Hear straight from our graduates.
Starting all over from square one is definitely no small feat, but Shillington made my career transition a lot more fun and a lot less lonely.
Product Designer, Robinhood
Carolyn Kao
What were you doing before Shillington?
Before Shillington, I was working in a customer support ops role at Pinterest. After two and half years on the team, I realized that I craved more creative and hands-on work. Throughout college and while working at Pinterest I took on small design side projects for friends and family – I was happiest when making things, even if it was 11 pm at night after a full work day. I always assumed that you had to go to an expensive design or art school to enter the industry and was almost resigned to keep design as a side hustle. I still distinctly remember the moment I saw the beautiful Shillington student portfolios while googling design bootcamps in a coffee shop. I was impressed by the quality and variety of work that students created. The efficiency and the breadth and depth of the curriculum was exactly what I was looking for. When I happened to be in New York for a work trip, I used my lunch break to go visit the Shillington classroom across from Grand Central Station. Once I saw the students hard at work in the studio, I was sold.
Where are you working now?
I am a Product Designer at Robinhood. My day to day job involves designing functional, informative and delightful experiences for customers on the Robinhood app and website.
What does being a Product Designer mean?
Being a product designer is about creative problem-solving. Once the team identifies a set of user needs to work on (using data and user research), we set out to explore different design solutions to test with users. While product designers need to factor in business requirements and technical constraints while designing, our primary responsibility is to advocate for the best user experience. Product design is a super dynamic and interesting field to be in. For example, in a single day, I need to think about UX design, visual design, content strategy, prototyping, motion design, user research, A/B testing, communicating designs to engineering, presenting work to leadership and the list goes on and on… there’s never a dull moment and always something to learn!
Any advice for someone considering studying at Shillington?
Making an investment in my design education and going to Shillington was the best decision I made in my career so far. Starting all over from square one is definitely no small feat, but Shillington made my career transition a lot more fun and a lot less lonely. It’s important to ask yourself what kind of learning environment you need. I was initially considering self-guided bootcamps, but I realized I needed a more structured classroom environment to hold me accountable and help me make the career transition more efficiently. I also wanted feedback from more seasoned designers – the instructors at Shillington will definitely give you that! 🙂
Starting all over from square one is definitely no small feat, but Shillington made my career transition a lot more fun and a lot less lonely.
Product Designer, Robinhood
Carolyn Kao
What were you doing before Shillington?
Before Shillington, I was working in a customer support ops role at Pinterest. After two and half years on the team, I realized that I craved more creative and hands-on work. Throughout college and while working at Pinterest I took on small design side projects for friends and family – I was happiest when making things, even if it was 11 pm at night after a full work day. I always assumed that you had to go to an expensive design or art school to enter the industry and was almost resigned to keep design as a side hustle. I still distinctly remember the moment I saw the beautiful Shillington student portfolios while googling design bootcamps in a coffee shop. I was impressed by the quality and variety of work that students created. The efficiency and the breadth and depth of the curriculum was exactly what I was looking for. When I happened to be in New York for a work trip, I used my lunch break to go visit the Shillington classroom across from Grand Central Station. Once I saw the students hard at work in the studio, I was sold.
Where are you working now?
I am a Product Designer at Robinhood. My day to day job involves designing functional, informative and delightful experiences for customers on the Robinhood app and website.
What does being a Product Designer mean?
Being a product designer is about creative problem-solving. Once the team identifies a set of user needs to work on (using data and user research), we set out to explore different design solutions to test with users. While product designers need to factor in business requirements and technical constraints while designing, our primary responsibility is to advocate for the best user experience. Product design is a super dynamic and interesting field to be in. For example, in a single day, I need to think about UX design, visual design, content strategy, prototyping, motion design, user research, A/B testing, communicating designs to engineering, presenting work to leadership and the list goes on and on… there’s never a dull moment and always something to learn!
Any advice for someone considering studying at Shillington?
Making an investment in my design education and going to Shillington was the best decision I made in my career so far. Starting all over from square one is definitely no small feat, but Shillington made my career transition a lot more fun and a lot less lonely. It’s important to ask yourself what kind of learning environment you need. I was initially considering self-guided bootcamps, but I realized I needed a more structured classroom environment to hold me accountable and help me make the career transition more efficiently. I also wanted feedback from more seasoned designers – the instructors at Shillington will definitely give you that! 🙂
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