Major Decision is the name of a web series aimed at high schoolers figuring out what to pursue as a career. The show's two co-hosts meet with practitioners from a variety of fields—banker, lawyer, engineer, professor, etc.—and quiz them about their work on-camera, then repair to a studio where they rank that profession based on "Basic" and "Essential" criteria.

Because of the rather stock, commonplace vocations mentioned above, and because the show has an element of curation to it—they focus on "promising and fulfilling careers" rather than every single job that's on offer—I was surprised to see "industrial designer" as one of their picks. I still think of ID as being a relatively unknown, and certainly underappreciated, field, though there's no question that our visibility is better now than it was 20 years ago.

In any case, I didn't want to start this entry off with their "Day in the Life of an Industrial Designer" videos—more on why in a moment—but would rather show you their end appraisal first:

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How does that stack up against your own experience? Obviously some of the categories are a little wonky, particularly 2, 3 and 6 in the "Basic" category, and 1 and 2 in the "Essential." I assume those five were based not on some industry-wide survey, but by the one industrial designer (Seth Freytag, a Senior ID'er at Florida-based consultancy Inoventions) that they interviewed.

As for said interview, there are two reasons I didn't lead off with it. First is because, due to the broad nature of our profession, it's virtually impossible to do a "Day in the Life of an Industrial Designer" that could accurately nail the entire vocation. There are just too many variants; some of you reading this are wearing a tie or women's business attire, others among you are dressed like you're on your way to paint someone's garage and you have black shit under your fingernails, and yet your tax returns all list the same profession.

The second reason I didn't start with the videos is because, frankly, they're a little hard to watch. While I applaud their mission, the videos themselves seem like what an adult thinks a high schooler would respond to; and as I sat through all five, I found myself doing that thing where you grit your teeth because you're embarrassed for someone else. But for the convenience of those curious, here they are: