I will say I paused it for a long time since I got serious with school, and moved more towards code around covid (I was in 12th grade and waiting for covid to settle so that we could take national exams, yes I am that dreaded batch that waited 1 year for national exams)

2/10

Aaaand then I got into AAU after national exams... so while there in school I was trying to get into software engineering because I wanted to take my design experience into a place where I can program (wanted to become a visual programmer/ design engineer of some sort)

3/10

Unfortunatelyyyy I ended up not getting software and got into electrical engineering (most typical 5k student lore)
After that came the most confused period of my life where I would go to class to learn the shit I honestly hated the most... for 3 maybe 4 hours at a time, basically every day.

4/10

The liberation

Not so long after I got into elec, some teacher was going on sabbatical for personal reasons, and left basically every exam to be graded by this other teacher who ended up messing up everyones grades... me being one of them
Although a lot of people ended up getting theirs corrected, I couldn't get there quick enough since I was back home in hawassa and my portal has coincidentally decided to lock me out because of a stupid bug (see kids, the importance of good software!)

5/10

With that being the case, I basically got screwed over on one of the most important courses in elec, where the courses are interwebbed with prerequisites and corequisites.
although I attempted to reach the teachers and staff to no avail, I basically sat with a lot of time per year where I dont really take courses.

6/10

And with that time and overwhelming amount of anger is where I really sat down and started exploring my options, design being the biggest one, obviously.

I studied UI/UX, UI animations and more of brand design, with a little bit of code to tie it all together, relentlessly. I would sit 10 to 16 hours in a session, with occasional pee breaks

7/10

The first job

Although I was doing some low paying work for clients that would pay me like 200 birr per design, the first job I got was at this awesome company that does so much work for the good of community in ethiopia (I promise I am not glazing)

I really was taking basically everything design related there (campaign posters, magazines, business profiles, tote bags, landing pages, mobile app designs... you name it!)
I really loved that place and made some friends there I keep up with to this day!!

The pay there wasn't much, but I learned, alot. you learn a lot when theres stake and trust in what you do. to truly learn, put yourself in responsibility, asap.

8/10

after that, I got into a random company in the netherlands that does a playful learning app for kids... just because I saw a random 1 hour tutorial a year before I even interviewed for that job, randomly.

They wanted a rive animator and the fact that I saw a random youtube demo about rive a year ago really earned me that opportunity.

Thats my curiosity getting me somewhere ig lol

They didnt really pay much in terms of international growth, but what mattered there is that I now had demonstrated work experience in my profiles, which is make or break to do international work. the competition there is toughhh

9/10

So fast forward to now, I am still doing international work, school is kinda being finished and I get to do the shit I love everyday!
You don't have to be a princess to get your happily ever after kids

10/10

#custom_dp
#for_client
Project by @just_tem

This was a random profile photo design I did for a telegram meme channel in 2019😭😭😂

My friends generally refer to me as a fraud since I, for example, know EVERY j cole song pre 2022 by listening to the first 5 to 10 seconds, but you can't pay me to vouch for him when asked about his new music. BUT let me send my statistical top listened songs and artists of the past year

specialize as fast as u can. if you love designing mobile apps, stick to that for the first couple months, maybe years.
One thing I did wrong starting out is that i basically did everything under the sun.
you couldddd make it out that way, but it will be hell of a lot more difficult that way lol

and prioritize learning opportunities and social credit over actual money in the beginning. your reputation is more important, especially when starting out.
learn business if u wanna make it as a freelancer. this video is my fav video on youtube, and it will get you started.

I spammed too hard that it sent the link back so far lol

The best way to test designs
Give the prototype to your parents fr

Karma is learning ux design already

A couple things about karma so far
- loves getting her hair brushed
- loves getting petted on her neck specifically
- loves cat videos
- cant climb to save her life but can definitely jump
- gets intense zoomies around mata 6 seat, which is coincidentally when i start sleeping

RIP Telebirr lol