Of Changing Careers & the Use of Social Media

A reflection of the aspects of Stephy Fung's lecture that inspired me.

What stood out for me during Stephy Fung's lecture was her gradual transition from studying Graphic Design to evolving into a successful Digital Fashion Artist.

The last decade has seen numerous individuals changing career paths to various ends - be it for passion, money or both. This stacking of skills from different fields has given rise to new avenues making their way into traditional approaches, leading to innovative outcomes and invariably, interesting new jobs. With cross-disciplinary interactions and merging of ideas come new-age inventions and creative solutions whether it be a project, a start-up or a Fortune 100 company.

My professional journey from being a software engineer to a fashion designer is reflective of the way society's perspective has changed about the freedom of choice an individual wields with respect to their career. The natural progression from studying science and logic to exploring creative methods of design has created a more expansive and complete landscape of my work.

Another point that stood out to me during Stephy Fung's talk was her advice on managing an active and engaging professional social media account. She talked about how she consistently posted her work on her Instagram page even when self-doubt creeped in, and how her impressive body of work was instrumental in her getting noticed by brands that approached her with work.

Many creative individuals battle with the Goliath of perfectionism. When a piece of work isn't the ideal and perfect version that our minds imagined, we hesitate to put it out. This is counter-intuitive, as this usually means we're stuck in the loop of obsessing over perfecting one piece of work rather than actually getting better at our skills by moving more muscle by doing more work. Consistently working on new creations while trying to better the next iteration and putting it out will not only upgrade our skill level but also demonstrate our learning journey on a public platform.

In conclusion, I have been inspired to apply my engineering skills more confidently in the

field of design while I build an expansive and consistent body of work on social media that demonstrates my journey of getting a little bit better each day.