A LinkedIn message, a hero section test, and Quper
Part three followed Elysium forward in time. This part steps back to my third year of college, to the story that ran alongside it, and that led directly to the work I do today.
A message on LinkedIn
I was in my third year, and I was still doing what I had always done: sharing my work. That’s how I ended up on LinkedIn, and how I got a message from someone I didn’t know.
He was part of the team at a startup, and the kind of person a founder trusts with important decisions. He had seen the work I was sharing, and he loved it. He told me they were looking for a website designer, because they were building something and needed a site to go with it.
They didn’t want an agency. They wanted to work with me directly.
I said yes. We hopped on a call, where he explained the budget and what they wanted.
The test
Before going further, they wanted to test me. The brief was a small assignment: design a hero section, in three or four separate directions, for the brand they were building.
I said okay and designed three hero sections, each following the brief they had given. They loved the work, and I got the project. I started designing the website.
The team, and a mentor
The product was Quper, built by XEqualTo, and the person who had messaged me was Ashish. He was the marketing lead on the team, and he is the one who hired me. I have never met anyone quite like him. His leadership is something I admire, and over time he became a mentor to me. He did a great deal for me, and I will always be grateful.
The founders and the team loved the website. Then they asked if I would redesign the product too.
From the website to the product
There was one thing to sort out first. As a third-year student, I needed to do an internship. So I asked them directly whether they could give me one. They said yes, and I joined as an intern.
We started redesigning the product together. It turned out really well, and everyone was happy with it. Along the way they invited me on a team trip to Meghalaya. I said yes, and we spent three or four days together: outings, boating, and a lot of fun.
Full-time, and then more
Since everyone was happy with the work, I kept working with them, and in the meantime I received a full-time offer, a pre-placement offer (PPO), from XEqualTo, the parent company that builds Quper.
I started as a Senior UI/UX Designer, working mainly on Quper, where I led the design. Today I’m a Lead Design Engineer at XEqualTo, building Quper alongside the company’s internal products. I lead the design across all of it, from screens to micro-interactions, and I take it through to development as well. Design and engineering now sit in one place.
- Hero directions for the test
- 3
- LinkedIn message
- 1
- PPO, from the parent company
- 1
What I took from it
- Share the work openly. People don’t only hire agencies. They hire the person whose work they have seen and loved.
- A test project is the best pitch. A small assignment showed them more than any conversation could.
- Ask for what you need. I asked for an internship, and the answer was yes.
- Find leaders worth learning from. Working with someone who leads well teaches you things no course can.
This is the thread through everything so far: share the work, and the right people find it.