5 Years with IBM
As we settle into a new year, I’m fortunate enough to be celebrating my service anniversary with the first and only company for which I have worked as a full-time designer: IBM!
My first day was in Texas, where I attended the internal design bootcamp now known as Patterns Getting Started. It was there that I was told it might be up to a year before I felt like I was making meaningful contributions (something I didn’t believe at the time, but would go on to experience). After spending six weeks in the Austin Design Studio, I landed at the Silicon Valley Lab (SVL) in my home state of California. I joined the Cloud Pak for Data team and was delighted to fall into a new routine.
On my way into the office, I’d practice driving for my driver’s license test and on the way home, I’d gaze out the window at the rolling hills. I spent the first few months completing online learnings on data, AI, and enterprise software while waiting to be assigned to an initiative. I joined the Business Resource Group (BRG) now known as Familia@IBM-BayArea, monitored nest boxes for the first time, and collaborated with other newbees to develop our local Make Lab.
I was thoroughly enjoying what SVL had to offer, from the gym and game room to the trails out back. However, the tint of my rose-colored glasses began to fade the longer I went without the chance to contribute. I had not received the customary Visual Design mentorship during Patterns Getting Started so even when I eventually started assisting on projects, I was confused about my role and the different tools used in each squad’s design process.
Thankfully those issues proved to only be growing pains. My first proper hands-on task finally came in the form of migrating key screens from our product’s magenta aesthetic to the Carbon Design System’s v10 release. I hadn’t heard of design systems before this, but soon became engrossed with ours and with the pattern and asset libraries that it inspired.
In the final months of 2019, I began dating my then-colleague, earned my driver’s license, and bought a car! My 2020 kicked off with valuable mentorship from a Senior Visual Designer that included practicing layout ideation, component design, and keyboard accessibility. However, then the COVID-19 pandemic began and I found myself mourning the loss of my routine.
Soon enough, I joined the Db2 Warehouse squad and worked on increasing the fidelity of UX designs along with preparing specs for handoff. I worked heavily with forms and cards, and was introduced to our charts library. Despite still being new myself, I began mentoring interns and new hires and sharing insights on post-graduation life, onboarding at IBM,. and breaking into product design.
I became the Worklfows squad’s dedicated Visual Designer as 2020 drew to a close. Because everything had turned virtual, I had to learn how to set boundaries, how to effectively share my skills in a remote environment, and how to articulate the ways in which I work best. I guided my UX colleagues through the creation of a working agreement, a file organization structure, and the documentation of our squad’s design process in addition to managing my hi-fi responsibilities; all of which led to me receiving a promotion in 2022!
As I was celebrating three years with IBM, my entire family was celebrating my parents for becoming citizens after 30 years of living in the U.S. and over 15 years of working towards naturalization. I continued to participate in IBM’s various communities by leading the Make Lab, creating visual assets for our outreach programs, and attending numerous virtual conferences before my first in-person jaunt at the Lesbians Who Tech San Francisco Summit in the fall.
Itching for further career development, I embarked on another internal design bootcamp, Patterns Amplified. I spent four weeks splitting my time between working with my squad, going through the program’s education sessions, and coaching designers from the latest Patterns Getting Started cohort. It was a whirlwind, but everything that I learned from Patterns Amplified was extremely valuable and instantly relevant.
I led the Workflows squad through a migration from the Sketch App to Figma as well as through a task object audit before redirecting 75% of my efforts to Match 360 at the start of 2023. I spent most of that year onboarding to my new team, leading their task object audit, hosting Visual & UX Office Hours, and successfully contributing three UI icons to our design language library. Sadly my partner was laid off from IBM that spring, but that did not stop the rest of the year from being full of joy. We got engaged, purchased our first home, and we traveled to Mexico where he met my last living grandparent and we explored my family’s ancestral land.
Believe it or not, these are only a few highlights from the last five years! IBM has granted me numerous opportunities to meet people who have had a profound impact on me. I’m grateful for the space that I’ve had to grow, both professionally and personally, and I’m so excited by what the coming years may bring. Thank you so much for celebrating with me!
