My Experience Being The Only In-House Graphic Artist in Dubai

Has anyone been in the same boat as I am? I have been working in Dubai for the past 2 years. So far I have experienced 2 jobs with different environment. These 2 companies have differences but also have few things in common

My first job was with a F&B environment managing 6 international brands. This company is under the wing of a bigger company managing also other companies... Like a group of company if they at makes sense.

I was hired as the only in-house graphic artist in the marketing department. Tasked to create visual communications for activation, events etc. for all the 6 brands. Aside from that, the other companies I mentioned borrows me occasionally to get to work on fashion environment. Long story short, I was bounced all around upon their needs and was time pressured most of the time and did I mentioned my boss was furious, but in a good way. He will squeeze the heck out of you until you got nothing to give. I was able to deliver most of the task but it is time pressure and the fear not to fail to my boss thats fuelling me. This changes how I worked, because before back home in the Philippines, I was with groups of creative individuals so the work is evenly distributed, plus we had a secretary that filters our job orders. I introduce this workflow to this F&B company because I believed I was the first in my role, they never had a designer before. Took them a while to adapt it.

Fast forward 1 year later. I joined a design consultant environment specialising spa, health & wellness etc. I only manage 3 brands in this company and I work most of the time for corporate collaterals. There is no also time pressure but i was also able to play and discover more. The thing that overwhelmed me here is that aside from my core role, I am also the one who is tasked to speak to suppliers for my artwork from quotations to finish. This is my current job at the moment.

Where am I getting with this? I am sharing my experience these past year. Because it was completely different from what I've encountered in the Philippines. What I can share here is be flexible and be comfortable on walking outside your comfort zone and entering uncharted territories. I mean, I applied as a graphic artist in the company but why the heck are they tasking me to be a purchase officer dealing with suppliers. But in the bright side, encountering these kinds of situations can help you grow. My communications skills improved under encountering this situations. My confidence level also gained up drastically because of the management I have for my work, I felt in control from scratch to final output. I get to pick which material I want because they let me play. Time pressure also helps me in a way, I didn't believe I can be that adaptive. I may be right or wrong. Let me know your thoughts below