This is super interesting. Having worked in-house for the last several years, I have similar observations but tend I think about a little bit differently (correctly or incorrectly). I agree that what you're asked to do in these companies often does not feel particularly like design. It's overly constrained or feels like paint by numbers. My reaction has been more that these companies don't seem to know how to use my skills. And in realizing this I try to just do the design I want to be doing anyways. I still do the more banal design-like tasks but as appropriate I either:
#1 Elaborate greatly on the task I've been asked to accomplish.
#2 Complete the task as requested and spend the rest of my time making an unrelated thing that I think solves a problem or seems interesting.
I think it's sort of an art to figure out when you should be doing #1 or #2. If you do #1 at the wrong time it can definitely end up pissing people off, but I've found if I do these enough, eventually I get more and more projects that actually seem like design to me. Maybe to summarize the perspective it's: do the job you think needs doing, not the job you're asked to do.
That said, I think you're right that many things can be true. In my experience this has worked (at least twice) but I may run into a brick wall at some point. I certainly wish the work was more interesting in the first place so I didn't have to spend as much energy doing double duty. My optimistic take on AI is that it will free up a lot of design time for more ambitious interesting things, but who knows.
This is super interesting. Having worked in-house for the last several years, I have similar observations but tend I think about a little bit differently (correctly or incorrectly). I agree that what you're asked to do in these companies often does not feel particularly like design. It's overly constrained or feels like paint by numbers. My reaction has been more that these companies don't seem to know how to use my skills. And in realizing this I try to just do the design I want to be doing anyways. I still do the more banal design-like tasks but as appropriate I either:
#1 Elaborate greatly on the task I've been asked to accomplish.
#2 Complete the task as requested and spend the rest of my time making an unrelated thing that I think solves a problem or seems interesting.
I think it's sort of an art to figure out when you should be doing #1 or #2. If you do #1 at the wrong time it can definitely end up pissing people off, but I've found if I do these enough, eventually I get more and more projects that actually seem like design to me. Maybe to summarize the perspective it's: do the job you think needs doing, not the job you're asked to do.
That said, I think you're right that many things can be true. In my experience this has worked (at least twice) but I may run into a brick wall at some point. I certainly wish the work was more interesting in the first place so I didn't have to spend as much energy doing double duty. My optimistic take on AI is that it will free up a lot of design time for more ambitious interesting things, but who knows.
Thanks again for sharing!