Is ID right for me? And other questions.

PatrickT · April 28, 2016, 1:57pm

I’m encouraged by all of your feedback! Thanks so much, I really appreciate it.

yo:

I think it could definitely be a fit. An in between option would perhaps be being a ME at a more strategic design firm like frog where the MEs are often time doing more high level thinking collaboratively with the design team. When the rubber hits the road you would still be deep in ME stuff, but a lot of times the engagements are more high level and front end. It is possible to eventually transition into an interaction designer in such a roll, or even a director. One of the ID directors at frog at the time (since left) had an ME background.

If you really want to go hardcore ID though, yes, going back to school is going to be the most reliable path. With an ME degree and work experience in a design firm you should be able to do the degrees in less than 3 years (the school will probably try to say 3-3.5, but realistically I would think 2.5 if you push on them). SFSU isn’t bad, and I think if you know what you want out of the experience you will be fine. Maybe you can even work part time as an ME at a firm during?

Thanks for the feedback! frog is an interesting idea and I like the ability to do both (ME and ID), although I think I’d want to lean more heavily to the ID side. I also like the idea of being more involved up front with the creative aspects of product design.

I figured that getting a second bachelor’s wouldn’t take more than 2 years, due to the lack of general ed stuff that I’d have to take. I guess I should look into it more.

bepster:

This might be a controversial thing to say here, but I am not even sure you would necessarily have to finish your ID degree.
What you need is a good design foundation but given the fact that you are a little bit older than the typical student and have relevant experience, I am not sure you would need an ID degree to land a good ID position.
Especially since you already have a college degree. So start the bachelor’s yes, but maybe drop out if you feel ready.

In my opinion, what you would need is a good portfolio, which can absolutely be compiled in less than 3 years if you are diligent about your work and plan for an early departure from the program.
I dropped out of my ID bachelors a year shy of graduating because I had a previous degree and with all due respect to the program, I didn’t feel like I would have gotten a lot out of the final year after looking at the syllabus.

The fact that you have such a strong engineering background, coupled with a passion for design, makes you a super interesting candidate.
However, I would make sure that later on you make crystal clear that you do not want to be pushed into a engineering role but want to be a full-on industrial designer.
Good, keen design engineers are hard to come by and I can totally see employers trying to nudge you away from ID. This is why your design portfolio should have a very strong design pov and you might have to resist the temptation to push your engineering skill too hard, which would finding a job probably quite a bit easier.

Interesting idea. I definitely feel like I’m lacking the foundation for the skills an ID has, so starting a program could help with that. Ultimately I feel like I’d want to be as best prepared as I can be for a position in ID, but I suppose I could feel that out when in school.

I’d be okay with still doing some engineering, but I really don’t think it’s ultimately what I want.

Yeah, I can see that being something that I could do…a bit of both, but hopefully with an emphasis on ID. Good to hear that a combination of the two disciplines can be valuable.

I appreciate what you’re saying, but I really don’t feel that I have the skills necessary at this point to put together a portfolio that would be worth anything. While I can sketch a little, I’m not great at it by any means, and I don’t have the fundamental understanding of good aesthetic product design. I know it when I see it, and I can capture bits of it, but I don’t think that’s enough.

The people that you know that have shifted form ME to ID…did they go back to school or just morph into it?

I can see how they wouldn’t be as separate as I described, but it definitely seem like there are different skill sets, some of which overlap.

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Is ID right for me? And other questions.

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