| | James Stephens | In addition to getting a job and making the transition from graphic to product design, Tradecraft was the catalyst for a great deal of personal change that I'm still benefiting from (and working through.)
The nature of the environment is one where you're surrounded by people questioning things: their future desired role and how to get there, user experience problems, the various degrees of ennui one experiences when transitioning), and in general how to be a better human.
The last point is something I found particularly wonderful. Tradecraft forces you to take a step back and look at things about yourself that you may have not considered before.
What is your relationship with other people, and why might that have led you to where you are now?
How can you begin to approach something like "networking" in a way that doesn't make you both want to use a bleach wipe on your brain?
What are you projecting in interviews and how might that affect how others evaluate you?
How can you understand what other people want, and give it to them in ways that benefit you both?
These are but a few things that I learned about in the program (in addition to all the design stuff :) and it may be totally different for you. The one thing I can guarantee though, is that it'll be impactful for you as a person – for where you are in life. See Christine and Jasmine Rosen's reviews (two of my colleagues) for a better overall analysis, they were always better at this stuff than me.
While we're on the subject of friends/colleagues: the concentrated timespan of the program will help you develop surprisingly strong, genuine friendships during your time there. I've shared a pretty large spectrum of human emotion with peers + the staff. As for the staff, every damn one of them has gone above and beyond for me, at various times and in various ways, and probably in many that I'm not aware of. I want to emphasize that, because I something still look back at it and am baffled at how much everyone gives a shit about you.
Something you'll commonly hear is that you'll get out of Tradecraft what you put in. This is not an easy program, and it isn't designed to be. If you truly dedicate yourself then what everyone else is saying is absolutely true – the rewards are vastly greater than any time, money, and energy you'll put in. |
