I got into User Experience (UX) Design late last year, 2020. As someone that has never been enthusiastic about anything education related, for once I took up online courses to better understand UX. I spoke to a career coach as well to solidify my decision prior to making this leap of faith.
Early this year, I enrolled for General Assembly (GA) User Experience Design Immersive Bootcamp (UXDI). There were many people that have been questioning my decision. The first impression people get when I told them that I am attending a UX Design Bootcamp at GA would be…
“What is that?”
They got more baffled about my decision when I told them that I left my job to attend this bootcamp at GA Full-Time. In the past few months upon entering GA’s UXDI bootcamp, I have learnt so much that I’ve never had in the other phases of my education. I have learnt to nurture my passion and love this field that I am working in.
“It is perfectly okay to not know things, it’s an opportunity to grow”
The Growth Mindset
One thing that was emphasised a lot during the pre-admissions interview and on a daily basis at GA was a growth mindset. It sounds like fluff, but really what is a growth mindset?
It is a mindset where people accept and take on new challenges, learn and grow, because learning really has no bounds. It was for once I truly believed in education and understood how willpower and perspective can drastically improve your ability to absorb knowledge and apply these concepts to formulate solutions in such a short span of time.
Letting Go
It was also at GA, where I learnt to take a step back and not act like I knew everything. I learnt to work in a group and realised that it is okay to let go, and be dependent on people. It is perfectly okay to not know things.
Accepting your lack of knowledge gives you the opportunity to grow and learn better, people will be more willing to teach you as they can feel that you genuinely want to learn.
Stepping out of my Comfort Zone
Being a rather introverted individual, I wanted to challenge myself, as I was always conservative and keeping to myself. I challenged myself to make the most out of this course, to graduate from this course with newfound knowledge and friends. This mini-challenge helped with the whole learning journey and I’ve definitely grown a lot as an individual.
I am not here to preach about GA’s education system and methods, but I believe that there is a psychological factor — the growth mindset, that plays a huge part in the success of education and any phases of your life. I enjoyed being surrounded by people from all walks of life, coming together with a single goal. It definitely had an extremely positive impact on the whole learning journey. Of course this is just the beginning of the learning journey as a UX Designer and there’s definitely more to come.
Credits: Header Image
