos with no clout (and often no real design/artistic skill either) which makes visibility doubly hard to achieve.
Oh, and ETH transactions are extremely energy consuming. Saw a detailed report on it recently and don't quite remember the exact numbers, but because of how many steps NFTs involve, minting a single NFT can spend as much power as an average household for something like several days to weeks, or more.
Mentor
How experienced is your Manager? I've seen a lot of designers who get promoted to manager\get put in a role to manage others, but then really struggle because they a) can't let go of designing or b) are very bad at direction, giving feedback. If this manager has been a manager for a long time, that's a red flag. But if they are newer in the role they may be clueless as too what their reports (you!) want and need. So if it feels more like the latter situation, this may be more common and normal (and fixable) then you think.
Mentor
I am not entirely sure - I got put on a team that exploded the last 6 months because of the new business, and on top of that they just switched to Agile method AND are learning to use Sketch, some for the first time ever.
They are also understaffed and on a crazy hiring spree - so it could be that my manager is used to being the sole creative on the team and shouldering all the burden (that’s my optimistic hope) and he is still wrapping his head around everything.
The alternate possibility is that he is in fact, a shitty manager. The way my coworker put it is: they are driving a cruise ship through ice bergs, and should teach others how to navigate so they can uh....rest, and not cause accidents from being so tired. But there isn’t enough time to do that because there are SO MANY ICE BERGS. 😂😂😂
Don’t know if that completely made sense but the team has seemingly always been a hot mess 😬
Don’t let a crappy job discourage you. My first design gig was with a start up. My boss at the time implied I wasn’t a very good designer. Maybe your role is just not a good fit like mine was? I’m still working in the field and currently at an awesome agency. Don’t give up!
Mentor
It’s possible! I wasn’t working on anything they had actually brought me in to work on (content pages for their website); I was being put on presentation deck edits, mostly internal.
My contact ended early so maybe in the long run that was a good thing.
Some managers are absolute trash and have no business being managers. Can you get another manager?
Mentor
Thanks friend! Hopefully I can get a job that’s a better fit in the next month or so.
I agree with many of the comments here but just wanted to chime in that sometimes you also have to train people on how to give good feedback, and prime them up front on what you’re looking for feedback on. Frustrating, but I’ve found that many folks in tech don’t have experience giving critiques.
Also I know it’s scary to confront managers, but you could also approach them about how the template made you feel. It’s possible that they were just trying to make your job easier and didn’t realize how insulting that was - or it will force a conversation about feedback.
“The way I’m being treated makes me think I’m not good enough to be a designer.” I’ve been in very similar positions and know that they are not setting you up for success, bottom line. 100% not on you. Doesn’t matter how chaotic things are at the org, you deserve that support to grow as a designer. All the advice here is great re pressing your manager for proper feedback and I would also say to the extent that you can make sure you’re getting everything you need to be successful in each of your tasks and be vocal if you are not. That may help help them start to realize any shortcomings as a manager.
Mentor
Update: I was contract, so as soon as we had my 30-day check in they lost a piece of business and had to immediately let me go. I’m now unemployed 😂 I know what to avoid in the future though!