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Should you design for big tech, agencies, or startups?
A retrospective of design and work culture across different firms, plus my thoughts on the ideal UX career path
Disclaimer: Everything written here is my personal opinion only, and is no way a reflection of the opinion of any of my employers, past or present.
I’ve been a professional designer for about 10 years, mostly in tech. I’ve split my time between different work contexts: agencies, startups, and now big tech — with some freelance in between. I have colleagues with similarly varied experiences, and we often speak of the differences between these models of working. After many conversations during my three years at Google, I decided to write down some observations that seemed to resonate among us. Maybe you’ll find this interesting if you’re wondering what life is like behind the Silicon Curtain.
tl;dr
To my surprise, my experience at Google is somewhat more reminiscent of my time in agencies, compared with my time at startups. I think this has something to do with the adaptability required to work across different client projects, or to work with thousands of professionals on products used by billions of people.
