Sometimes people ask me what I'm trying to do
I use most OA tools. Excel, PowerPoint, Hangul, Keynote.. So? I've got what they call planning experience.
I draw and I handle graphics tools. Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, 3D MAX, Rhino, XD… So? I can do what's called design work.
I program. HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Java, Spring, PHP, Oracle, MySQL, Node.js — so I can do dev work.
I can make clothes. I ideate in Illustrator, compose with technical flats, plan with patterns, and finish with sewing. So I have experience with a fashion brand and have launched a personal brand at my own shop.
I can handle a coffee machine and pull drip coffee. Espresso, Americano, latte, cappuccino, mocha, etc. So I have barista experience and have run a cafe.
Sometimes people ask, what are you thinking here
In most workplaces, being able to use a tool starts defining you as a specific job. Handle graphics tools? You're called a designer. Handle programs? A developer. If the premise that "everyone has always done it this way" didn't exist on top of other people saying so, it'd be a truly dreadful kind of ennui.
In fashion there are jobs called "designer" and "seamstress/tailor." Both make clothes.
Depending on the case, some designers can't operate a sewing machine. But no one tells them "you're not a designer." Meanwhile, the people who cut fabric, sew, and make clothes aren't called designers. A designer is not a technician. Instead of reconstructing aesthetics for those paying, they set their own concept and design to express it, and the people who like that design come and pay.
In IT there is a job called "designer" too. But here, designer and graphic worker aren't distinguished.
Here, there is no "depending on the case." If you can't operate a graphics tool, you're simply not a designer. But .. (it's a bit much to keep writing. Stopping here)
In IT.. "planner" is what they call the one who plans. Someone who makes plans. Or project manager. It's ridiculous. Planning is something anyone must do. Managing a program is something anyone — not just a planner — can do. Every company treats its forms/templates like they're notarized documents. They hire through those forms, exchange opinions with clients through those forms, explore new businesses through those forms, pursue innovation through those forms. It's a pretty lol situation.
Design — instead of being a "screen monkey" in front of a screen, cranking out pretty icons and springy UIs via Photoshop, Illustrator, or Sketch — I thought design was the work of drawing attention and interest from people in their repetitive daily lives, through the ability to see and think differently. But in IT the first task for a new designer is almost always cutting out image masks. Ah, as time has passed, lately the work has become: following design guides (the equivalent of planner-form templates) provided by platforms, making the elements needed for development and then setting the movement order of those elements. The worst is when even that movement order (system flow) is handled in planning. Then you really are just operating graphics tools.
Programming — I thought programming was not "implementing flawless features meeting client requirements on schedule" but reconstructing human thought within the range expressible at the code level — but in most cases, expression isn't the goal; feature implementation is. That's why there are many "developers" but almost no "programmers." There's nothing you can really do alone. Non-IT folks think programmers turn thought into software, but programmers — no, developers — themselves say that's an illusion. A self-deception.
Honestly, aren't these not really "jobs"? Aren't they just "workplaces"?
Whether planning, design, or programming — in IT, the form is everything. That form is sometimes called a design guideline, sometimes a design pattern. Occasionally called an "xx methodology," but really it's being used as a "method," not a methodology.
Sometimes people ask what I'm trying to do, and I
I say, I'm just expressing what I think —
if Word is comfortable I use Word; if Illustrator is comfortable I use Illustrator; if coding is comfortable I do programming.
Still, you've got to make a living, so among the so-called IT forms, planning feels closest to me. Self-assessed, I'm not at expert level on the functional side of any individual tool. And I don't intend to spend my life getting really good at using tools.
When a painter uses art materials, you don't call them an "acrylic painter" because they use acrylics. You don't call them an "oil painter" because they use oil. A fashion designer who uses cotton isn't called a cotton designer, or a silk designer, or a tops designer, or a bottoms designer — I think it's no different from that.
I'm not sure what counts as a "job" by industry standards, but I've been doing the same one kind of work the whole time. When given a problem, I think about whether that problem is really the problem, whether the desired answer really fits the problem, and I make alternatives. I'm not really interested in whether it's called "planning" or "design." If a planning tool is needed, I use a planning tool; if a design tool is needed, I use a design tool.
Lately coding has been needed, so I'm learning programming.. of course, spending time studying while working full-time isn't easy.. the opportunity cost is huge...T_T But what can I do, I like it ;D
So I'm looking for a place where I can do work that matters. How much more they pay, what kind of work — that's not really important. I think if you keep doing whatever it is, you end up earning, and if you do well, you earn more.
I just don't want to spend my life and emotional labor on work that makes me go "yuck." Like implementing flawless features nobody uses, or places where, knowing better, you pretend not to and perform only the task and exactly the amount you're paid for. It's more common than people think. The cartel of "experts"… And not just in IT, either. Of course this might just be my own bias born from my experience, personality, and temperament.
In short, the gist of this post is
Word, Illustrator, Java — in the end, they're all just tools for expressing what's in your head. So it doesn't matter if you can do all of them or only one. As long as you don't foolishly think like, "you're a planner, so just be good at Word."
