[Business of Design] Owning a business...or not.

Which you think you’d enjoy more: designing your own business or innovating within an existing business?

Hmmm....this is a tough question if there can only be one answer. For the three and a half years before coming to grad school I worked as a freelance designer and it was hard. Really hard. During my second year of freelancing it took me about 14 hours to do my taxes (the first year was easy because I hardly made any money), invoicing was a pain, health insurance companies are terrible, etc.

At this point in my life, when I finish grad school, I want to innovate within an existing business. I am looking forward to the perks of a benefits package and -- as Alexander Levit puts it -- the ability to turn off [my] BlackBerry without jeopardizing the company’s future.

However, that's not to say I want to work for The Man for the next 35 years. I think it's fair to assume at some point in the future I'll get sick of working for someone else and head off to do my own thing. Lately I have been thinking that it is OK to have multiple careers throughout a lifetime; I like this idea. I think it's exciting and allows yourself room to change. Plus, it allows me to focus on what I want to do now and spend less time worrying about whether I will be happy with my chosen course 15 or 20 years down the line.

Business of Design

After five weeks filled with eating and sleeping at regular hours, skiing, traveling, Hulu watching, Netflix watching, and novel reading, the new semester is finally upon us!

The week 0 assignment for the Business of Design class is to write what we're NOT looking forward to about the class. So here it is.

Part of the pre-class survey asked about our proficiency with Microsoft Excel. I assume that means we will need to use Excel for the class. I am not looking forward to relying on any Microsoft product, least of all PowerPoint, Excel, or Word.

I finished my undergraduate education in June 2005 and started my graduate education in July 2012...meaning I have seven years experience working as a designer. I know I have plenty to learn about business, but I am not looking forward to (re)learning the basics one picks up simply by working as a designer.

For this class we work in small teams for the whole semester. My team is made up of talented, unique, and hilarious folk. I know that we will be a great team because I get along with all of them and know that they are hard working. Buuuuuut.... It just so happens that they are all international students. I am worried this means the heaviest part of the writing and presenting will fall on me, which I am not looking forward to. I'm an introvert!!