Although I’m a graphic designer, at Switch I play many different roles.
In a world of constant change and blurred lines between different departments, at Switch I found the perfect combination between feeling supported and protected while being challenged to explore new worlds with curiosity.
My most important factor when looking for a long-term collaboration is the value alignment between the two entities.
In Switch, I found a perfect reflection of my core principles. Switch is curious. Switch is open-minded. Switch values human-driven businesses. The match was there, and so applying to Switch was a natural decision
Then I became a part of the team. I’ve learned a lot since then.
My strongest asset – and my biggest weakness – has always been my inability to choose one passion over another one.
I have always been a curious person, and left to my own devices, I can find so many things to entertain myself with. As a child, I expressed my love for music through piano lessons, my obsession for visual elements through architecture studies, my curiosity for the human body through dance classes, and my desire to escape reality through movies.
When it came to choosing what field to work in, graphic design was an obvious choice.
I have always been attracted to the arts. The advertising industry was the perfect playfield to explore this world: a chaotic, yet organized world in which visual elements, music, cinematography, people, key metrics, psychology, performance, dance, architecture and technology all worked together.
I was, however, firm on one thing: even if I could choose one field, I didn’t want to stay in that one field forever.
I started working in the advertising industry as a Client Service Executive, then I switched to Strategic Planning, and finally, I met my soul’s needs in the Creative team.
I was never truly satisfied working in fields that were segregated. It made me think a lot about my time at school, where everything – from science to music to maths – existed separately from each other.
A deja-vu of feelings came into my mind from the time in which scientific curiosities, musical questions or mathematical studies were limited in very specific boxes.
But the world is not that simple.
When travelling, music is in a perfect relationship with geography: you need that just-right mix to harmonise those beautiful images of high mountains.
Transportation blends perfectly with Marie Kondo’s style of cleaning and arranging elements so that everything fits in your backpack.
And arranging everything according to their colours makes the perfect visual budget and time planner for your trip.
At Switch, all these boundaries blurred. They even encouraged me to break other lines that I found in my way.
Even though I was hired and employed as a graphic designer, I found support to explore animation, 3D, and music.
Also, let’s not forget the field of writing: this is the first time I have written a blog post for a company.
Here I found the perfect combination between feeling supported and protected while being challenged to learn new worlds.
Unconditional acceptance may sound like big words to apply to your work environment, but after feeling like an outsider the majority of the time because you liked change so much and the others didn’t, they seem like the proper words to describe Switch.
I believe we are living in critical times and the ability of a company to challenge its employees to upskill and reskill in real time is highly needed in order to have success in the future of work. As Yuval Noah Harari said in a 2018 article: In the year of 2050, change will be the only constant.
