All language subtitles for 14 - Juan - A UX design career journey.en

Hi, my name is Juan.

I'm a visual designer at Google.

I come from the
Dominican Republic,

especially from a
small town in DR,

where I don't have
access to Internet.

My passion for computer and
Internet was very, very high,

that every day after

school when I get
home, I take my CPU,

and put it on my head,

and walk more or less one mile,

to connect to this small lab,

because this was the
only location in

my town where I can get
access to Internet.

The first thing that
I do when I went to

the lab was open
Google Search.com,

and just find tutorial
about how to use Photoshop,

how to use the software

that people in that
time used for design.

I remember that that
was very fun to me.

I am an immigrant,
I remember I moved

to United States
like 10 years ago,

and I can't find job in
design, because first struggle,

I cannot speak English.
Even now, probably,

you need to use subtitles
to understand me well,

because even now I cannot speak

English very well. But I try.

As immigrants when we come

from our country
to United States,

the first idea that
we have in mind

is just apply in fast food.

I remember back 10 years ago
when I moved to Connecticut,

I went to multiple
fast food places,

and I never get a job,

and my first job experience
in the United States,

was cleaning toilet in a hotel.

I really loved that job.

I never imagined that, years later,

I'm gonna start my
first career in design.

How I get from
working for a hotel,

doing housekeeping work,
into Google is interesting.

It's a crazy and
interesting journey.

I applied to other
design studios,

and I learned a lot doing drafts

of rough designs for
digital agencies.

And after a couple years
working in the industry,

I just studied by myself,

using Google Search to
find how you Photoshop,

how you use internet,

how you freehand, and
all the design software.

After that, I remember
that a friend suggests me,

hey, I think you should
work for Google,

you have the potential
to work for Google.

But at that time,

I don't believe that
I can work for Google,

because I never
went to college.

All the design
things that I know,

I learned by myself.

He recommends me, I
didn't get the job,

I didn't pass the second call
from the interview process.

Years later the
recruiter contact me

because they think that

I could be a good
fit for the company.

I received an email,

"Hello from Google," and that was

really interesting
because in the beginning,

I thought that was a spam,

but I decided to open
because I'm curious.

When I read the email,

where the recruiter says, "Hey,

we believe that now you

could be a good fit
for the company,

and we want to have
a call with you.

Do you still want to
work for Google?"

Of course, I was very nervous,

I can't believe that I
was reading that email,

that Google wants to
have a call with me.

I feel very important,

and of course, after 10 minutes,

after I take a deeper breath,

I decide to answer the email,

and I answer, and the
recruiter was very humble.

They made me feel important,

they was very friendly with me,

and this interaction made
me feel more confident.

Then I move to the second
step of the interview,

with a visual designer,

where that person was
asking me questions

about how I design,

what is my design process?

They tried to
understand how I work.

And the next step was,

"Go to the office,

and have a interview in
person with eight people."

That was very intimidating
to me, again,

especially that I don't speak

English, but I prepare myself.

I have a problem
with my language,

but I know that I was good in

my design, I feel
confident with that.

What I did, I did
amazing presentation

with a lot of interaction,

because I want to show
them all my potential,

and then I received the call
that they want to hire me.

I'd really like to
share this because

sometimes we don't believe
that we can go far, and me,

that I came from a village,

or a small town, in
the Caribbean without

Internet access and now
working for Google,

is something that
made me feel proud.