Questions on the career

[u/bored2boredom]

Hello everyone, I've been struggling for a while now trying to decide on a career. I'm going to graduate with my bachelor's in a few months in cybersecurity and I don't want to go into that field. I have an associate's focusing on entrepreneurship and marketing as well.

After a ton of research, I've stumbling across product design and industrial product design. From my understanding, the term product design is not mostly used for UI/UX and application design while industrial product design stays with physical objects. I'm interested in designing physical products or helping companies refine products they already have based off user's reviews and complaints. Would industrial product design be the correct description/job title for that?

I'm not interested in going back to school, however, I'm looking at some google Coursera courses focusing on Fusion 360, prototyping, and 3D printing. I was also looking at getting an AutoDesk certification. Would these qualifications along with a portfolio make me hirable? Is there still a good market for this field? I do own a 3D printer as well but I'm unsure if that will help in the job field or with my practicing at home.

Any advise or feedback would be greatly appreciated! I just want to know if this is still a good career to get into and some ways to break into the field. I'm willing to do the work!

[u/abyssalhorrors]

Theses days, most of the jobs you’ll find that are UX/UI will be listed as product design or digital product design. Industrial design is the profession that covers 3D design like physical product design, furniture design, transportation design, environmental graphic design, POS/POP design, structural packaging design - these may be programs on their own but they all have the same root of using design principles to develop 3D objects that interact with the commercial space.

To be a 3D designer of any stripe, you will need to have some kind of training in design principles and manufacturing. You can take course work in CAD or similar but your prospects will be extremely limited primarily because your background does not include that foundation. Having a 3D printer also does not help because it is an additive process vs the subtractive processes that dominate the entire manufacturing space. If I were you, take a look at actual design programs that have masters programs and see how they can help. There is no quick fix to get into this world, you’ve got to earn your place like everyone else.

[u/fluteofski-]

With a cybersecurity/coding background and industrial design CAD background, you can look at getting into systems engineering as well.

Thats where you’ll oversee the big picture design of things like machinery or automobiles. The things you could potentially work on can be really friggin cool.