There is no single correct place to begin a design career.
Agency is one route.
An internal product team is another.
A consultancy can be excellent.
Government can be excellent.
A startup can be excellent.
Independent work can be excellent.
The logo above the door matters less than what happens behind it.
Early in your career, optimise for learning.
Choose the people
Look at who you will work with.
Are there designers you can learn from?
Are there people willing to critique your work properly?
Can you observe research?
Will you work directly with engineers?
Will you understand why business decisions are being made?
Will you present your own work?
Can you see senior people making difficult decisions rather than only receiving their approval afterwards?
A prestigious company that gives you none of this may teach you less than an unknown company that gives you all of it.
Choose the standards
Ask employers how design decisions are made.
Ask what happens when research contradicts leadership.
Ask how accessibility is handled.
Ask whether designers meet users.
Ask how implementation is reviewed.
Ask how AI is being introduced.
Ask how junior designers are expected to develop.
Ask what happened on a recent project that went badly.
The answer to that question will tell you more than a careers page.
Build your reputation early
Your reputation begins before you feel senior enough to have one.
Do what you say you will do.
Arrive prepared.
Meet deadlines.
Admit mistakes.
Ask useful questions.
Share credit.
Do not pretend to know things you do not know.
People remember whether working with you made the work stronger or harder.
That memory becomes your reputation.
Avoid becoming a tool operator
Many production tasks traditionally given to junior designers can now be automated.
Variations.
Resizing.
Documentation.
Basic layouts.
Simple prototypes.
Asset production.
These tasks were not always exciting, but they allowed junior designers to observe how professional work was made.
Do not allow automation to remove the apprenticeship from your career.
Seek exposure to the problem, not only the production.
Sit in discovery.
Observe research.
Attend engineering discussions.
Present work.
Explain decisions.
Learn how experienced designers evaluate what AI produces.
If your job becomes prompting systems to make artefacts you do not understand, you are not learning enough.
Learn to build
Learn enough implementation to move an idea closer to reality.
Build prototypes.
Experiment with code.
Understand the architecture behind the products you design.
Use AI coding tools where they help.
Then inspect what they produced.
The goal is not to turn every designer into an engineer.
It is to remove the wall between thinking and making.