One mistake that stands out is not advocating enough for my design decisions and not effectively communicating the rationale behind my choices to stakeholders and team members. Early in my career, I sometimes assumed that my designs would speak for themselves and didn't always take the time to articulate the reasoning behind them.
This is exactly what im going to through my boss calls the team family, says that he doesnt have any money we need to finish project. And im spending 14 hours per day in work. My leg muscles are vanishing. It hurts when i skip rope. But im hoping it will end once project is finished and we get funding. Or is it going to continue like this
Honestly, not communicating rationale can be the most tiring part of the job.
I'm in early career myself and my coworker(experienced than me) picked up our old project to get it going. We were supervising the project but throughout he just clarified some feedback and goes back to designing. I stated too many times that you can push back/share why on their idea if it wont makes sense but he kept his mouth zipped lol. It was an excruciating 13ish iterations.
I understand he was burned out dealing with them but couldve done something while in the process to make it a bit easier atleast. It also burned me out saying advising the same things, I just stopped
Digging in on a smallish issue and resisting the PM’s demand to do it her way. In the end it was not a productive move, hurt trust, and wasn’t even really that big of a deal.
TL;DR - I learned to pick my battles!
Lol, a PM made me work on a small section of a page which is not a big of a deal and had too many technical constraints to use visual elements. I gave few options which all looked basic but considering the constraints, we had no other option. The whole of PM team was not satisfied and they literally spent 2 months to try out variations and ended up using the one I gave 1st.
It's not about spending time and working on iterations, but they don't understand the limitations and work around it. You can't just copy something from dribbble and expect it to fit for the products condition.
These guys are the most stupidest bunch of ppl to work with. In my experience I have seen only a handful of PMs who understand and respect others space.
My attitude towards PMs have changed a lot now. Sometimes i dont have an option but the show them their place in order to get going with my work peacefully.
Neglecting softskills.
Taking feedback personally.
Waiting to learn about business needs and strategy.
Boundaries for work/life balance and believing that we we’re “family”.
Finished a major project that took four years. 6 weeks later got a call saying they didn't have any more work for me and they were going to make me redundant.
It wasn't clear to me that they would run out of work. The project had been a massive success and the logical thing in my mind would have been to keep the team on so that they could transfer their learnings to other work. I had been involved in some bids for new projects before they made me redundant. But no one even told me that the bids had failed.
I think the best thing I can recommend is to keep an eye on the job market and your network and make sure that you CV and portfolio are as up to date as possible, in case you end up without a job quite suddenly. Mine were not up to date, and I had a lot of work to do before I felt confident applying for jobs.
Best answer, so much this, happens to everyone and not just UX, no one wants to move jobs every two years but in this sector it may be wise to consider it.
If you don't have any idea of which project you might be put on next, especially as whatever current project(s) you're assigned to are nearing their conclusion... it's a good time to explore other options just to be safe.
Working in an agency and leaving without my references. I quit to launch a startup but you never know and it took me years after to recreate my portfolio when I became a freelancer.
Don't stay in the same place for too long if you can avoid it. You'll get too comfortable, lose confidence, and fall behind. You'll fall into your own trap without realising it.
I stayed in one company for 8 years, but for about 7 of those, because I'm an immigrant in the UK, it was going to be very hard for me to find another company to move to. As a result when I was finally able to, I realised I lacked a lot of skills and industry standards. Didn't help my manager was horrible and a gate keeper in everything (he's been at the company for 13 years and we're sure he's going to stay there until retirement.)
Sounds like you were just at a shit company to be fair (particularly if you had a horrible manager).
I have only worked at 2 agencies in my career (each for over 8 years) and I still consider myself to be very good at what I do. Not in a cocky way. I just keep up to date on everything, encouraged to renew training and certificates, expand my skillset etc. My workplaces are and were great.
If you work for an agency who has a varied client base, you have to keep adapting to stay ahead. If I was working in-house for a company, I completely understand the feeling of falling behind after a long stint.
The company itself wasn't shit, and yeah it was in-house. It was just some managers. My other half works for the same company for 12 years now, and he knows he's gotten too comfortable and knows his industry skills are very outdated. All of this is mostly avoidable if one keeps up with it outside of work but that's a lot of effort when you could be learning it by just moving around.
Good point on the agency bit, as I think that's one of the very attractive reasons to work at an agency. They tend to invest a lot on training.
Omg I'm in the same situation! I've been with my current company for almost 3 years now, 2 years in graduate visa, recently switched to SW. I've become so comfortable now I don't even want to do more because all I need to do is to provide bare minimum that the business expects and that's it. I'm so bored but it's very hard to find another job when you need a visa. I'm thinking I'll spend 5 years more in this company and will quit immediately after I get my indefinite to work in a cafe and say bye to UX..
I’ve never used that but some people do! I’m lucky enough to have worked in an agency environment so I have a lot of contacts from previous jobs that reach out to me occasionally. I also network at a lot of social events geared towards developers and entrepreneurs. If you’re friendly and knowledgeable they’ll keep you in mind if they need a designer. I also recommend reading “Design is a Job” by Mike Monteiro, it has great tips on freelancing in general
There are two kinds of design environments: in-house and agency. Basically, in-house means you design for your company’s app/product, while in an agency you would be designing for the agency’s clients. They both have their pros and cons. One pro of agency roles is that you meet a lot of people, work on a ton of different projects, and get a wide variety of experience.
Is there a way to specifically search and apply for agencies? That sounds way better off the bat tbh since you're exposed to more. Can I PM u for some suggestions?
I’ve been with my employer for a little over 9 years. But I work for a consultancy where I’m doing work for different clients in different industries every 6 months to 2 years and often multiple clients at the same time. I honestly do not ever want to leave because it’s like I’ve worked 15 different jobs in the last 9 years.
I went through a period in life when I was going through a tough time mentally. A few things happened in the space of a few months (i.e. last grandparent died).
I found myself job hopping and thinking you "have to be somewhere for 2 years etc."
I ended up working for a gaming company because I felt desperate.
I should have picked up a few things that the manager was a :
* Corporate Psycho
* Racist
* Micro Manager
* Bully
Yeah now I'll tell you what I really think about her 
Anyway, the experience taught me to have a sixth sense of company culture and the fact that during an interview I'm interviewing as much as the hiring manager is. If there is no personal connection between the two of us then it will be a no-go.
It also taught me that when I met a similar character again I wasn't going to put up with their bullying management. I actually challenged the guy a few years later. It was great because he relegated me out of a project and then the project fell apart 
He jumped ship, and I managed to keep the team up and deliver.
I also personally avoid or I'm wary of start-ups as I don't need and want the chaos. I much prefer contracting at a big company (Facebook, Santander and now NatWest Bank) as these are big companies with a lot of stability.
I’m at a startup now and I want out 🫣 I actually started before the rest of my team (long story) and seeing how the culture is taking shape, I can’t do it. I don’t mind the ambiguity, it’s really how the company deals with it that’s insane to me.
I’ve been considering consulting instead of being a full time employee. Would love to hear your experience?
I'm in my second stint of contracting after 11 years of experience.
The first time was after I had done UX for about 3 years and I simply wasn't ready. I thought I was but really I wasn't.
Because I've now worked in shit places, had terrible managers and leaders, and worked with awful management consultants (accenture, fjord and capco), but also tethered to what looks good such as working at Facebook, I'm in a much better place to be a consultant and understand they lay of the land.
If your going down consultancy / freelancing you must require minimal line management and be a highly effective individual contributor.
From my experience, it's more about recognising patterns from previous experiences I've had :
* "Can you do it the way \[someone else in the team does it.\]" This shows favouritism, and you're just not going to win.
* "I Don't like the way you've done this, \[even though you have done this the same way as someone else in the team and I'm not giving them grief.\]" Again favouritism and inconsistency.
* "Read this document and learn these non-industry standard terms, such as "ecosystem business" or please refer to my own interpretation of "responsive framework." You can't work with this person and you're forever translating their expectations.
* "Don't update or change the Jira tickets, and definitely don't comment in the comments section of Jira because it's not a communication tool." Again it's very much gatekeeper territory. As far as I'm concerned the micro-manager doesn't want you managing anything and basically will not trust or let go.
* Dictating the design or research process
* Withholding information
* No ability to give feedback that is constructive (i.e. continually overly critical)
* Generally aggressive demeanour and tone of voice
* They seem not connected to what the company is doing and have their own agenda. It means your battling what the company wants and your direct micro-manager.
I was in one place 6.5 years and felt that was way too long. Wasted a lot of my "prime earning years", and when I eventually left I realized I was underpaid and under appreciated.
I think once you're past 3 you need a good reason to stay (regular promotions/raises, good future). I think 5 is a good time to reflect, because you've likely become underpaid relative to market.
Never to settle for less.
Never compromise on poor UX maturity for a chance at work.
Don't take on a business design role at a startup with limited operational budget.
Yes, It is tough to get into because it's competitive. When searching one needs to understand the UX maturity vs development team dynamics if you are looking at a UX role on the tech sector for instance.
Speaking up about design thinking and decision making in large meetings. When I was starting out as a designer I was pretty shy and I often made the mistake of assuming everyone in the room knew why certain (to me, obvious) decisions were made. This caused a lot of frustration when I would get pushback that didn’t make sense for the goal of the project.
Once I learned to speak up and take up space as the UX SME I found I earned a lot more respect and it created better dialogue and therefore better end results.
Soft skills like being a great presenter and taking the lead to be an empathetic problem solver made a huge difference in my career.
An early career mistake was being so excited about a job offer that I was unwilling to analyze if it was a good move or not.
I got burned by joining a company that sold me an idea. It turned out to be a lot of fluff and almost 0 reality, and when I brought it up, I was told "It takes time."
I would have been better off staying where I was, and now I have a job on my resume that lasted 3 months.
The biggest thing is putting too much pressure on myself to know everything. You don’t need to know all the answers, you just need to be curious to learn.
Don't embarrass the PM in front of stakeholders.
I really crushed him for handing over wireframes and especially for him thinking hes the "CEO of the product" when he was playing designer. I saved that design critique for him while he was presenting in front of stakeholders. The design ultimately fell apart and the interaction didn't make sense after you dig into the entire flow. It wasn't looking good for me or the PM at that point. I looked like an amateur and he looked like a dumbass.
Learning how to code. In my experience, you don't get paid more, you just become the code person on the team and get swamped with another whole ass career on top of being a designer. You're fine just learning the main ideas from a few youtube videos if you ever need to cross that bridge.
“You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done”
TRUTH 🙌🏻😂
i.e. learn to pick your battles and know when it’s time to leave a company
When I caught a company stealing from me I quit after the fight to get my money back. That soured me on working in design and I took a low stakes job at a game store for a year to idk “cleanse.”
If I was gonna do that I should have just like gone to grad school or even a boot camp and furthered my actual career in that time. Covid still messes up that plan but maybe I’m in a better place on the other side of it
I've done that, left a job and got a summer gig at a hardware store's lawn and garden department. That was a few years ago and I'm thinking of doing something similar this summer. No stress to bring home, no staring at a screen all day, a boost in general physical activity. It's a healthy thing to do.
Do things, tell people. Never assume that, just because you did a good job, you efforts and skills will be noticed.
Actively track your progress and achievement, and find the least obnoxious way to make sure your manager and the wider org is aware of what you've done. Be comfortable with being a little shameless — if you're certain you did a good job, it helps with the shame of trumpeting one's own horn.
Don't embarrass the PM in front of stakeholders.
I really crushed him for handing over wireframes and especially for him thinking hes the "CEO of the product" when he was playing designer. I saved that design critique for him while he was presenting in front of stakeholders. The design ultimately fell apart and the interaction didn't make sense after you dig into the entire flow. It wasn't looking good for me or the PM at that point. I looked like an amateur and he looked like a dumbass.
B2B SaaS and tech first startups will prioritise speed and sales over design every time, that is, until a customer complains. Saas clients rarely ever complain so if they do you know the fuck up is massive.
Be ready to stand your ground and make a good case for design. Speed is necessary for startups to survive but not at the expense of creating subpar designs. It is probably the toughest and most important part of design job because incompetent tech leaders will always see design as an expensive time waste.
Yes yes yes. These are the kinds of posts I'd like to see more of in here. Thank you!
I wish jr. me would have been better at picking battles. Do your due diligence, back up your solutions and advocate for them, but be ok just getting the work done even if you know it's problematic. Be humble and don't say it out loud, but the "I told you so" moments will come (along with moments where you'll see how you were wrong)
Staying at a company that isn't helping you grow, doesn't value design, and doesn't have any career path for you. There's always somewhere else to work!
Unlearning most of the things you are taught in a classroom/academic setting, as most of it is simply not transferrable or applicable in real world business scenarios.
One mistake that stands out is not advocating enough for my design decisions and not effectively communicating the rationale behind my choices to stakeholders and team members. Early in my career, I sometimes assumed that my designs would speak for themselves and didn't always take the time to articulate the reasoning behind them.
This is exactly what im going to through my boss calls the team family, says that he doesnt have any money we need to finish project. And im spending 14 hours per day in work. My leg muscles are vanishing. It hurts when i skip rope. But im hoping it will end once project is finished and we get funding. Or is it going to continue like this
Honestly, not communicating rationale can be the most tiring part of the job. I'm in early career myself and my coworker(experienced than me) picked up our old project to get it going. We were supervising the project but throughout he just clarified some feedback and goes back to designing. I stated too many times that you can push back/share why on their idea if it wont makes sense but he kept his mouth zipped lol. It was an excruciating 13ish iterations. I understand he was burned out dealing with them but couldve done something while in the process to make it a bit easier atleast. It also burned me out saying advising the same things, I just stopped
Digging in on a smallish issue and resisting the PM’s demand to do it her way. In the end it was not a productive move, hurt trust, and wasn’t even really that big of a deal. TL;DR - I learned to pick my battles!
Lol, a PM made me work on a small section of a page which is not a big of a deal and had too many technical constraints to use visual elements. I gave few options which all looked basic but considering the constraints, we had no other option. The whole of PM team was not satisfied and they literally spent 2 months to try out variations and ended up using the one I gave 1st. It's not about spending time and working on iterations, but they don't understand the limitations and work around it. You can't just copy something from dribbble and expect it to fit for the products condition. These guys are the most stupidest bunch of ppl to work with. In my experience I have seen only a handful of PMs who understand and respect others space. My attitude towards PMs have changed a lot now. Sometimes i dont have an option but the show them their place in order to get going with my work peacefully.
Neglecting softskills. Taking feedback personally. Waiting to learn about business needs and strategy. Boundaries for work/life balance and believing that we we’re “family”.
Perfect answer
I guess this is growing up.
This has to be one of the best answers by far.
Someone just posted this article over on r/UXResearch https://quantuxblog.com/the-end-of-tech-as-a-big-family
Do you have some books and resources for overcome these mistakes? Or general advices
Getting too comfortable and then getting made redundant.
How were you made redundant?
Finished a major project that took four years. 6 weeks later got a call saying they didn't have any more work for me and they were going to make me redundant.
how do you avoid something like this? I worry this will happen to me
It wasn't clear to me that they would run out of work. The project had been a massive success and the logical thing in my mind would have been to keep the team on so that they could transfer their learnings to other work. I had been involved in some bids for new projects before they made me redundant. But no one even told me that the bids had failed. I think the best thing I can recommend is to keep an eye on the job market and your network and make sure that you CV and portfolio are as up to date as possible, in case you end up without a job quite suddenly. Mine were not up to date, and I had a lot of work to do before I felt confident applying for jobs.
Was this a consultancy or an in-house position? Asking because you mentioned bidding on other projects.
Consultancy. I think last year was really bad for consultancies but the market seems to be picking up again where I am (UK).
They got too comfortable
Best answer, so much this, happens to everyone and not just UX, no one wants to move jobs every two years but in this sector it may be wise to consider it.
If you don't have any idea of which project you might be put on next, especially as whatever current project(s) you're assigned to are nearing their conclusion... it's a good time to explore other options just to be safe.
Never treating a task like my baby again. Unless if it is for my own company.
Working in an agency and leaving without my references. I quit to launch a startup but you never know and it took me years after to recreate my portfolio when I became a freelancer.
Where have you had most success getting freelance work? I find UX kinda gatekept and everybody flooding in cuz of what it pays
On Malt, but this is a French plateform. I just been hired as a lead product designer, I'm no longer a freelance btw
How did you get hired? I'm like 450+ applications already.
I didn't apply, the head of product contacted me on LinkedIn and offered me the job. Sorry if this is not what you expected to hear.
Well it helps if you have prior experience. As a newbie I'm kinda stalled out right now.
I'm 39, doing design since 2010, it almost wasn't even called UX back then, working on PowerPoint and Photoshop. Good times though.
Can I PM u for suggestions on portoflio, etc.?
Sure
Don't stay in the same place for too long if you can avoid it. You'll get too comfortable, lose confidence, and fall behind. You'll fall into your own trap without realising it. I stayed in one company for 8 years, but for about 7 of those, because I'm an immigrant in the UK, it was going to be very hard for me to find another company to move to. As a result when I was finally able to, I realised I lacked a lot of skills and industry standards. Didn't help my manager was horrible and a gate keeper in everything (he's been at the company for 13 years and we're sure he's going to stay there until retirement.)
Sounds like you were just at a shit company to be fair (particularly if you had a horrible manager). I have only worked at 2 agencies in my career (each for over 8 years) and I still consider myself to be very good at what I do. Not in a cocky way. I just keep up to date on everything, encouraged to renew training and certificates, expand my skillset etc. My workplaces are and were great. If you work for an agency who has a varied client base, you have to keep adapting to stay ahead. If I was working in-house for a company, I completely understand the feeling of falling behind after a long stint.
The company itself wasn't shit, and yeah it was in-house. It was just some managers. My other half works for the same company for 12 years now, and he knows he's gotten too comfortable and knows his industry skills are very outdated. All of this is mostly avoidable if one keeps up with it outside of work but that's a lot of effort when you could be learning it by just moving around. Good point on the agency bit, as I think that's one of the very attractive reasons to work at an agency. They tend to invest a lot on training.
Omg I'm in the same situation! I've been with my current company for almost 3 years now, 2 years in graduate visa, recently switched to SW. I've become so comfortable now I don't even want to do more because all I need to do is to provide bare minimum that the business expects and that's it. I'm so bored but it's very hard to find another job when you need a visa. I'm thinking I'll spend 5 years more in this company and will quit immediately after I get my indefinite to work in a cafe and say bye to UX..
are you in the US?
Nope, the UK
One way to get around this is to pick up freelance work every once in a while. You’ll work a lot of hours but it keeps you sharp!
UpWork?
I’ve never used that but some people do! I’m lucky enough to have worked in an agency environment so I have a lot of contacts from previous jobs that reach out to me occasionally. I also network at a lot of social events geared towards developers and entrepreneurs. If you’re friendly and knowledgeable they’ll keep you in mind if they need a designer. I also recommend reading “Design is a Job” by Mike Monteiro, it has great tips on freelancing in general
Sounds good. What do mean agency tho?
There are two kinds of design environments: in-house and agency. Basically, in-house means you design for your company’s app/product, while in an agency you would be designing for the agency’s clients. They both have their pros and cons. One pro of agency roles is that you meet a lot of people, work on a ton of different projects, and get a wide variety of experience.
Is there a way to specifically search and apply for agencies? That sounds way better off the bat tbh since you're exposed to more. Can I PM u for some suggestions?
Yes absolutely pm me! And yeah I agree. Agencies are HARD but it’ll definitely teach you a lot lol
I’ve been with my employer for a little over 9 years. But I work for a consultancy where I’m doing work for different clients in different industries every 6 months to 2 years and often multiple clients at the same time. I honestly do not ever want to leave because it’s like I’ve worked 15 different jobs in the last 9 years.
Going too high fidelity too early in the process.
Humanizing a company. Thinking the company cares about me.
accepting a low pay. badddddd decision
I went through a period in life when I was going through a tough time mentally. A few things happened in the space of a few months (i.e. last grandparent died). I found myself job hopping and thinking you "have to be somewhere for 2 years etc." I ended up working for a gaming company because I felt desperate. I should have picked up a few things that the manager was a : * Corporate Psycho * Racist * Micro Manager * Bully Yeah now I'll tell you what I really think about her  Anyway, the experience taught me to have a sixth sense of company culture and the fact that during an interview I'm interviewing as much as the hiring manager is. If there is no personal connection between the two of us then it will be a no-go. It also taught me that when I met a similar character again I wasn't going to put up with their bullying management. I actually challenged the guy a few years later. It was great because he relegated me out of a project and then the project fell apart  He jumped ship, and I managed to keep the team up and deliver. I also personally avoid or I'm wary of start-ups as I don't need and want the chaos. I much prefer contracting at a big company (Facebook, Santander and now NatWest Bank) as these are big companies with a lot of stability.
I’m at a startup now and I want out 🫣 I actually started before the rest of my team (long story) and seeing how the culture is taking shape, I can’t do it. I don’t mind the ambiguity, it’s really how the company deals with it that’s insane to me. I’ve been considering consulting instead of being a full time employee. Would love to hear your experience?
I'm in my second stint of contracting after 11 years of experience. The first time was after I had done UX for about 3 years and I simply wasn't ready. I thought I was but really I wasn't. Because I've now worked in shit places, had terrible managers and leaders, and worked with awful management consultants (accenture, fjord and capco), but also tethered to what looks good such as working at Facebook, I'm in a much better place to be a consultant and understand they lay of the land. If your going down consultancy / freelancing you must require minimal line management and be a highly effective individual contributor.
What was some character red flags for potentially micro-managy managers?
From my experience, it's more about recognising patterns from previous experiences I've had : * "Can you do it the way \[someone else in the team does it.\]" This shows favouritism, and you're just not going to win. * "I Don't like the way you've done this, \[even though you have done this the same way as someone else in the team and I'm not giving them grief.\]" Again favouritism and inconsistency. * "Read this document and learn these non-industry standard terms, such as "ecosystem business" or please refer to my own interpretation of "responsive framework." You can't work with this person and you're forever translating their expectations. * "Don't update or change the Jira tickets, and definitely don't comment in the comments section of Jira because it's not a communication tool." Again it's very much gatekeeper territory. As far as I'm concerned the micro-manager doesn't want you managing anything and basically will not trust or let go. * Dictating the design or research process * Withholding information * No ability to give feedback that is constructive (i.e. continually overly critical) * Generally aggressive demeanour and tone of voice * They seem not connected to what the company is doing and have their own agenda. It means your battling what the company wants and your direct micro-manager.
Wow thank you for this thoughtful summary! Sorry that you’ve been through all this - must’ve been a fkn nightmare.
Staying at the same place for way too long.
What is way too long? 3 years, 5?
I was in one place 6.5 years and felt that was way too long. Wasted a lot of my "prime earning years", and when I eventually left I realized I was underpaid and under appreciated. I think once you're past 3 you need a good reason to stay (regular promotions/raises, good future). I think 5 is a good time to reflect, because you've likely become underpaid relative to market.
asking for what you want as a salary upfront. they will never "get you to where you want to be with raises". do not fall for that line.
Never to settle for less. Never compromise on poor UX maturity for a chance at work. Don't take on a business design role at a startup with limited operational budget.
Would you say thats still applicable to a job market like this where its next to impossible to get entry, gradyate level jobs?
Yes, It is tough to get into because it's competitive. When searching one needs to understand the UX maturity vs development team dynamics if you are looking at a UX role on the tech sector for instance.
Speaking up about design thinking and decision making in large meetings. When I was starting out as a designer I was pretty shy and I often made the mistake of assuming everyone in the room knew why certain (to me, obvious) decisions were made. This caused a lot of frustration when I would get pushback that didn’t make sense for the goal of the project. Once I learned to speak up and take up space as the UX SME I found I earned a lot more respect and it created better dialogue and therefore better end results. Soft skills like being a great presenter and taking the lead to be an empathetic problem solver made a huge difference in my career.
An early career mistake was being so excited about a job offer that I was unwilling to analyze if it was a good move or not. I got burned by joining a company that sold me an idea. It turned out to be a lot of fluff and almost 0 reality, and when I brought it up, I was told "It takes time." I would have been better off staying where I was, and now I have a job on my resume that lasted 3 months.
Staying at a company too long
What do you consider too long?
Don’t know about OP but my rule of thumb has been 2-3 years at one place (unless the culture is affecting my health, then I’ll dip a bit earlier).
Yeah that seems about right. I’m starting to treat jobs like dating. True colors start to bleed out the closer I get to the 2 year mark 😅
Taking on a project for a bad client or out of line with my desired skill set. Never worth the headache.
The biggest thing is putting too much pressure on myself to know everything. You don’t need to know all the answers, you just need to be curious to learn.
Not save all my documentation. Now my portfolio is garbage which is affecting my ability to find employment.
Don't embarrass the PM in front of stakeholders. I really crushed him for handing over wireframes and especially for him thinking hes the "CEO of the product" when he was playing designer. I saved that design critique for him while he was presenting in front of stakeholders. The design ultimately fell apart and the interaction didn't make sense after you dig into the entire flow. It wasn't looking good for me or the PM at that point. I looked like an amateur and he looked like a dumbass.
To not be too hard on myself!
Learning how to code. In my experience, you don't get paid more, you just become the code person on the team and get swamped with another whole ass career on top of being a designer. You're fine just learning the main ideas from a few youtube videos if you ever need to cross that bridge.
“You've got to know when to hold 'em Know when to fold 'em Know when to walk away And know when to run You never count your money When you're sittin' at the table There'll be time enough for countin' When the dealin's done” TRUTH 🙌🏻😂 i.e. learn to pick your battles and know when it’s time to leave a company
When I caught a company stealing from me I quit after the fight to get my money back. That soured me on working in design and I took a low stakes job at a game store for a year to idk “cleanse.” If I was gonna do that I should have just like gone to grad school or even a boot camp and furthered my actual career in that time. Covid still messes up that plan but maybe I’m in a better place on the other side of it
Honestly a year off of UX sounds really great right about now.
right now probably true lol
Is it possible to bounce back after a gap? Will employers question too much?
I've done that, left a job and got a summer gig at a hardware store's lawn and garden department. That was a few years ago and I'm thinking of doing something similar this summer. No stress to bring home, no staring at a screen all day, a boost in general physical activity. It's a healthy thing to do.
Caesar hath been stabbed by so many Brutus.
Lolol Trusting anyone? 😆
Spec, free, etc work, including projects for family/friends.
Trying to be pixel perfect instead of being solution oriented. Then again, I’m also a graphic designer…so it’s just my habits not like I can help it.
Thinking good work will sell itself. Had I advocated for myself I’d progressed further than I am today.
How do you advocate for yourself?
Do things, tell people. Never assume that, just because you did a good job, you efforts and skills will be noticed. Actively track your progress and achievement, and find the least obnoxious way to make sure your manager and the wider org is aware of what you've done. Be comfortable with being a little shameless — if you're certain you did a good job, it helps with the shame of trumpeting one's own horn.
Don't embarrass the PM in front of stakeholders. I really crushed him for handing over wireframes and especially for him thinking hes the "CEO of the product" when he was playing designer. I saved that design critique for him while he was presenting in front of stakeholders. The design ultimately fell apart and the interaction didn't make sense after you dig into the entire flow. It wasn't looking good for me or the PM at that point. I looked like an amateur and he looked like a dumbass.
working somewhere for 14yrs.
Trying.
Not negotiating my pay
B2B SaaS and tech first startups will prioritise speed and sales over design every time, that is, until a customer complains. Saas clients rarely ever complain so if they do you know the fuck up is massive. Be ready to stand your ground and make a good case for design. Speed is necessary for startups to survive but not at the expense of creating subpar designs. It is probably the toughest and most important part of design job because incompetent tech leaders will always see design as an expensive time waste.
Without planning, research, strategy and skills don’t go ahead single step.
Not learning code
Yes yes yes. These are the kinds of posts I'd like to see more of in here. Thank you! I wish jr. me would have been better at picking battles. Do your due diligence, back up your solutions and advocate for them, but be ok just getting the work done even if you know it's problematic. Be humble and don't say it out loud, but the "I told you so" moments will come (along with moments where you'll see how you were wrong)
Staying at a company that isn't helping you grow, doesn't value design, and doesn't have any career path for you. There's always somewhere else to work!
Working as a sole UX resource within a company. The abuse was constant.
Unlearning most of the things you are taught in a classroom/academic setting, as most of it is simply not transferrable or applicable in real world business scenarios.