You know that feeling when you hit a milestone, and for like, five seconds, you’re pumped. But then reality kicks in, and you’re suddenly not so thrilled with where you’re at anymore. That’s me right now. It’s like this constant game of “Hey, I made it!” only to realize I’m still wandering through a fog of confusion. It happened when I applied to college, and now it’s happening with the whole job hunt thing. I guess it’s that classic case of things looking clearer from a distance, but when you actually get there, it’s like, “Wait…this is it?”

My first internship is for this startup company. And don’t even get me started on the small company vs. big company vibe. In small companies, things are scrappy. In big ones is a bureaucratic mess. Expansion happens so fast that management can’t keep up, and the next thing you know, your work is buried in a sea of Figma files. In today’s design meeting, someone literally said, “Everything I do feels lost in bureaucracy.” Like, ouch, but also…same.

It’s like Designers, PMs, and engineers are speaking three different languages. And getting something from idea to actual execution? You might as well prepare to climb Mount Everest with flip-flops. Designers are stuck trying to explain user needs in terms of efficiency and business goal, while engineers are over here like, “But is this hard to code?” By the time everyone’s agreed on something, it’s no surprise half the design team is wondering, “Wait, what even happened to our project?”

Whether you’re learning that in school or picking it up in the office, the stuff that’ll really push your career forward is a deep understanding of why you’re doing something, not just how to get it done. Whether it’s thinking about business models, product rollouts, or real user cases, the ability to zoom out and see the whole picture. That’s gold.

But hey, maybe that’s just me. When I started college, I quickly realized that the more you learn, the more you realize you don’t know. Now that I’m inching into the industry, I see it even more clearly. Spoiler alert: there aren’t that many designers out there truly making earth-shattering impacts. And that leaves you feeling…well, both confused and anxious. Every day, we hustle and burn out over our tiny little slice of the pie.

People say the barrier to entry for UX is low, but how many are actually digging deep enough to go the distance? Now that is the real question.