Caroline has a natural talent for Sales, but she proved that being good at something doesn’t mean you have to stay there. Her successful transition to Brand Design involved a lot of self-reflection, a personal commitment to learning, and finding the balance in transitioning to a new field while staying at your current job.

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Q: Tell us about your current work roles.

I work as a Brand Designer at an HR tech company called Justworks. My role consists of designing assets for anything that relates to how we tell our brand story, from our marketing website, social media and out of home advertising presence. Basically, we are designing the experience and perception of anyone that interacts with our company or product.

Q: What led you to that career?

I'd say my career path has never been very linear, I started out working in finance and then transitioned into the growing tech field in 2012. I took a role in sales in order to work at ClassPass because I was super excited about the brand and product. I loved the company and loved working at a small start-up where things were always changing and I was able to learn so much about scaling a business. But I was never really passionate about selling or traditional sales. However, I found I was naturally pretty good at selling and given my success I continued being in sales at another small start-up and into my current company.

When I first joined, my intention was to really hone my sales skills at a company with a more built out and structured sales organization, however, I quickly realized that the structured sales process was just not suited to my personality or purpose. I did a lot of self-reflection and considered the aspects of previous jobs that had excited me and decided to pursue a role in design. Although I think any career or role has an aspect of creativity, design would allow me to be much more intentional with my creativity and to impact the vision and direction of a company.

I did a lot of self-reflection and considered the aspects of previous jobs that had excited me.

Q: What is your educational background?

I have a BA from Boston College where I majored in History and Spanish, both of which I unfortunately don't use much directly in my role. However, I do think having a liberal arts background has allowed me to make transitions in my career and be adaptable in different roles and companies. I've always loved learning new things, and have also taken a number of continuing education courses both online and at GA and NYU.

Q: Did you have any life-changing experiences that led you to what you’re doing today?

I can't think of one life-changing experience, but like to think of it as many different compounding experiences that helped me discover a passion and direction I wanted to pursue.

Q: How has your family and upbringing influenced your career choices?

Growing up, my parents always took a very hands-off approach both to my education and my direction in life. They allowed me to really make my own decisions and create my own motivation and drive versus directly pushing me to study, do well in school, or choose a particular career path. I think I have a lot of internal motivation, but because of my upbringing that motivation has never really focused on one thing. I guess it has allowed me to be more of a generalist in my career and to continue to iterate and try new things.

Q: What are you most proud of accomplishing?

I'm most proud of being able to transition from a role in sales to a Brand Designer at my company since it's not an easy transition and required a lot of work and self-teaching.

Q: What would you say motivates you most to do what you do?

What I love most about my job is that I get to tap into my creativity and also help to tell our brand story. I think creative and strategic thinking motivates and challenges me and I love getting to create something that hopefully impacts the way others experience and interact with our company. I've always had a dream of one day creating my own company, so learning the way that brand and perception can impact the success of a company really interests me.

On Making a Career Shift

Q: How did you find the courage to leap from one field to another?

Initially it was more fear-based I would say, because I really disliked my current situation and knew I had to make a change in order to be happy in my career. But as soon as I started learning about design and taking on side projects to get experience, the creation process was so exciting to me because I was actually enjoying what I was doing.

Q: What has been the greatest challenge for you when it comes to switching careers?

I think the biggest challenge was balancing one job while trying to make the switch to another. I was still working in sales for about 9 months while I took classes and took on freelance design jobs in order to get the experience needed to transition. Secondly, was probably figuring out any way to make the transition. I found that design especially is a big field that people want to transition into and the job market is big, but companies hiring want someone to have experience. There are a lot of boot camps that people take and expect to have a job right away, but in my journey, I met many people that had gone through those boot camps and were having trouble getting hired afterward.

I found that I just had to do what felt right to me, and a lot of that was just trying different approaches and never giving up.

Q: What advice do you have for others who want to switch careers?

For me, I always struggled with knowing what I wanted to do because I think there are so many paths I could have taken and so many things that I would like to do, which is why I don't think my journey is done yet. But, what I found helpful in my journey was to first do some self-reflection to understand the themes of what I really liked about previous jobs I had. Then I found a career path that seemed to embody a lot of those themes and I started doing research on it and trying it out. Once it felt right I made it a goal to transition into design and just went for it. However, I think one thing that is helpful to keep in mind is that there is no one way to make a transition and there are a lot of things you will learn about the career and yourself along the way. So I would say have a defined end goal, but stay flexible with how you achieve it and what achieving your goal actually looks like.

Have a defined end goal, but stay flexible with how you achieve it and what achieving your goal actually looks like.

Q: What’s next for you, what are you looking forward to?

Right now it is just learning as much as possible in my current job and continuing to better myself as a designer and strategist. I'm lucky that I look forward to work every day. Long term, I look forward to becoming a leader in my field and maybe even starting my own brand some day soon.

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Learn more about and connect with Caroline at:

Website: www.carolinegerman.com

Instagram: @carolinaking4

From Sales to Brand Design: Caroline German