Taking new challenges for growth

This is more of a personal update article. I wanted to document my thought process behind this radical decision I have taken in my career. A direction I thought I'd never take. I guess "Never Say Never" proves itself true again.

I have accepted a job offer from a Tier 1 Investment Bank as a Vice President of Design role to work on Design Systems and Financial Product designs that heavily relies on data. This has been my first month and yes I certainly have taken a challenge!

I'm a self-taught designer and (used-to-be) developer. The way I've learned all my skills has been by taking on new challenges in the real world with real projects. I've written more about that earlier at "Self-taught with Passion".

OK, but why? Well, things have been going a bit too well in my freelance world. I have had lots of interesting projects coming through, I have met new people, made good earnings, had my own schedule... All and all good, I'm very grateful for all of it but the biggest challenge I was able to take was based on the projects, and all I was able to improve with those were technical skills. However, I wanted to learn a completely new business and focus more on improving my soft skills in another level such as time-management, presentation, communication, managing teams and projects in a new environment, working with people in person... This job offer has it all and more.

I will be sharing my learnings in the coming weeks and months in this blog. However, so far, I love the difficult and challenging situation I've put myself in! There is so much I need to learn and improve to make this job go as well as my freelancing experience. I'm excited to improve myself and share with you all.

If you have any comments or questions about this article, you can write me at Twitter @oykun or email me at hello[at]oykun.com.