From Doctor to Designer: How I Changed Careers

I am Ruben Cespedes, born and raised in the Dominican Republic. From an early age I was a curious child and I really liked drawing and everything related to art. I was always creative and it was something very natural for me.

My passion back then was actually medicine, I really loved biology and the anatomy and physiology of the human body. I always said that I wanted to be a doctor when I had the opportunity to go to college.

Time passed and when I turned 17 years old I moved to the United States; a new country, a new language and a new life for me and my family.

The requirements to become a doctor in this country were and are currently very difficult to achieve for a person who has just arrived in the country. (Not impossible, but it was hard.) In 2001, as I was unable to speak the English language and had a cultural shock; my chances to become a doctor were shattered. It was not only the language barrier, the requirements and so on, but also that medical terminology had its own language.

My dreams of being a doctor were demolished, I felt lost. I even considered about going back to my country Dominican Republic. One day, one of my cousins convinced me to go to an orientation at a college in New York City.

I was blown away. I was fascinated with the world of graphic and web design. As creativity was already living in me, I decided to give my life a chance in the world of design. THANK GOD I DID IT!

My life changed completely since I entered the design field. I have worked with well-named companies and amazing people that gave me the opportunity to grow as a designer and as a person.

Today I can say that I feel very grateful for the opportunity that I had to study a career that allowed me to be creative and also change so many people’s lives through my designs and products. Within the past years I’ve created a design community on my Instagram account (@UiuxCreative) with over 113K+ thousand followers and during my journey I have helped thousands of designers who, like me, felt lost.

I also had the opportunity of publishing my eBook to the world: Conquering UI Design. I wrote this book with the goal of helping thousands of designers and non-designers understand how to use the fundamentals of design. Nowadays we see many designs that lack design principles and the main reason why these designs are bad is due to the simple fact that some designers do not apply design fundamentals. I want to do my bit to help elevate their design skills.

I'm currently working at Dell Technologies as a Principal Product Designer and also work with Adobe as a Partner and Creative Ambassador creating educational content, tutorials, videos, and guides for the design community.

I wouldn’t change my past if I had the chance, I was destined to be a designer and I’m proud of it. Remember, “great designers are not born, they are made.”

Thanks

-Ruben Cespedes