We continue with the Career Journey series where we present our participants’ exceptional stories.
Providing a sneak peek into their world, their struggles, and the decisions they made to overcome them are stories that will empower you to reflect on your own decisions, take action, and change your life for the better.
“Brainster gives me enough boldness to get into the industry. That’s the main gain. It challenged me with networking and building up my personal knowledge and skills. It has opened up my world to new possibilities to work. There is no recipe in this industry, but Brainster gave me the knowledge needed to follow my own instincts and question every single detail of my designs to ensure there is a conductive thread in my work.” – Ana Marija
Find out more about Ana Marija in our Career Journey story 👇
Brainster: What were you doing before Brainster?
Ana Marija: I was born in Skopje, Macedonia. I attended the High School of Economics in Skopje. Afterwards, I continued my studies at the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Food for two years where I studied agro – economics.
Arts and music have always been part of my life and are something that I have grown up with, so moving on I successfully finished the Masterclasses in Photography with Nick Knight and I have also attended the St. Moritz Art Masters program which gave me the opportunity to harvest my skills alongside world-known visual masters.
Before and after I obtained my photography diploma, I have spent months working in Skopje, Macedonia as a visual merchandiser for clothing companies and later on as part of the organisation and stage management for the International Theatre Festival ‘Faces Without Masks’, and I also took part in Environmental Youth Organisation – Go Green where I worked as a photographer.
I spend some time travelling around the EU. I had the opportunity to work as a freelance photographer on big projects together with DDB Tribal, Saatchi & Saatchi, T – Home & T – Mobile, taking the main role in the shooting of the video and project of pop star Katy Perry – Firework and Family Max package campaign, as well working on movie shootings as an official set photographer with the actor Mads Mikkelsen and movie director Asger Leth.
I took a part in the ‘DIESEL REBOOT’ project from Nicola Formichetti – dispatching a call and response missions to build a new visual conversation that is redefining Diesel for a new generation where my work was selected and exhibited around the EU most notably in New York.
After some time I moved to Berlin where I worked as a freelance photographer and finally I came to Bratislava, Slovakia where I live and have found an art collective – a platform that emphasizes uniqueness in the local area.
Brainster: What drew you to UX/UI Design?
Ana Marija: As I already mentioned before, being surrounded with creativity, tech, management of produced work, organising audiovisual events, I wanted to go deeper into product management and finding solutions, solving problems.
Studying User Experience and User Interface design at Brainster combines creativity with being technical. That was perfect for me as being a creative person, I really do enjoy solving technical problems.
Brainster: What made you choose Brainster?
Ana Marija: While doing some reading on design, I started slowly researching quick but high-quality ways to get some theoretical and practical design knowledge. At Brainster, I have found opportunities for personal growth and development not only academically, but also to expand beyond the classroom knowledge.
I like the Brainster programs which are structured to provide us training that translates directly and immediately into our chosen career, emphasizing a practical, real-world learning approach with measurable outcomes.
Brainster: What is your biggest takeaway from the Bootcamp?
Ana Marija: Brainster gives me enough boldness to get into the industry. That’s the main gain. It challenged me with networking and building up my personal knowledge and skills. It has opened up my world to new possibilities to work.
There is no recipe in this industry, but Brainster gave me the knowledge needed to follow my own instincts and question every single detail of my designs to ensure there is a conductive thread in my work.
Brainster: How would you describe your experience in the Bootcamp so far?
Ana Marija: It’s heavy for me to decide which part was most interesting. Each module brings us something new and challenging. If I need to pick one I would definitely pick the module with our instructor Amedea Derenda Mujezinovic where we worked on a real project and we got the opportunity to interview the stakeholders and later they did testing on the prototypes that we created for them.
This project was very valuable to me and I enjoyed working with a team to create a product for the client. It was a great learning experience and our team actively learned together from each other. We worked well as a team and I’m very thankful for my team members. I learned a lot from them and from Brainster in general through this project, especially from our instructor Amedea.”
Brainster: What kind of remote support do the students at Brainster receive?
Ana Marija: When working with colleagues on projects we communicate through slack and zoom as well with our instructors. We also use the Miro platform that enables us to work together effectively from brainstorming to planning and managing workflows.
We have great knowledgeable instructors, who are supportive, encouraging, and passionate about design. The communication with our instructors is great and we can ask them for feedback anytime.
Brainster: What advice would you give to others who are thinking about changing their career?
Ana Marija: Take chances, take a lot of them. Because honestly, no matter where you end up, it always ends up the way it should be. You learn and grow with every choice you make. Everything is worth it. Be you and be ok with it.
Brainster: Why did you choose Brainster over the other Bootcamps?
Ana Marija: One of the reasons I choose Brainster is its holistic approach: skills, exposure, network and mindset.
Admissions are open for the Fall UX/UI Design Brainster Bootcamp. Join us and future-proof your career by building a top-notch and job-ready portfolio.
