In all honesty, you don’t need to be a top-tier designer before you start earning.
I landed my first UI/UX gig with a blockchain company after just a little over a month of learning UI/UX design.
This isn’t to encourage mediocrity, but to remind you to give yourself some grace. We're all growing, even the so-called "senior designers" know there’s still a lot to improve on.
But that doesn't stop them from taking on gigs. The key is to start, and keep learning as you go. Real growth often happens on the job, not just in courses or portfolios.
Most people underestimate how hard it is to build a world class career in tech from Africa.
You can't just casually apply to one job a day using Chat GPT.
You should be:
- Building value in open source
- Community impact
- Creating a rich portfolio
Play the impact game