I daydreamed a lot in primary school.
Most of my dreams were about making something. A world I could control, do whatever I wanted in. It was blurry. Smartphones weren't really a thing yet. I didn't have the words for what I wanted to make.
I don't know how excited the little me would be if she knew she could now actually do it.
My first dream job was teacher. I just really enjoyed writing on the whiteboard.
Then I decided I wanted to be a designer. What kind? No idea. It wasn't a smooth journey finding out, and some of the reasons were dummy reasons only I could blame myself for.
I went to a fashion design camp in high school. I enjoyed it. But I knew it wasn't the path for me.
I applied for an industrial design minor on a whim. Didn't realise I got in until I was about to graduate. Whoops.
I ended up with a degree in Applied Linguistics. And somehow, a job offer from the IT department at Cathay United Bank.
The first three months were overwhelming. Java, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, SQL. All at once. It got better around month six. I was shipping code independently, pushing PRs. Later I moved to maintaining an overseas core banking system. Learned COBOL, IFX, a lot of core banking domains. I also led the end-to-end delivery of a compliance reporting system. Vendor selection, compliance review, installation, testing. The whole thing.
I was a different person by the end of it.
That same year, our company formed a UX team. I had no idea what UX was. But they started working with us and I kept asking questions.
So I signed up for a UX bootcamp. Nights and weekends, still working full time as a developer. Three months later something clicked. I understood not just how to build things, but why they should exist and who they were for.
I quit my job.
I also had another dream I never thought I'd actually do. Living abroad. Financially terrifying. But I made the decision: leave the stable job, move to a city I'd never been to alone, start over.
Sydney, 2023.
I started my master's in Interaction Design at UTS. It wasn't just a career change. I got a real chance to know myself.
I worked at a cafe. A department store. Joined the Apple Foundation Program. Took a UI bootcamp. Learned some data and AI. Interned at early stage startups.
I also pushed myself outside my comfort zone. Design meetups, panels, networking events. I reached out to people in the industry I admired and asked if they'd grab a coffee. Most of them said yes. That still surprises me.
Turns out I really enjoyed learning from other people's journeys. Every conversation taught me something. I started to get a clearer picture of who I was and where I wanted to go.
I grabbed everything I could.
I still think about that kid daydreaming in class. She just wanted to make something.
Turns out, so do I.