Professional Documents
Culture Documents
31
(Chinese Version)
2017 was a bumpy yet exciting year for me. I left my graphic designer job in
March, and entered the maze of the coding world. Five months later, I
finally got a job as a front-end developer at Tenten.co.
Having been a full-time front-end developer for six months, I’d like to
share my story of why and how I pivoted my life path. This is for those who
might be as helpless but ambitious as I am.
lots of great tutorials on this topic, and I will list some later in the article.
Remember, the perfect (universal) path for all individuals does not exist.
My Background
My Behance page
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
For me, graphic design serves the purpose of solving a problem with
attractive visual forms supported by invisible systems or structures.
Design & Thinking Official Trailer by Muris Media. The documentary tells the power of design thinking.
There’s no doubt that I’m still aware of the power and importance of great
design. But most of the time, designers are only allowed to deal with the
“client’s problem,” instead of tackling “real problems client have.”
Designers spend most of the time guessing their client’s wishes with no
profound data and analysis, but only intuition, experience, or common
sense.
I got tired of this game two years into my graphic design career.
That’s when I decided to take a serious look at the always trending front-
end development topic on Medium.
Design in Tech Report in 2017 by John Maeda. This report taught me the potential impact a computational
designer could make could be way more than a classic one.
I found that being a developer with design skills allowed you to have way
more control and authority over each case and client. Besides, working on
web development or applications allows you to efficiently propagate
information.
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
I left my graphic design job at the end of February. With no elaborate plan
and limited saving in the bank, I started my journey of transforming into a
front-end developer.
What to Do
Taking the first step is always hard. But if you recognize what the reason
propelling you is, things get simpler. For example, if your purpose of
becoming a developer is getting paid better ASAP, then you should learn
the hot stuff in the market.
In my case, because I realized that my current goal was to earn the power
to combine design with development skills, I focused on showcasing both
abilities.
So, I set a goal, and made a list of required tasks with my shallow
understanding of front-end development:
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
1. Goal
3. Tasks to do
I assigned only these tasks for myself at first. But as I read more articles,
tutorials, or job requirements, I put these skills on the list along the way:
Sass
Gulp
CS50
Basic Unix
Basic Wordpress
Jekyll
Basic AWS knowledge
Basic networking knowledge
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
To follow the plan, I set a 48hr/week working goal for myself. It meant I
had to work eight hours a day with only one day off in a week. Toggl
helped me keep track of my performance.
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
Also, I took a long-term goal -> monthly goal -> weekly agenda -> daily
agenda method to make my learning schedule, and Asana was my best
assistant on managing these tasks.
Where to Learn
I tried to learn from many platforms, tutorials, or articles along the way.
Here’s the list of the resources and my thoughts to each of them:
Learning Platforms
Back then, I hated the tutorials that showed me lines of codes I didn’t have
any idea what to do with. Some assumed that I knew every bit of it, or they
told me to ignore it for now. Please, I genuinely didn’t understand even a
line of the code on the screen, because I was a TOTAL BEGINNER.
Those kinds of lectures pained me, and made me looked down on myself.
Generally, there’s no perfect platform to learn everything. I tried to be as
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
Youtube Channel
This is the best place to learn for free or for fun. Youtube videos are not
only great for learning certain topics thoroughly from playlists, but are also
handy for having a taste of some interesting knowledge.
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
Articles to read
Readings are a perfect medium for topics of life paths or inspiration for me.
I was pumped by great articles when frustrated so many times in the five
months. Here’re some of my best life guides:
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
Unfortunately, I had barely any choices at all. Not many companies wanted
a man with no relative development experience/background, and even
fewer appreciated the value of my graphic design abilities. It was also sad
to have fewer than five job opportunities that were possibly a fit for me. On
the bright side, the situation forced me to focus on these precious chances.
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
Tenten.co
I had been watching the design agency Tenten for at least three years. It is
the one and only agency that’s able to harness design, digital development,
and innovation at the same time in Taiwan. I’ve had them on my “please
hire me” list for a long time, and I believed Tenten was the only company
here that would be sold on my multi-disciplinary skills as well.
And finally…
In Retrospect
Looking back, I still wouldn’t say that transforming myself from a designer
to a developer was easy, but it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be,
either. The hardest part of the process was never understanding or writing
the code, but having the powerful motivation that drives you forward.
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How I transitioned from a graphic designer to front-end developer in 5 months 31/10/2018, 11.31
The most important lesson I learned along the way was to start doing
something ASAP. I know it’s terrifying to take the first step of actually
building something, but it’s the only way to truly learn something.
Remember, you have nothing to lose anyway.
The days and hardships after formally becoming a developer are another
story.
I’m so glad to have been a front-end developer at Tenten for 6 months now.
The journey of learning never ends!
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