One new conversation every day

Fascinated by human interaction, but horrible unable to hold a conversate well, I challenged myself to talk to someone new every day. I did so in public transit over the course of my education. I spoke with people of every gender, age, and sexuality. And because smartphones did not exist back then and mp3 players not common, people were more than willing to skip time by talking. My anonymity made it feel safe to entrust me with their everyday struggles and even secrets. It gave me a good understanding of people and what they go through in their lives. It helped develop my empathy, and I consider this a great asset in my UX designing career.

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Going with the flow, no more

Being mostly process-driven instead of target driven, I still did not know what I wanted to become. I had always hoped my mission would magically pop in my mind, as long as I would follow my passion. But at this point, it became clear to me that I had to plan and decide where to go next. I had designed games for fun as a hobby but never connected the dots before to develop games/software professionally. With a strong sense of working for something other than just entertainment, I followed an internship at a game company that makes games helping people overcome the social barrier. A topic I had struggled with for so long. With a company of only four employees, I had lots of freedom and overlap with other roles like interaction designer and tester. I wasn't just making pretty images on request. I had to keep in mind how people would interact with what I made, really co-design the interaction, and prototype interfaces for a pioneering genre. After my period as an intern, I got offered a job here, but I first wanted to experience more different assignments, instead of binding myself to a company. After working as a freelancer for two years, I realized I missed working tightly together in a team. I missed working on bigger projects, working in synergy, and also learn from other people's disciplines.