Frontstage during intense situations like job interviews or backstage with interpersonal relationships, humans perform according to specific social rules.
These interactions require different symbolic social masks under multiple contexts. These masks inform our identity or the ways we view ourselves. The employment titles we hold, in turn, shape core cognitive abilities beyond our identity. But should our jobs have that impact on us?

Starting with a content analysis of Service Designer portfolios and then Discourse Analysis on job descriptions, this thesis explores the realms of self-presentation. Autoethnographic or personal experiences with neurodivergence, chronic illness, and burnout led to the eventual creation of a freelance studio.

This thesis questions whether we can redefine societal expectations of employment and productivity through a more critical lens.

Those with Service Designer in the title had higher rates of job satisfaction, despite making less than those without.

I always intended to include a reflective portion of my research. I never expected an autoethnography to become the core research method.

In April 2021 I experienced a full mental and physical breakdown, burnout, whatever you want to call it. I was hospitalized for 20+ days that year.

Not long before that, I learned I was neurodivergent (AuDHD) and going through the typical about-to-graduate-need-a-job stress. But I was masking so heavily that I started feel physical consequences.

My gallbladder was removed, then also diagnosed with a rare chronic illness. Fun year *sarcasm*