If you ever get the chance to do side projects for real people as a young designer, take the opportunity. It will teach you a lot.If you have the time and if your situation allows it, taking side projects as a freelancer while you have a full-time job is a good way to try it out and see if it’s something for you. Be careful though because you will not see the sunlight a lot.

Freelancing

You will only be able to do that if you actually manage to pay for your internet bill first of course. One benefit to it is that you will choose the project you want. You will work on what makes you happy and what you will be happy to show as a work reference. If you work with the right persons, it will open doors for you.Do it when you are a student, when you’re eager to do over hours and work on various stuff. Yes they will get something for really cheap or even nothing, but as a young designer you will get invaluable experience, you just need to be careful.

Working for free

<ul><li>During your life, if you’re lucky enough, you will meet people who will help you grow. People who will help you reach what you think was too far, by standing on their shoulders.</li><li>You will not always be working on something that makes you proud, but you will always learn something out of it.</li><li>Be a safety net for the person you want to see evolve. Make him feel impactful and in control of his decisions and projects.</li></ul>

Work relationships

Some may say that learning by yourself is all you need, especially in our line of work. If you have the passion about something, self teaching should come naturally. There will always be more talented people than you.

Self teaching

That’s the beauty of internet, you can network without engaging anybody in the real world. You can build yourself as a designer and build your web presence simply by participating in communities. If you are alone on an island, you have virtually the same chance of being recognized for your work as anybody else.

Networking and design communities

In addition to school courses and learning with pros, learning by yourself will be a great asset in your career. Some may say that it is all you need, especially in our line of work.If you have the passion about something, self teaching should come naturally. If you have fun learning stuff, you are where you’re supposed to be.

Self-teaching

had to learn math to discover that I hated it, I had to learn to code to discover that my appeal to it wasn’t as strong as my appeal to align pixels. I had to wear a suit to realize that this is not something that I would want to wear everyday. I learned how to manage projects and people to understand that what I really wanted to do is to spend my entire day in Photoshop, listening to Hans Zimmer and Amon Tobin.

<blockquote>The best way to learn is to work for real people, in real companies.</blockquote>The benefit from working and learning at the same time with people who actually make a living out of what you want to do is by orders of magnitude more beneficial than school. Any internship will teach you more about real life work than any class.

The best way to work

Learning in school what you don't want: School is not about teaching, not really. It’s about opening your mind. You will forget most of what you learn at school but it will help me visualize and understand the things that you want to do and the things that you want to avoid.

School and job skills

When I joined Google a little more than 2 years ago, I was asked by a few people to tell the story of how I got there and what my experience was.
I promised I would but I never actually did. Maybe I…

Networking and design communities

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