I worked with some pretty dumb people who mocked me for years as the guy who couldn't design a UI to save my life because the product I inherited was designed by someone in the 1990s. it wasn't pretty but it was functional.

any time a UI request came in for the new product and I would try to take it, the PM would pull it and give it to someone else. "oh, their skillset is better suited for UI/UX." I was told.

I got fed up with it and designed my online portfolio. used it to showcase my work and skills even documented my process from mockups to design iteration and final products.

I then posted on linkedin my new portfolio and listed myself as open to connect. within a day the PM made a point to pull up my portfolio on standup and asked me where I got the template. told them, "no template. as you can see in the documentation I designed it from scratch using HTML5 CSS3 and JavaScript. I also included the js packages I used."

they were stunned and immediately started to shuffle some UI tickets my way. I just said, "sorry, my skillset is better served for backend requests."

I quit two months later after a few interviews that seemed to go well. I hated that shithole.

moral of the story? don't discourage people from taking on tasks they aren't obviously suited for. they might just surprise you.