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Many years ago, when I moved back to Atlanta, I was looking for a job and ended up at a marketing firm as a graphic designer. This was one of the first times in my life where I felt so confident going into a job because since I’d been doing design work for about 7 years, I pretty much knew all there was to know. Boy was I wrong. Sure, I could design logos, and put ads and brochures together, but working in a larger agency atmosphere where things are run differently and sometimes at high speeds, you can start swallowing your pride pretty quickly. I can still remember the art director across the hall from me showing me all these shortcuts in InDesign that I didn’t even know - and should of.
It turned out to be a really great experience for me however. I learned a ton. I learned to work on a bigger team, and my design skills and thinking behind the design got better. It opened doors for me to also use my skills in video to help them add a service, that at the time, they didn’t offer. In the end, it created a new passion for what I went to school for which was media production.
The point is you can never stop learning. I think too many of us, especially when we’re younger, want to jump right into a management type position. We think, “I’m skilled, I could do their job.” But the truth is, it takes years of experience to be able to do the job of someone that’s been doing it for 20 or 30 years. I’ve been in the video production world for just over 20 years now (off and on), and still learning better ways to run a shoot, or new tricks in editing. To me, that’s what’s exciting! You can't ever stop learning or growing! So don’t, because it may lead you to the next bigger and better thing!