Good work

When I started university, I thought I wanted to become a pharmacist. During sophomore and junior years, I worked part-time in retail pharmacy and noticed that most pharmacists around me didn’t enjoy their jobs. While I learned customer service and how to work with difficult people, I never felt inspired by the work. Soon, I realized there was no way I could commit to pharmacy school without a single ounce of passion. Senior year arrived, and I was unsure of what else I could do. It was too late to switch to graphic design without adding another year, so I finished my biology degree anyway.

Before graduating, I found a full-time job as a prepress operator at a mom-and-pop print shop. The years I spent tinkering with Photoshop and playing around with various design apps paid off — I quickly picked things up as I learned on the job. I actually liked my job, the processes, and seeing projects through from start to finish. My coworkers were some of the kindest people I could have asked for at my first “adult” job. While I wasn’t technically a designer, I dissected clients’ designs, sometimes helping create and recreate artwork by reusing elements from their previous designs. I found I had a knack for it.

After two years, I didn’t see a future for myself in printing. So, I quit and moved to Sài Gòn with almost no plan. Somehow, I landed a digital design role at a crypto startup as their second marketing designer. I learned later that I was the only candidate who completed their take-home exercise and pitched myself as a generalist who could tackle design, video editing, and copywriting. This role became a stepping stone. I absorbed a great deal from my peers and managers about the industry and tech culture in general, which shaped my foundation as a designer who had just broken into the field. I also made friends there who remain close to me to this day.

I knew I wanted to move into UX and product design rather than just designing banners and landing pages. But as I didn’t see much room for an official transition, I left after a little over a year and joined an agency specializing in e-commerce solutions for international clients. It was quite a learning curve. I was the only designer at the firm’s Việt Nam office, juggling ongoing and new projects, often having to figure things out on the fly from design systems to last-minute pitch decks. Although I performed well overall and learned quickly, I felt unfulfilled with the client-centric nature of the work, which was often transactional and didn’t offer a sense of deeper ownership.

After about six months, I decided to leave without another job lined up. I needed space to figure out what to do next. At the end of 2019, I came back to the States to visit my family, and then the pandemic hit.

During lockdown, I spent four intense months working on my portfolio, interviewing, and teaching myself HTML and CSS to build my own website. Looking back, that time was both exhausting and exhilarating. One day, a headhunter randomly introduced me to another startup. I had a feeling it was going to be different than all the other companies I had talked to. For the first time in a while, I genuinely enjoyed going through the interview process and chatting with the team. A couple of weeks after we first talked, they decided to take a chance on me, even before I fully believed in myself. The rest is history.

Working in B2B SaaS for the first time — especially in a niche like private markets — involved navigating ambiguity, collaborating (and debating) closely with engineers, inspecting and proposing detailed logic and workflows, and making sense of complex systems. I’ve learned a ton from colleagues who have been with the company since its earliest days. June 1 marked my fifth anniversary here. I never imagined finding work that could be this fulfilling. The work itself is hard work, filled with plenty of challenges, frustrations, excitement, and also rewards: autonomy, new skills, recognition, growth. I feel we’re doing good work. I’ve also gradually evolved from being a sole executor to being an orchestrator on broader initiatives, which comes with a new set of interesting challenges.

Since I turned 30, something different has been brewing. I love my job and I love working, but I don’t want it to be my entire life. Lately, I enjoy slower, quieter days. I think about what else I want to devote my attention to, things like reading and writing. I started journaling in 2020 but never shared any of my writings, partly because I felt they were private and I didn’t think anyone would read them. Now, I see there are actually several parallels between writing and designing products and user experiences. Like product design, writing is about structure, clarity, and empathy for the user or reader. You make a first draft, test it, refine it. You balance beauty with utility. You strip away what’s unnecessary. I believe the words we write or the language we speak affect the way we think. The more I read and write, the more I’m drawn to it. After reading On Writing Well and Several Short Sentences About Writing (with many more lined up), I’ve recognized just how much misinformation about writing I was taught in school. It will take time to shed old habits, but I’m going to relearn and practice this craft properly.

Maybe I’m discovering a new kind of good work — one beyond professional fulfillment, one that feels truly mine. The kind I can keep private or share when I want to. The kind that invites me to explore and see where it leads.