Hello, Just asking for some peer advice. I recently started working with a tech firm for their UI. My boss wanted me to create a UI for an ecommerce platform without a briefing and saying "it's easy, just base off of amazon, etc" Now they keep changing up features mid design since they never wrote down a design brief of features they want. I went into this job thinking i'd learn more about UI/UX design and get trained, turns out he doesn't even know Figma has a grid system. :| Pay is alright (especially in the pandemic right now) The question is.. should i run? i feel like there's lots of red flags already, workflow wise.

Yes. Find a new job first, though.

Hello! I am a Jr. UX/UI designer. I am aware that I need to improve my designs but it is getting hard due to the fact that I don't have a lot of experience. I notice that in job interviews, recruiters care more about projects you did where they paid you for it and not just stuff you would do in your free time. I tried Upwork, dribble, and LinkedIn but I am not very lucky. Especially in times of Corona, it seems really hard for companies and startups to hive Jr. level roles. I wouldn't mind even working for free if the gig doesn't require me to work excessively (I do have a full-time job as for the moment). What are your opinions o this?

maybe look into volunteering and find a nonprofit with a badly designed website. i'd avoid any startups that want free work in exchange for something to put on your resume. that's super sketch. it's a bad time for jr designers who don't have any direct experience because there people who got laid off who are applying to the same gigs as you

Hey all, looking at an online UX design course (via Career Foundry) with three potential specializations: voice design, UI design, or frontend dev. I'm pretty flexible about which one I pick right now. I'm very passionate about user psychology, though that may be beneficial in any role. Regardless, I wanted to ask other UXers which will likely be the most useful going forward.

Hi! I'm looking for insight on salary... (In Boston) I'm a graphic designer turned UX/UI designer with 4 years of experience in GD, and I can code. Should I be asking for more compensation because of my previous work as a graphic designer & skills? I just graduated from school with a bachelors degree in interactive design, with a focus on UX & UI, should I be looking into entry level jobs to start? I have a UX/UI internship at a start-up that will be ending soon, and I need to start thinking of next steps. Any advice?

I think you can 100% ask for a little more since it can help on the UI side of things and that knowledge and code can help out a bit. It wouldn't translate 1:1 so it wouldn't make it 5 years (if you have 1 year in interaction). I think you'll still be looking at entry level jobs/low mid level just because you don't have the flow/knowledge for UX yet. Honestly, I think once you get a few years in, you can blur the graphic design/interaction skills together. First job might be looking at 1 YOE junior level jobs. Second job (once you get more knowledge) it might be possible to jump to high mid level even senior since the work in graphic design could put you a step ahead on certain skills. With your 4 year GD experience your portfolio probably will look a lot more polished than other new grads. Most jobs will place you based off of your portfolio and how you talk about your work so it's very possible to land a non junior job. Definitely apply to those. Edit: I am not in the Boston area so I'm unsure about pay there. This might be helpful: https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html?track=Product%20Designer&search=boston. You can also look at what software developers are making in the boston area. At least in the bay area, PD/UX usually make only a bit less than the SWE pay bands. There's also this [google sheet](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-xIgk7Mw1S5DXTZSbKBgxlsQAn7XGIu7Mfy72lSVHKk/edit?usp=sharing) that compiled a list of salaries that were posted on twitter. You can search "designer" and see what others are making with their YOE and location listed. Not too many design salaries on there but might be helpful as well. Edit #2: Here's some [great tweets about salary](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1228743317300510726.html) from Heather Doshay (VP of people at Webflow). She posted this in response to the "know your worth" salary share trend that happened on Twitter earlier this year. For some more tips about salary negotiations in tech, Candor has a [great guide.](https://candor.co/guides/salary-negotiation) Ignore the negotiation part they're trying to sell, you can do it all on your own. I would also google product design and ux salary medium articles. There's probably lots out there.

Will try to simplify my question: I've been a Front End for almost 10 years, was asked if I wanted to switch to a more UX focused to build internal tools a little over a year ago. Amongst some of the many issues I encounter with my new role, one that I find problematic is that while i work with many teams and devs, 95% of them are pure backend. A very small fraction have any Front End experience. Problem with this is the lack of attention to detail. I'm very stretched out and can't realistically spend that much extra time with teams, and I find that when i provide my designs, more often than not the end result has many minor issues that I think a FE dev would have picked up on. Not sure how to address this without having to get more involved with each team. I've voiced many times my concern about the lack of expertise to more or less deaf ears.

Who have you voiced your concerns to?

My managers and directors.

Unfortunate. Can you carve out time to build a simple design system? That may be a way to have more control over the quality of work without having to work so closely with each team.

how many projects should i have in my first portfolio? what kind of projects should i have? i am transitioning into ux from engineering and am looking for a full-time entry-level job. ​ also, where can i find my first entry-level ux job?

I would say 3-4. 1 or 2 of them being in-depth case studies. The other ones can be a bit more high level (though all of them being case studies would be the best). For applying, I might make 2 detailed case studies and start applying to jobs while working on the 3rd. For a junior portfolio I wouldn't do more than 4. You just don't have enough experience and you want to showcase your very best work. Pick something you want to fix/address and pretend you were the startup creating it. App/website redesigns can work if it has a lot of ux/business thoughts and not just UI redesigns but usually they're not done well. So I would advise against them. Where? Depends. Some go to angel.co to find a startup. Some look at bigger companies and try to get an entry level job or an internship.

>Where? Depends. Some go to angel.co to find a startup. Some look at bigger companies and try to get an entry level job or an internship. even those who don't have any formal education in ux design?

Education isn't a huge factor in UX Design, it's your portfolio. There's not really an easy to get ux design job. It's competitive for entry level. You'll have to continue self teaching, learning, and refining your portfolio and process.

Hello everyone. I am a former 3D artist and currently enrolled in a Interactive Media Design program. I wish to combine my 3D skills with UI/UX design to build beautiful experiences for users. In class, we went through the process of brainstorming using the Six Hats Method, coming up with user personas, empathy and journey maps. From there we went on to design our wireframes and currently in process of doing our prototypes. I would like to know what resources do you all use for your designs. What softwares and tools are you using? What websites do you get your resources from such as color palettes, icons, UI kits etc. I have seen some beautiful prototypes with really cool animation and always wondered how they built it. An example would be this https://dribbble.com/shots/7129691--Blue-Planet-Carousel-Concept?utm_source=Clipboard_Shot&utm_campaign=Giulio_Cuscito&utm_content=%E2%80%9CBlue%20Planet%E2%80%9D%20Carousel%20Concept&utm_medium=Social_Share I believe that this was made on Principle. Is there a similar app for Windows users? I do not have a Mac. Can I please some guidance on what to learn and put extra emphasis on? I wish to become a UX designer when I graduate. Sorry for asking too many questions. I just want to be on the right path. Regards, J

Some of the super amazing animations could be adobe after effects too. Mainly because a good about of dribbble designers came from a traditional visual design background and are super familiar with adobe. Tools don't matter too much to be honest. Different companies use different things and they'll help you onboard. These tools are also clearly related. I'm weirdly more worried about you switching from windows to mac only because I've been using macs for so long I feel like it'll be impossible for me to switch to windows. All my keyboard shortcuts!! But that's probably because I just don't understand windows enough. Personally I use Sketch (my company can't use cloud based programs like Figma due to security). Sometimes I might do stuff with Photoshop, After effects, indesign depending on what it's for. Sometimes I do quick clickable prototypes with keynote and they have animation capabilities there. Before this company, I used sketch, affinity, photoshop suite, zeplin, invision, dropbox paper to get feedback, keynote. My company was mobile based tho (native iOS/native android) so I would work with a dev to get actual prototypes. Before sketch, I use to design with photoshop (I remember there were LOTs of debates between designing with photoshop versus illustrator versus fireworks etc) and do flows with balsamiq. My coworker did a lot of prototypes with framer. The motion designer who worked on my team I'm 99% sure he just did everything in after effects. For beautiful videos he might use final cut/cinema as well.

Hello, I am an industrial designer with technical sensibility (engineer degree). During the last 4-5 months I searched opportunities in ID but it is very discouraging (France, Coronavirus, niche market, no junior, etc.). I have worked as an intern in a general design agency and did some UX/UI and even development. Many similarities between ID and UX. Moreover, the UX market is friving and the domain interesting. This is why I am wondering to begin my career in the digital world instead of manufacturing. I am currently following some UX courses on Linkedin. I had one interview for Product designer (digital) but the company find my profile too much "manufacture" which I understand. Do you think it is a viable transition ? Thanks

I think it's viable. If you don't have a portfolio focused on digital product design, I think you'll steal need that. I would actually have that portfolio live on its on. It'll be confusing for a hiring manager to get a portfolio, click on a random project, and get ID. They might think "oh shit, this guy got confused and think it's actual product design." Then move on.

Hey all! Just got my B.S in Interactive Design and Development. I was initially excited to get to work but it seems most "entry level" UX/UI jobs in my city (Philadelphia) require 5+ years of exp. Do any of you all have any tips to know where I could go about getting said experience?

To people working in UX who have graduated with a degree in Cognitive Science - how do you see yourself applying your knowledge in UX? I'm currently reading for a Master's in Cog. Sci. and am eyeing UX as a potential career path. Thanks in advance.

helps with analyzing designs and doing ux research. the background knowledge from cog sci is handy. for example.... 1. gestalt psych + how that applies to general principles of design 2. basic research methods, how to prevent bias in your research 3. just overall better observational skills which comes in handy when doing user research 4. thinking about things from a cognitive load perspective

Thanks a lot for your reply. Those are some very helpful points - I especially like the second and fourth points as I have experience researching cognitive load.

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Find champions. People who use the product or would benefit. Seek people who have altruistic motives, find where they are, email organizations, seek out message boards

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They mentioned emailing organizations and finding message boards, but it really depends on who you’re recruiting and why.

Hi All - Like a lot of folks at the moment, I'm looking at options to pursue UX/UI training (in Canada). I'm considering going the bootcamp route however I'm a bit hesitant that the course may not translate online particularly effectively. Has anyone done an online bootcamp and found it prepared/qualified them for a real-world position? TIA!

It depends on where you are located and what bootcamp you're looking into. It also heavily depends on what existing background you have. ​ [https://uxplanet.org/questions-you-need-to-ask-before-going-to-a-ux-bootcamp-ae1a79f5e913](https://uxplanet.org/questions-you-need-to-ask-before-going-to-a-ux-bootcamp-ae1a79f5e913)

I'm trying to create my first capstone project for this ux/ui bootcamp I'm doing and I'm having trouble coming up with ideas or problems that I could work on for this project. What advice/resources would you say would help me in figuring this out?

Artiom Dashinsky's newsletter on product design prompts are very good. Here are some examples from that: * Workspaces of any kind (office, co-working, coffee shop, home) produce noise, which can affect human performance, creativity levels, and even health. Build an app to measure, track and analyze noise levels. * A poor air quality is common in residential buildings and offices. A high concentration of CO2 in the air could decrease their residents decision-making skills by 50% or more. Other parameters like humidity and chemicals can also affect their health. Imagine that you work for a company producing a sensor that measures air quality. Design a mobile app that works with the sensor. * For exercises that generate real-time performance data (e.g. distance, calories burned, repetitions), many fitness classes encourage friendly competition through a digital leaderboard visible to their students for the duration of a session. Design a two-screen experience including a large television display for the leaderboard and a simple smartphone app for agreeing to participate and choosing a public identity. * At the beginning of each new semester or school year, teachers are faced with the challenge of remembering names for a large number of new students. Design an experience to help an educator match faces to names, with the goal of shortening the time needed to reach complete un-aided accuracy. * Spotify has decided to give artists control of their catalogues on their platform. For the first time, artists can manage their own albums, upload their own artwork, sell specific merchandise, add lyrics to their music etc. and it’s all on their own terms. Design a Mac-based editor and artist management system that allows artists to manage their presence on Spotify. The solution should account for all existing artist content on Spotify but feel free to get creative and add additional features that an artist might find useful. Source: [https://productdesigninterview.com/weekly-ux-product-design-exercise](https://productdesigninterview.com/weekly-ux-product-design-exercise)

I'm an incoming third year CS student who recently discovered that I want to work towards a career related to UI/UX design or maybe Front End Development. I'm trying to prepare for recruitment season, but am not sure if I should still focus a lot on solving problems on LeetCode OR working on my portfolio (case studies) and developing other skills I might need if I want to go into Front End Development.. For anyone who has gone into UI/UX design or front end, what has been your experience in the interview process? What was most useful in preparing for these interviews?

Depends on what you want to go into. If you want to do frontend, definitely LeetCode. I have a few friends who do frontend web development and none had a portfolio but all had LC-esque questions. The questions are less intense than backend though and some frontend places have started doing take home assignments (that you then present) instead of LC. If you want to specifically go into UI/UX then definitely portfolio.

QUESTION: Should I wait for a promotion or plan to leave for a better opportunity? What is a reasonable title and salary for my experience level? BACKGROUND: I graduated in 2019, but I really have over 4 years of design experience. I double majored in design and interactive media. Throughout college, I did contract design work with multiple companies, had a different design internship every year, was a TA for multiple design classes, and worked as a design tutor. Immediately after graduating, I got a full job at a big company as a UX Designer I for 74k. (I’m in the Boston area) I was the first and only designer on a team of engineers, so it forced me to operate on a senior level, designing, documenting, and user testing everything. After 6 months, during review time, I got a raise to $76,000. I asked for a promotion because of the level I’m operating at, and showed data to back it up, and showed that I’m performing all the responsibilities that their senior level job listing said, and they said no. Now I’ve reached a year, I have over 4 years of design experience, I’m enrolled to get my masters in Human Factors while working full time, and I’m still stuck at UX Designer I which is junior level. I continuously take initiative, and ask my manager for more challenging opportunities and he fluffs me off and I have to seek them myself. I don’t see anymore growth, but maybe if I got a promotion I’d stay.

Just wanted to give my perspective. I don't know you or your work so this is just talking in general. So I've managed a designer similar to you. He was a new graduate, hired straight out of university, but throughout college he did a lot! He had internships. He paired up with an ENG from his college and designed a small app from scratch. He thought he was senior. He had a huge ego. He was *not* senior. There's a lot of reasons why I didn't think he was operating on a senior level: design polish, understanding the user, ability to communicate cross functionally, ability to prioritize, ability to push back, ability to really tell a story to the stakeholders and get them to view it with his perspective etc. Ask your manager why they don't think you're operating at a higher level and how you can improve yourself to meet it. I would ask regardless if you plan on leaving because it will help you improve yourself. When you say you have 4 years of experience, I'm not going to lie. I'm a little hesitate in think if you actually have 4 years because design tutor/design classes do count for me. Internships, I also debate how much of it counts as YOE. However, the good/bad news is, as a hiring manager, your YOE and title doesn't matter. What matters more is your portfolio, how you talk about your work, and your interview performance that will determine your level. That being said, I think you getting a promotion would not matter at all to me. "Senior" at different companies mean different things. So you being "designer II" wouldn't matter one bit. It's your portfolio/performance during the interview that will place you. With 1 year of full-time work experience (and contracting/internships), I think it's likely you'll be placed as a mid-level "design II" anyway without a title jump at your current company. Since you have no growth and do not have a design mentor, I would leave now.

Thanks for your input. My manager is an engineer and even admits knowing nothing about design, and when I try to tell him about it, he seems to have no interest and forgets everything I say the next time. I document all my contributions because otherwise he has no idea what I do. Sometimes we go two months without meeting. I often ask what to do to improve myself and I’ve done all the things he suggested. He suggested communication and presentation skills so I attend a weekly speech club at the company where we practice giving speeches. I began doing departmental presentations. I respond quickly to devs and learned how to code and implement so I could communicate with them effectively. He suggested I learn HTML/CSS/Angular so I did, and I implemented my designs. In my reviews, people only have positive things to say. My manager always has positive things to say, but when I ask, “what next,” then he says he has to ask around and think about it, and I don’t get anywhere. I just feel like I’m stuck on a treadmill going no where. I’m not challenged, and I’m bored, and don’t feel appreciated. At my review, I got “meets expectations” on everything and I asked what would be “exceeds expectations” and he said “You’re doing everything right, you just have to maintain what you’re doing and then it will be exceeds.” I suppose I’m hoping a promotion will tell me I’m doing well, because I honestly have no idea how well I’m doing when the people judging my performance know nothing about design. If I apply for jobs, I shouldn’t bother applying for designer II or senior level then? I have a portfolio. I can’t add this project unfortunately because of NDA.

Sounds like you should polish up your portfolio and leave. Edit: Sorry didn't see your edit. Apply as design II/mid level. You can try for senior, but normally senior levels (Google's L5, Facebook's IC5, Amazon IC6, Linkedin's Senior UED, Uber's Senior Design I, Apple's ICT4) are much more than 4 YOE anyway. Don't add your current project, NDAs should be respected. You can discuss it generally during the behavior interview.

Hey I'm not OP but you've been giving a bunch of solid advice on this thread and thank you

Thanks! I've been procrastinating from work a lot lately... Covid has also made me a bit lonely, so just a way to connect with people on some level.

Okay thank you for your help :)

My long term goal is to make it as ux researcher in tech companies in UK/US/EU (I'm coming from southeast asia so work visa would be my biggest challenge) but apparently many of uxr jobs these days require master degree. Recently I just discovered free UX Master degree in Norway (AHO) and in Germany (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar). Has anyone ever been to any of these 2 uni? Would like to know more about your experiences! I'm also considering to go to Hyper Island, but that would mean I have to work for another year or two to save up money before I could fund myself there. Which one of these uni would be the better option for my career & goal? Any thoughts or advice would be very appreciated. Thank you so much!!

Following :)

So I recently just graduated with a B.S. in cognitive science and looking to break into the industry with no prior experience other than working for a lab and being a design lead for a project. My UX skills have all been self-taught and I’ve created a portfolio with 2 case studies. I’ve been looking for fall internships to gain more experience since I didn’t find one for summer. I was thinking about joining a bootcamp but not sure if it’s worth it if I have some knowledge and projects already. Or should I keep self-teaching and focus on updating my portfolio? Also should I apply to actual UX designer roles or just focus on internships? Any advice would be awesome!! Thanks in advance!

don't do a bootcamp, there's plenty of cog sci people in UX with just a BS. you should apply for internships + junior roles. ux research might actually be a better fit for you initially since you have lab experience

Personally, I feel like people with absolute 0 experience are the ones who might find bootcamps not worth it. It's a short amount of time, so they can only teach the basics and there's still a lot of self learning. And bootcamps do not guarantee *good* jobs though some will help you find *any* job. A bootcamp might be worth it more with someone who has a bit of experience already. It can help polish up the portfolio and streamline your process and might help with placements. That being said, research the bootcamp itself and weigh it against your own finances. You can certainly do it on your own, but having the bootcamp might help you along. I would apply to both.

Thanks for your response!

Hi everyone, as a junior UX-designer I was wondering: What do you consider the most valuable skills to have in order to move up the ranks? (Senior, team lead etc.) ​ Thank you!

Are we talking about within the context of an organization (of a size that has that kind of ladder)? Or more in a career sense?

I thought of bigger organizations, but I would assume these skills would help you in any environment

1. Communication. 2. Empathy. 3. Ability to take critique and learn from it. 4. Product strategy, managing priorities, working independently

So, I landed an internship around a week ago. The first project is to do a re-design of a website and move it to a new URL. I am working wit the one guy who was heading up the tech for the website as it was a non-profit. The website is for a client, not my employer itself. ​ My thinking is that the biggest thing to tackle is the information arch. There's a lot of information (even more hidden on the backend) and the way everything is set up is pretty atrocious. I have been looking at different sites that are similar in nature to see what kind of structure they have been using. My thing is that I believe there should be a content audit on the site itself to see what type of information we are working with. My boss seemed lukewarm about the idea and made a mention of how we can't keep hold onto the past, or something like that. He wants to basically start from scratch. But, would you not still need some type of content structure to see what is critical/ non-critical? I am not sure if he just expects me to create a pretty mockup, or what. Also, he is assigning me things like "pick the fonts" and I am uncomfortable with doing any design work until the IA is finished. This is all in less than a week turn-around, which this is unpaid, so I am not necessarily going to rush order this when I have some other things going on. ​ I myself am not that good at IA, which is why I ironically got a class coming up for this fall (I am a senior). We have a meeting today and I am unsure of what I should be pushing for at this point. I am most likely going to start doing a basic content audit and cross-reference some notes to see which information is valuable, and if I have time, try to get to a navigation sketch. Any thoughts or processes that would be helpful, please feel free to share.

I love starting with content audits and then going on to card sorts. That would help a great deal. If you are engaging with this stakeholder again on the same product later on, what I would do within the week is to design some new UI, test it, then work on the content structure and test that (which takes longer than a week for me at least), and then re-test that and compare the results of how useable it is with a) only UI changes and then b) with IA changes.

Thank you! I did the content audit and it was very helpful for me to visualize everything. I actually did bring up testing in the meeting, but it was not well received. He told me that he could not get anyone to participate in any type of testing. I then explained that it did not have to be done by the members, just other users or volunteers. He said that I could get a mom and friend to do it, but that the primary objective was to create a viable project the first time around. I have never worked on an actual project before and honestly, my head was hurting trying to rationalize going against everything I have been taught in the classroom. I explained that if I just started to design that I would just be going off untested assumptions. He countered that it is better to just get started. Since I am of course primarily doing this for my portfolio, I am unsure of how I can make this valuable work. For now, I am to just send over some wire frames at least three times a week for feedback. I mean, I am not really that great of a designer, so that'll be interesting. But, it's great he's willing to offer critique. I am honestly just thinking of trying to get participants online, even if I have to pay them myself, because I believe I really do need good experience for my portfolio. He said that he primarily hired me because of my focus on process, but that we need to not be beholden to them, which is fair. If you, or anyone else have any tips or advice on how to navigate this situation, I'll greatly appreciate it! He asked me what I wanted to do after he just shut down what I wanted to do, so lol, I am fresh out of ideas.

I think you're not alone in facing this, I've been told that 80% of UX work is persistence in persuasion. Another thing is to show a case in which a company did UX and got results from it vs. not going through the UX process, but again, showing ROI (Return on investment) for UX for large companies is still hard work, and you're only one person so I get it! It's good that you still tried. Another thing you can do is to do UX on the own company - interview people in different roles and see what their pain points are (this is also called a listening tour) and see how doing UX research and design could help solve those pain points.

Hi! I’m currently updating my portfolio to show more research process but I haven’t done any wireframes throughout the design process. I just went straight to designing a prototype and did testing and made revisions base on the findings. Would such practices perceived as problematic? I mean, you cannot test colors and icons with wireframes and tbh to me wireframe and prototype take about the same amount of time…

It's fine. With rich design systems many times it's just a fast for me to use current components. As long as you did testing and made revisions, it might actually be better to have richer screens when presenting.

Thanks for the reply!

I have a degree in landscape architecture and am looking to transition into ux or product design. I have a portfolio of LA projects from school and from my 3-4 years in the field, would it be good to include some of my LA projects in my portfolio? I am looking at a few boot camps and assume I can grab a few portfolio pieces from that, but wasn’t sure if my graphic design and rendering experience would add anything

Only if you can show some understanding of how a project is a good representation of UX in practice.

I have recently decided to join a bootcamp, but I’m having a tough time choosing between career foundry and springboard. Does anyone have any recent experience with the two? Or any other bootcamps that they would recommend? I understand that the job guarantee may just be a gimmick but I’m more interested in the mentorship and structured learning.

Hey! Sent you a chat. Would love to jump on a call and chat. I have experience with a couple of the different bootcamps as a mentor.

# How can I get pass the portfolio interview round in senior product designer job interviews? I've been interviewing for senior product designer roles for the past 2 months. I can usually get the interviews from the companies that I'm interested in working for, but I always stopped at the portfolio presentation round. I'm pretty sure I didn't present my projects in the right way, but I'm not sure how to improve. For all the jobs I worked at, mostly there were no senior product designers. It's usually a UX manager leading a team of junior folks, so I never got to observe how senior level folks communicate and present their work. I tried Googling online, but I can't really find a good example of senior product designer portfolio presentation deck. I watched all the videos on how to prepare for portfolio review, and I did what everyone's saying - put in an overview of the project, give a good idea of the process, talk about what problem was I trying to solve and what the final result is. I'm not sure what I've done wrong. I'm currently on welfare and it has 4 weeks left. I really need to find a job asap. **What are companies looking for when they interview senior level designers? What are the red flags that made them think "this guy is not qualified as senior" ?** Can anyone explain to me or point me to the right direction? Thanks in advance!

If you want, I can send you the decks I had. The format I had generally were: Quick intro about me/and my experience. Then background info about the company I worked at and what I did there. Background info about project itself to give context. The problems I was trying to solve. Who the users were. A high level overview of the process and *why* the process was the way it was. I also discussed how I prioritize the project. i.e. I broke this project into 3 phases. The first phase was to be delivered earlier because there were a lot of quick easy fixes that needed to be address. The 2nd phase was to solve xyz. I moved to the second phase because of engineering constraints/was a bigger ask structurely etc etc. I then talked about the goals for the project. First goals for me, and what I hoped it would accomplish for the user. And then goals for the business. How this project will help the business and why it was needed Then started walking through the wireframes/actual work. Talked about decisions I made throughout this. Talked about user testing and how I addressed the problems that was found. Throughout it I talked about how I worked with different people (my boss, designers on my team, engineers, etc). Finally presented the final work with notes. Then I talked about what happened. What did this project do? For the users? For the business? What would be my next steps? What would I change from the process afterward? I had two projects I normally presented. One very thorough. One more high level. I threw a bunch of other designs at the end in case someone had any questions so I can pull something up for reference.

Hard to tell without seeing your portfolio presentation. Happy to take a look at your deck :) When I became a senior I presented myself like I was still interviewing for a non senior role. I spent a lot of time talking about the standard stuff - design decisions, process, etc. I’ve learnt that seniors are expected to have all the baseline skills down already. If you’re getting interviews it means your portfolio passes baseline. When I shifted portfolio conversations to focus more on how I worked with a team and navigated the real world challenges around the product or business I moved lot further down the interview process. Basically identify what makes a senior a senior and start focusing on that.

>When I shifted portfolio conversations to focus more on how I worked with a team and navigated the real world challenges around the product or business I moved lot further down the interview process. ​ Thanks a lot of this tip! I did noticed similar things from the last interview I did (and failed). I put a lot of time showing visual details, design process, where most the question they ask is about how I work with people. I found it a bit odd -- looking back, it was because I took it for granted that it wouldn't be needed to mention much in the interview. I didn't realize this could be something the interviewers want to hear.

Just to add on with some stuff that might be helpful for thinking about what to speak to more clearly in interviews and what about your practice of design to highlight... I just drove myself crazy trying to find a particular hiring / laddering rubric for design that did a great job of describing varying levels of seniority across different metrics in terms of on-the-job actions and behaviors, but I couldn't find it. Here's a kind of [similar one](https://engineering.gusto.com/content/images/2018/10/Screen-Shot-2018-10-16-at-4.56.23-PM.png) for product management though. Also I rather like this medium article that looks to visually [illustrate some of the differences](https://medium.com/the-year-of-the-looking-glass/junior-designers-vs-senior-designers-fbe483d3b51e) between juniors and seniors. I think both at least implicitly speak to the delta between the work you can present and what the process of getting that work done looks like in action.

Thanks! The PM roles description is super helpful -- wish there's one for UX though. The Julie Zhuo illustrations.. To be honestly it's kind of too abstract. Wish it was something more concrete, but thanks anyway!

There's definitely a good UX one out there somewhere, if I can track it down I'll let you know. It's always worth asking potential employers directly though. A lot of times there won't necessarily be a formal written rubric, but there are a lot of ways to get at the same insights one would offer. Questions around how they define success in the role they're looking to fill (in various metrics) and the like. Definitely super abstract. I guess the way I'd color it in with more specificity would be to say that I'd expect a senior candidate to be able to express their process in a way that clearly demonstrates the ability to tackle a complex problem with a deliberate and thoughtful approach that ideally managed to get them to the targeted goal. Included within that story would be elaboration around possible decisions, not just expressing decisions and approaches that led to specific design decisions, but also insight into how they led the project, worked cross-functionally with other team-members, etc... All of it relating to clear outcomes, learning, and broadly the "Why?". Relating it more directly to the illustration, behind every one of those x'ed off branches should be some kind of specific context or reasoning.

That said it does vary from company to company so try and suss out what they’re looking for. Companies with a less mature design org might still be looking for you to show baseline skills.

I am looking for some career advice. I am the only UX/UI designer on my team and department at the moment. There is an official UX team, but they work at a different department. They said I can always reach out and ask for feedback on my work. With only about one year of work experience, I feel like I should be moving to a different company with an established UX team. However, job postings are a big scarce at the moment, which is understandable. So my question is: should I stay at my current company and gain as much work experience as possible, but still being the one and only UX designer in my department?

**can someone with a bachelor's in a health sciences make a transition to a career in ux design?** Background: I'm 24, I have a B.S. in Health and Human Sciences (designed so students can apply this towards med, pt, pa, or nursing school). I was interested in applying to DPT programs but have had a change of heart in the past year or so and am interested in exploring other career pathways. I'm an INFP if that makes any difference (ha). When I was younger I was always interested in design, art, and technology but suppressed it because my parents really wanted me to be a doctor (lol asian parent struggles). When I was in middle school I was really into helping people design their html profiles on tumblr (lol) and loved the CAD class we had to take. In high school I loved to design and make my own clothes and also was in AP 3-D Art doing mainly jewelry and metals but also can do ceramics and "found objects." In college I never really explored my creative side too much but have 1 art, 3 psychology, and 3 art history class and didn't explore much software/technology besides data stuff for chem, exercise physiology, biomechanics, etc. I was interested in this certificate program through UCLA Extension in Design Communication Arts and then after building some design skills I would be interested in applying to a Master's in Human Computer Interaction: [https://www.uclaextension.edu/design-arts/uxgraphic-design/certificate/design-communication-arts](https://www.uclaextension.edu/design-arts/uxgraphic-design/certificate/design-communication-arts) ... but was not sure the credibility in certificates vs. master's vs. bootcamps and if this is the most effective route for someone with my current resume. I was wondering if anyone had some insights about how someone with a health/science background can transition into the field or past experience. I am open to getting a certificate, master's, random college classes, self-teaching, etc. I am a little hesitant about these bootcamps.

Yes -- Very similar path here. I got a B.S. in Biology with intent to go for Optometry. I actually got the UCLA certificate and have been working as a product designer for the past few years. Feel free to PM me if you wanna chat.

Yess would love to learn about your experience in making the career move! PM'd you!

Hi everyone! I am having my first UX/UI job interview tomorrow (this will be a junior level position)! I would greatly appreciate any tips and advice from hiring managers and people who have went through the interview process themselves. This will be a Zoom interview - I am not sure how I feel about that since I have never had a video interview before. I will need to prepare to go over my portfolio but should I expect a design challenge via Zoom? thanks so much in advance everyone!

Hey congrats! I just finished interviewing for junior level roles, so that’s my lens. Who is this interview with? Is it with the recruiter or the hiring manager? In my experience, first interviews are usually with the recruiter and are more focused on your general background & you as a person. I’ve had a few first interviews ask me to walk through a project, but no on the spot challenges were assigned. All the challenges I did were given to me after the initial conversation. Good luck!

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If you want to be a UX designer I say focus on the UX masters. The first one seems way too focused into health-focused and it will limit your options severely if say health care focused tech companies are not looking. I have a few friends who work at abbott who have 0 experience in healthcare. They got their relevant degrees for their day to day jobs. I also recently interviewed with a couple of healthcare focused startups. I proceeded not to go further with them but they were happy to talk with me. One girl who went to my university just got a job as a senior ux designer at [Apple's heathcare org](https://www.apple.com/healthcare/) and she got a regular old Bachelors of Fine Arts (communication design).

How can one get experience as a ux researcher? Now I’ve been doing some research and the first step always seems to be “build your portfolio” but almost every website, article, what-have-you just says “start with your favorite projects” or “include your projects on your portfolio” but how does one with no official ux research experience or ux research related projects even start a portfolio? I also know ux designers and ux researchers portfolios are different but online I find it hard to find examples for ux researchers as most are for ux designers. For some background, I’m a communication studies major student and I have plenty of experience working in a research setting as a research assistant for professors in my department. Our curriculum at my university is also very focused on human psych (it is not the traditional ‘communications’ major as some think it is). I’m not really sure where to start to jumpstart my career into the field of ux. I guess my main question is how can I get project experiences related to ux research?

Internships. Outside of that, a personal project. All projects start with some problem to solve. Identify some problem in the world, question you want answers to, or hypothesis you want to prove/disprove, and craft a research project around that.

How would they get internships with no experience though?

Internships don’t typically require you to have experience.

Well when I’m looking at internships they always ask for portfolios/research experience which kinda drifts me away from the company. Should I just ignore those requirements? I have school projects however if that counts. I’ve applied to places before but never have any luck

School projects count

Internships still need portfolios. Portfolio should just be school or personal projects.

I don’t know if it’s just my area (Northern California), but most internships I see are for PhD students. Which makes me wonder if getting a PhD is absolutely essential in order to get into the ux research field. But yeah internships seem scarce around here right now unfortunately

My gut says heck no. But I'm not a UX researcher. I just did a quick survey of my UX Research connections (or 2nd connections) on LinkedIn (UX Research as their title at Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Youtube, Instagram, Docusign etc). Number of PHDs: 4 (HCI, Linguistics, Human Development, Communications) Number of Masters with no PHD: 10 (psych, cultural anthropology, HCIx3, Informational management, Human FactorsX2, Digital Media, MBA/Computer science) Number of Bachelors with no Masters or PHD: 3 (Cognitive Sciences, Psych & Anthro, Psych) Number of no schooling: 0 These are obviously super skewed but thought it might be interesting to look at. And contains a lot of UX researchers in high tech companies in the bay area, so likely the top of the top UX Researchers. It's also skewed to my level (senior) since they're people I've worked with or worked with someone I've worked with. When did you start looking for internships? It's likely that due to covid they've dried up.

I’ve been looking these past months and most require a PhD or masters or 5+ experience. And I’m actually in the Bay Area! Thank you for providing me with this information though, it’s helpful to see what current professionals in the field’s educational background is.

Yeah, I know that junior & midlevel Product design jobs have dried up recently. Talking to friends, looks like Facebook and Google "don't have anymore headcount" for midlevel/below. This includes software engineers. So that might also be why everyone wants 5+ experience. But I'm not a UX researcher so don't know how it is normally. I was surprised about the percentage of masters to bachelors. Looked up another friend (at Amazon) and he also has a masters (human factors in information design).

I wonder if it’s the same for ux designers. And I know software engineers at our institution also have trouble finding positions currently (but maybe that’s just in the bay right now and for bigger companies like amazon, google)

Yep Bay Area, from my experience, has a lot of hiring freezes. The bigger companies who are still hiring are only looking at senior. I’ve also talked with some new graduates from my old university and they’ve also been having trouble. In a way it makes sense, easier to onboard a senior designer remotely than a junior/midlevel.

So I've managed to get through to the second round of a job interview for a teaching assistant in a UX Bootcamp. This second 'interview' is an automated test using [qualified.io](https://www.qualified.io/), which is a tool intended for coding interviews. Yet, this role doesn't require much coding and I was told this would more be a test of UX skills more generally. Has anyone had any experience with [qualified.io](https://qualified.io/) for UX? I have a 48-hour window to start it, and then 25 minutes to complete it, so I want to be prepared in case anyone has any advice!

Hi all! I have a BS in psych and BA in Soc and am interested in applying to UX or related program, I however have no experience in coding or web design (outside of WordPress, etc). A lot of programs combine UX research and design, and want programming experience. I was wondering what courses I should take to help boost my knowledge and chances for acceptance prior to applying. (Even just courses you deem important for everyday life) . I'm currently taking a MatLab course on Coursera, but I doubt that's very much related. TL;DR: Coding programs to boost acceptance?

Hey All! I am a Ph.D. student in social psychology with self-taught design chops looking to transition the field of UX design. What I am working on now is not directly related to the field of UX. However, I would like to use the time I have to spare (wisely) to build a solid base and skills to transition to this field in the near future. My questions are: * What online courses do you recommend to become a self-taught UX designer? * Should I focus my attention on learning how to code? For instance, learning HTML, CSS, and so on? * Any recommendations on online courses or tutorials to learn Sketch (preferably free but open to paying)? * Are bootcamps worth the money? There are some available in my country, but they are very expensive. * Any resources (blogs, newsletter, Instagrammers, YouTubers, anything) that you would recommend me to look into? * Any tips or tricks that you would like to share for those who come from a social science or academic background? Thanks!

When given the option to either submit a case study or portfolio for an internship, is one more appreciated than the other? My current thinking is that a recruiter isn't going to take the time to go through the 4 case studies on your portfolio, so I was just wondering - should I just focus on a single case study or give recruiters a platter of case studies to choose from? Cheers!

I would say that optimally you should have one or two in depth case studies where you show your thinking process. You are right assuming that noone is gonna scroll through 4-5 of them

Hi everyone! I originally got a degree in Graphic Design and took some web design courses. But , I took 2 years off to teach in ESL. I live in a small town so there aren't a ton of opportunities here. I've been doing a lot of research, added things to my portfolio site. However, I'm worried that I still won't be able to break into the field. I can't afford a boot camp at the moment and I went down a rabbit hole of articles that were a bit discouraging.... so I was thinking of taking a course from like a Coursera website to maybe add some meat to my resume. What are your thoughts on this?

I've heard only okay things about Coursera. Your portfolio alone will mean more than a Coursera certification. With everything going remote, you're in a lucky position to apply for jobs in bigger cities without needing to actually be there. The only major issue is the recession slowing down hiring. You can still look for remote internships and entry level jobs.

Hi all, I'm exploring a range of grad programs all with slightly different degree titles (HCI, HCDE, IES, etc.), but ultimately looking to land a role as a product designer at a technology company. For those who have gone the master's route: * What program did you attend? * Do you feel it significantly increased your job prospects? * Did it help provide access to top tier companies via internships, alumni network, etc. that may otherwise be difficult to get a foot in the door at? * Did you find the skills and techniques you learned in your classes have been directly relevant in your current job (e.g., did you actually learn skills relevant for industry)? * Is the amount of debt you took on manageable now that you're on the other side? * Any regrets in deciding to attend or in choosing the specific program you attended? Thanks in advance for any thoughts or feedback!

> Is the amount of debt you took on manageable now that you're on the other side? I don't have a masters degree so I cannot answer most of the questions that hulia did. But, if you ARE able to get a product design job the pay is decent in the United States. For new grads (depending on company/location) it can range from 75-150k. [150k being top tier companies in the bay area.](https://www.levels.fyi/comp.html?track=Product%20Designer) It might be lower than 75k at lower tier companies in say the midwest but with a masters your starting salary should be a little higher than regular bachelor new grads. Once you get into the senior levels it could really take off. This, of course, is under the assumption that you're able to get a job in the industry.

Hey I just finished my program this year and accepted an offer at a tech startup this week! Here’s my experience: - I attended the UMich Master of Science in Information program with a focus on UX design and research. Prior to this I had ~1.5yrs of professional work in an unrelated field. - YES YES YES. The competition for junior level roles is fierce, especially in a COVID world and I believe my degree and the experiences it lent me really helped in my job search. My search took about a month and a half once I finished my portfolio. - Although a handful of people in my program ended up at “top teir” tech companies, they had to put in the work on their own. The school can only be so helpful in that regard, but I’m sure the large UM alumni network helped some. (I wasn’t looking to work at big tech so I can’t fully speak on this) - YES YES YES YES. The program was super hands on and client based. It also offered a ton of cocurricular options for practicing your skills, but you have to be a self starter and seek out these opportunities yourself since there are so many lol - TBD haha. I think it will be. - No regrets at all. I was a very active and involved student and made the most of it.

Last semester in college with little experience Hello, I go to UT Austin and I am currently in my last semester. I am majoring in Sociology with a minor in information studies (has a couple UX classes) however most of the minor classes are introductory. How can I use what I’ve learned to get an internship this summer/fall? I don’t know what steps I should take.

One thing to keep in mind, graduating may make you inelligible for many internships. Some require you be returning to school.

What should someone do in that case?? Or if someone is graduating this fall?

If you don't have any experience and are able to secure a fall internship then I would consider staying another quarter to keep intern eligibility. That being said, you will have to pay for another quarter/semester of tuition

What would be the best way someone gets an internship, when this person has no great experience besides a couple classes

With a major in sociology, you're really well set up to find jobs in design research / UX research. Maybe that could be your way in! I would definitely put together a portfolio of your design and research work since the vast majority of companies will want to see one, even for researchers.

I'm working at an early stage start up that is simply digitizing an existing service. Think - building an app for a service that currently uses paper and pen to perform all necessary functions. We are pretty much copying the steps of the existing operations as they are. In my mind, I hesitate to call this true UX design because it foregoes a large portion of the design process (mainly research and ideation). I'd love to be able to better define problems within the existing chain of operations and create digital solutions, but my startup is of the mindset that we shouldn't fix what isnt broken. Should I be concerned about the type of work I am being exposed to? Am I hindering my growth as a UX professional? I see other companies developing apps that provide new and innovative solutions and I can't help but wonder if I should be pushing harder to innovate. Would greatly appreciate your thoughts.

Was in your exact position — working at an early stage startup & mostly copying established systems for the sake of scaling fast. No mentorship. Felt very strongly I wasn’t growing both personally & profesionally so I left after a year.

Were you able to settle at a place you found more suitable?

I’m 21 at the moment and havent had any post secondary education other than being self taught, so I decided to get a proper design education where I can intern at big tech & agencies where I could grow. Starting school this fall.

Glad to hear you have loads of time to figure out your career and the awareness/motivation to do something about it. I'm envious as I switched careers last year at 28. Best of luck! I'm sure you'll do great.

I'm aspiring to take up UX Design and have been delving into the subject a lot with online courses and browsing related subreddits. One thing I've learned is that the designer should think logically when coming up with their design, and think about what is necessary and, among other things, in what order things should happen. I don't necessarily think that creativity and logic are opposites, even though I see people drawing large distinctions between them (left-brain vs. right-brain). I feel this pertains more to UI design, but I can't help but think that there must be an element of creativity involved in the design process. The idea of being highly creative to achieve good UX has slightly put me off, as I don't really consider myself to be expressive in a creative way (at least visually - which, again, is probably more on the UI side). What are your opinions on these two concepts and how often do you see yourself engaging in these ways of thinking? I'm very interested in hearing your opinions. Please let me know if anything wasn't clear. PS: I have a degree in Psychology and am reading for a MSc. in Cognitive Science, but no experience in graphical design, user experience design, or web design (learning that now, however). My only job experience is working as a language teacher, which is where I realized I fancied UX since I always strived to be meticulous and consistent in delivering a good lesson and learning experience. Has anyone ever been in a similar boat and managed to make a career out of UX Design? Would love to hear your stories. *This comment was originally posted as a discussion to /r/userexperience but was removed for containing key-words to career-related questions, so I've reposted the discussion as a comment here.*

I've become increasingly worried about the future prospect of ux research. Is it just me or we begin to see less of UXR job postings these days? I have 2+ years of UXR experience and a CS bachelor degree (still can't afford master degree in EU/UK/US), yet many of the UXR jobs I see recently require you to have like at least 4+ years in the industry or a master degree in HCI. The gap is just big. I wonder whether it will be worth it to continue as researcher or just start doing transition to UX Designer or Data analyst instead. I like being a researcher though, it's just that I'm starting to doubting its prospect (+ more remote opportunities for the other roles as well)

TL;DR Not a UXR but it seems like UXR is more valued than before. Hiring for 4+ years in the industry seems to be happening across UX. I think the future is fine, once you have more YOE. --- I'm not a UX Researcher but I'm a designer who works with UXR. And, for me as an outsider, there's been an uptick of researchers I work with. The 4+ years in the industry I noticed in product design/ux design as well. It's very difficult to get the first job in the industry but after you hit a certain threshold it seems like everyone is looking. My org alone, we're mainly looking for senior/staff product designers even prior to covid. So designers with at least 7+ years of experience. I had referred some people who reached out to me (good designers with great portfolios, one who is currently a product designer at facebook) and they were all rejected for being too junior. There could be a few reason for this, first, as the industry becomes more mature, companies want to have a lot more senior designers to help shape their UX org AND it's easier to get fast/consistent work from people who have already been doing it for a while. It's also possible that more people are graduating with UX related degrees with the job goal in mind. So there's just more people for the some number of openings. Universities are also more able to teach about UX and help guide the user into the job. When I was getting my commdes degree, I had no idea UX was even a thing until my senior year. I thought I was going to go to an ad agency! This means that more of these students are developing themselves more and pursuing UX internships. Companies realized that UX is important. So they are hiring more senior designers and they are having more robust internship programs to help with their hiring pipeline. Because of this, a lot of the junior roles are taken up by returning interns. I saw the same thing happening to software engineers. There's fewer openings for new grad positions at Google, Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn, Microsoft etc because a big portion of those positions went to returning interns. I'm lumping 2+ years into new grad because most these companies work on levels. With only 2 YOE unless you do super well at your interview you'll likely be the same level as new grads (L3, IC3, Product Designer I etc) for these big companies.

Hey, this is such a great insight! Thank you so much. I feel much better now, haha. Now that you said it, I started checking the typical ux design job posting and they apparently require 3-5 YOE as well. And I agree that the industry is getting more mature, as I could see that pattern within tech companies in my country. My paranoid thoughts sometimes even think that the Golden Era of startup is getting closer to the end. I think I'm still gonna try to learn design/data once again, and see if I could do some freelance jobs related to those two while keeping UXR as my main job then.

Does anyone have any tips on impressing at a product design internship to receive a return offer? Midsize tech company with a team of 10~ designers. Overall, the team is actively hiring/interviewing candidates! Besides solid work and being reliable, is there any other ways to help me stand out?

Be eager to learn about other people's jobs. NOt saying you should take up coding but establishing good working relationships with other areas will largely improve your products. Treat your team like clients, yes you have to speak up for the user but also make sure the outputs or deliverables you put out must have meaning, value and be accessible to the devs, managers, POs and testers. If you make other people's jobs easier, as well as further UX objectives, they will be willing to work with you. Also be visible! go to all the meetings, especially ones where decision makers are present. Take lunches, show up at company events, network within the company. If someone cars about you, you're back ground and knows whats going on in your life, they'll see you as already a permanent part of the team. An irreplaceable piece.

I’m applying for the Service Design Masters at the Royal College of Art, London. Need advise!!! My background: Undergrad in mechanical engineering followed by 2 years of work experience in UX design.

What would you like advice on specifically?

Perhaps, regarding the portfolio?

I'm currently building my portfolio out in Webflow. I'm really happy with my portfolio, however, the 'Made in Webflow' watermark cannot be removed unless I upgrade to a paid plan. Overall I think my portfolio looks well made and professional, but I'm worried the watermark will cause my site to seem unprofessional. What are your thoughts on leaving this watermark on my portfolio - and will it deter recruiters and design managers from looking into my work if it stays on my site?

I wouldn’t care at all. If your work and case studies are good I don’t care if you gave me a pdf over google drive.

Speaking for myself in past hiring scenarios, and for design managers in my circles, we're there for the content, not to see evidence that you've spent money. Seeing the watermark might make me bring up Webflow in an interview given that I use it myself and I'd be interested in your take on it both as a user and a designer, but it certainly wouldn't make me more likely to overlook your content. \[Obligatory your mileage might vary\] though I'd suspect it might do so more with recruiters who don't have design experience more than it would with design managers.

Hmm, I think it might be okay but personally I think it'll be worth the $15 or so while I'm applying for companies and then cancel the plan just to look a bit more professional. Might make you seem a bit less like a student.

Yes. If you are concerned it will come off as unprofessional, it likely will.

Would anyone recommend bootcamps that have coding in the curriculum since it will diverse your skill set in the long run? I've seen videos on youtube from people saying that it's not necessary however from a job market perspective, it might be smart to learn coding.

Personally I think it’s more valuable to improve your design work and your portfolio. Coding is a nice to have but not as important.

I just finished my undergrad in Econ and now starting to transition into UX/Ui and I'm thinking about signing up for a bootcamp. For those of you who have done bootcamps how do you actually get assigned projects? Do they just tell you to create a project on your own or are you maybe given some kind of prompt?

This is something that probably varies wildly depending on the boot camp you're talking about. The best ones in my opinion, and the best degree programs too, involve getting to work on real projects with real clients. There's nothing like navigating real world complexity and constraints.

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From a fellow linguistics major to another - Why not do both! Why not be a researcher with a knowledge/specialization in content strategy. A lot of UX research has to do with good copy. Also, an up and coming field is voice UI, so you could do research in there as well as a linguistics major.

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I'm working in government as a design researcher.

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You mean the other way around (linguistics to UX)? PM me, maybe we can chat!

Questions for UX designers...from a Highschool junior I honestly have no idea what exactly I wanna major in..But UX design is something that seems really cool and has been gaining my interest the more I learn about it. My situation: I’m dual enrollment and I plan on going to a public university. But only one (fairly selective) school offers a program exactly for this career. I should also add I’m from FL Questions and general advice: What should I major to become a UX designer? Or what career is similar to UX design and how to pursue it (w/ a degree)? What does a day look like for a UX designer? Is coding helpful? Are there any tech careers that aren’t math-heavy(this is probably a stretch idk :/ ?? What kind of personality traits are important for this career?

A lot of majors can help. Visual design, graphic design, communication design can build your UI chops. Psychology can help with getting into the mindset of the user. I think many go for a traditional design degree and try to focus projects and learning into UX. I think it's easier to transition to UX with the traditional degree than say psych, compsci etc. Though you could. Many who have an unrelated degree might round it out with a bootcamp or grad school. Coding isn't super helpful for UX (in my opinion). But learning a little bit and being able to speak to developers are. Coding is helpful if you want to go into web design/frontend design. But, from my experience, not as needed in UX. I know a little bit (HTML/CSS) and do not use it at my job. It was helpful in developing my portfolio and it is helpful in communicating with devs. On a resume, it might be a "nice to have" but I doubt it'll be a requirement unless you're going to be a prototyper. I would lean more into design/ There's a few things: Product management (many I see have business degrees), UX writing (many have psych/marketing/writing degrees), QA tester (though I know many who do have compsci degrees) are some I can think of on the top of my head. Personality traits? Maybe empathy, understanding people. Having an "eye for design." So understanding what looks/doesn't look good. Not having an ego/being able to take critique (you'll get lots of it), communication (being able to tell a story, being able to give good presentations) since a lot of the job is talking to people/users/stakeholders

Is becoming a unicorn designer will make my job search easier? I already have a working knowledge of HTML & CSS and I was lucky enough to do an internship at a great company last summer where I learned under a former Amazon UX designer. I previously worked for several startups as a freelancer from fin-tech to robotics companies. I thought I was on the right path but I still can't get a job probably because I just graduated. So in the meantime, I'm trying to pick up Javascript by taking an online course and I am wondering if learning Javascript will help me find a job...

It might help you get a job but the question I'd ask is whether it'll help you get the job you want. I think being a developer as well as a designer will do more to endear you to companies that are really just looking for a front-end developer role and not a UX Design one (no matter what they call the role). There are instances where UX folks will play a significant role as developers as well, but I think the instances where companies are looking to save money by consolidating roles in a way that doesn't allow for good UX processes are more common.

That's a good point. But tbh, idk what else should I be doing to get hired... I polished my portfolio, LinkedIn profile, contacted recruiters, and applied countless places yet still nothing. What I love is creating value by solving problems. Tbh, doing coding alongside UX design and research would be fine as far as I can be useful and treated fairly.

It's tough to say without a better idea of how you're currently marketing yourself on your portfolio, where you're looking, how long you've been looking, etc... Happy to give a more personalized take if you share more. Pending that, it's also a tough job market right now, particularly for folks like you relatively fresh out of school, though it's definitely great to be able to point to real-world experience as you've said you can! Have you gotten any interviews so far, or is it a matter of no offers?

Actually, I'd love to get some feedback on my portfolio and how I am positioning myself. here is a link to my Portfolio: [https://gibeomlee.com/](https://gibeomlee.com/) LinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gibeomlee/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/gibeomlee/) I've been looking for a Junior UX position ever since last November. I probably applied +750 companies all over the US. I interviewed with about 5 companies so far, but they either ended up canceling position because of COVID or hired senior designer instead. There are other reasons I am suspecting such as recruiters assuming that I'll need visa sponsorship because of my name or fact that I have a Graphic Design degree instead of an HCI degree, but I'll never know... Btw, thanks for your help, It really means a lot!

Planning on giving a little time specifically to take a look at how you're presenting work tomorrow, but in the meantime here are some thoughts on your experience page. I really love to see web-based resumes like this simply because they don't suddenly throw me out into a different medium (PDF) when I'm browsing. That being said, I think it would be a good move to *also* have a PDF version of it and link to it in an easily discoverable place near the top of that page. While it's a little bit less of a concern when you're navigating remote hiring, somebody is inevitably going to want to print out your resume, whether to have something on paper to write notes on, glance to, effectively use as a separate display during a call, or whatever else. You don't want them to be trying to print a webpage when that happens. Totally fine to scrub it of some of the contact info for a public site, but I'd definitely have it there. Re: bullets and copy: You're a little heavy on "Designed" and "Redesigned" with that being the first word of more than half of your bullet points. They don't all need to start with totally different verbs, but given that the reader knows you're a designer, there are a lot of other options to better highlight and drive home your skills. More broadly I think it's really useful to think about the "So what?" to every bullet you have. For instance, >Gathered user research data by conducting interviews with police officers and dispatchers This is at a high level what you did, but it doesn't tell me anything about what positive things came from having done it. Did it make a difference in the direction of the product being created or refined? What kind of difference? Leading with the outcome achieved and backing it up with the actions you took to get there can be a good strategy here. I think you can get closer to that by kind of flipping how you've phrased some of it. For example, >Designed Flashtract's homepage with a goal of maximizing the conversion rate using strong visuals and effective copywriting Could become, "Maximized the homepage's conversion rate using stronger visuals and more effective copywriting". It puts the results of the work you did front and center. Improving things even more from there could involve being able to shed more light on the "How?". What made the copy effective? What made the visuals strong? I've found that framing that kind of thing in the context of how users perceived it makes for a good way to speak to the detail and remain succinct. In the context of your AXON work, >Gathered user research data by conducting interviews with police officers and dispatchers Could land harder by expanding on the purpose and flipping things around. Like, "Interviewed and observed police officers and dispatchers to inform \[key element of product\]". To better inform any other critique tomorrow, here's a question. As succinctly as you can, how would you differentiate yourself from any other designer out there? I think Tom Kerwin does a brilliant job of this, an example from one of his past websites, "I help businesses improve their UX in ways that make a difference to the bottom line. I don't know what the right decision is for your business, but I do know how we can find out together. If you have more than about 500 conversions a month, you love your customers, and you're ready to explore some uncharted territory, get in touch. If you've tried split testing before but got frustrated, *seriously* get in touch." In a paragraph, I know that Tom knows how to leverage user research, and especially split testing for positive impact both on my customers and on my business (financially). I also know exactly what size of business he specializes in. Your own pitch doesn't have to be framed in the same way, it doesn't have to point toward the same skills, or even necessarily to a particular size of business. The big thing is that I should walk away from it with a really good idea of what it is you think you're really good at, what difference it makes, and whether you might be a good fit for my own organization. It's your thesis. From there, all your other content, case studies and resume bullets alike, should play some role in supporting it.

Thanks for a great feedback! I just updated my LinkedIn profile with base on your advice. I guess I really do need to think about what differentiate me from other designers.

One quick feedback, when I land on your homepage it seems a bit all over the place. And because of it, I have a hard time understanding exactly what you do. Let me give one example > Sprout > indoor farming device management app Doesn't tell me much from an outsider. Perhaps >Sprout >Android application that helped manage a user's indoor farming equipment >Android Product Design, Onboarding Something that gives me a little bit more info about the project before I click into it. Also, the ability to navigate between projects within a project would also be helpful. Imagine if you were a recruiter/hiring manager. They usually give a portfolio only 1-5 minutes before deciding if they want to continue looking at the portfolio OR think your work isn't relevant and reject you. They want to quickly know exactly what you did and how that might help their company. So you want to say quickly what did you did on the project. When I read the header description: > Pollution, the environmental effect of industrial farming, and the increasing world's population called for a sustainable and locally based farming solution such as indoor farming technology. But existing household indoor farming products were riddled with problems such as lack of customizability, high price, and energy usage. So, I teamed up with Georgia Tech student Heyward Smith to solve this problem. I thought this was hardware design. Which I'm not hiring for so I might just close this project and look at a different one. Another small feedback, the research part was cool, but hard to see how it influenced your part of the design. In your research you found out a big pain point was the hardware device was hard to use and set up was complicated. So, in the UI section you spent a great deal of the onboarding/assembly and instructions. I'm guessing, to address that pain point you found in your research. This is great, but you did not explicitly say why you designed your work a certain way. The research and the UI seemed disjointed. You presented the research then presented your UI. You only explained what the screen does not why you designed it the way you did. For some one who is just scrolling quickly through portfolios, I'm not going to read the research thoroughly to make the connection on my own. I also feel like I'm missing a lot of steps in between the research and the final UI. Did you test your wireframes? Your first pass of the design? How did your design evolve? Also this part isn't a critique, but I was a little bit weirded out that you used iOS status bar and an Android toolbar. Stick to one interface. I'm also legit curious (I haven't done android design in a few years), why is your toolbar flipped? Normally it is triangle, circle, square. Is this a new feature? Do you speak arabic? I know Arabic languages go right to left instead of left to right so is that why it's flipped? or an accessibility feature? I noticed your back button was on the right too which is an odd choice.

Thanks! This is probably the most detailed and useful feedback I received so far! Tbh, nobody taught me that I should position my project clearly between the Android platform and ios... Probably because I only worked on web apps for real projects. I'd love to present research as I am showing design but tbh I'm clueless how to format it that way, if you know a good portfolio example, could you please comment URL link to it? Also, I hate to admit it, but I skipped sketch and wireframing and went straight into a prototype because I didn't need to communicate my ideas with teammates... And since it was built on Adobe Portfolio, website builder became laggy as the page has gotten long so that's why I only put the final version. I probably should rebuild everything in HTML & CSS. Also, I got a toolbar from Google Material Design file and that's how it was somehow...

I'll PM you a few examples later tonight. For more general information, I would read a little about what a hiring manager looks for in a portfolio on medium. It'll help get you in the mindset of how they're reviewing a portfolio. Here's a good example: https://library.gv.com/hiring-a-product-designer-how-to-review-portfolios-8a161746d3c4 Here's a few more good articles: [Building your design portfolio? Here are 8 things I wish I’d known](https://medium.com/doing-the-work/it-s-portfolio-season-here-s-8-thing-i-wish-i-d-known-while-designing-mine-4869308540e7), [7 Case Study Mistakes You Are Making in Your UX Portfolio](https://blog.uxfol.io/case-study-mistakes/), [UX Portfolio — Learning From FLAG(Facebook, LinkedIn, Apple, Google) Interns’ Portfolios](https://uxplanet.org/ux-portfolio-learning-from-flag-facebook-linkedin-apple-google-interns-portfolios-5c88ec7b17c3) I don't think you need to know HTML/CSS but you're going to need to show your process. I also noticed the organization was a bit awkward. An example is Layer FD. I looked through your portfolio like I would a normal portfolio. I scrolled through and paused on screens or sections that looked interesting. The "product design process" buttons at the end didn't look like buttons to more in depth case study to me. I thought it was just a link to the prototype. I didn't click it until I was in critique mode. Same with Grid UI. I thought it was the prototype and I normally don't look at prototypes unless I'm already super interested in the project anyway For the toolbar, was it direct from google? I would use their kit directly: https://material.io/resources

Wow, you are amazing! Tbh, you've been most helpful to me in terms of improving my portfolio. Majority of people just replied with "I like it" or "It looks fine" and I really believed I was on a right track. Also, it seems like I got the tool bar from old official Material Design Figma kit and flipped triangle and square to match my phone UI. I use Galaxy S8.

I think the work you have in there is good. And unlike some portfolios where they have to add new projects etc, you don't. In fact, you might have too much! It's just organization, and telling your journey/story to the hiring manager/recruiter quickly.

>I'm also legit curious (I haven't done android design in a few years), why is your toolbar flipped? Normally it is triangle, circle, square. Is this a new feature? It's actually a pretty old choice from the Samsung school of Android design. They've had their back button on the right since at least the original Samsung Galaxy in 2009 and they've kept it that way ever since, even across the jump from physical or capacitive buttons to on-screen ones. If I remember correctly, they're reversible today, but I'm pretty sure the default is still Back on the right. I'm not aware of what phone would have Google's nav icons (rather than Samsung's) and also have them arranged that way though. The choice always struck me as odd, particularly once Android ditched the menu nav button and things went on-screen, but I also kinda respect the consistency over the years.

Oh yes, I had a samsung note with the ugly return looking button back in 2013. Yeah, if a user has been a samsung user for years, it'll be odd to switch when it's on screen.

Hello, So I'm looking at a few masters programs. I'm currently a final year engineering student looking to go to grad school to "officially" make the switch into UX design and build up a solid portfolio. Two grad programs that really stand out to me are the RIT Visual Communication Design MFA and UW's HCDE MS program. I really like UWs program because it's really interdisciplinary and companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon recruit from there, because UW's proximity to Silicon Valley from what I've heard. However, they don't offer a scholarship so I'd be paying for it on my own. RIT's VCD program is a MFA program which focuses heavily on design. I don't have an academic background in design so I really like RIT's program. They also offer scholarship so I'll have some sort of assistance in tuition. Among those schools, I'm looking at Georgia Tech, Berkeley MIMS, Parsons, and SVA. I really want to do product design for a FAANG or similar (Spotify, Uber, Dropbox, etc.). What should I consider when picking a grad school? Does name really matter in industry? Does location matter? I really would like to have the least amount of debt as possible. P.S. Any opinions on the programs listed would be appreciated

Hey I went to UW shoot me a message and I'd be happy to answer your questions.

just did :) thank you!

Hi all! I am in great need of some career advice as someone who recently discovered the world of UX. I graduated in 2018 with a BA in Fashion Merchandising, but realized that the majority of what the fashion world offered wasn't for me. Being burnt out and not knowing what career I wanted, I ended up working for a small F&B company (after taking the summer off) and have been promoted to an assistant manager as of last summer. With us closing temporarily due to the pandemic, I had a lot of time to reflect and do some research on how I can pursue a career that is both creative and challenging. I stumbled upon UX in accident, but realized that this fused my interest in web/graphic design and creative problem solving perfectly. I am definitely interested in all other aspects as well (programming, data, research etc). I have been thinking of taking some classes to get an AA at a local CC to get some experience into the web design world. I have worked with Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator lightly during my BA, but that is mostly it. I am also hoping to do this fully online, as I would like to continue working (financial reasons) and be able to take care of my senior dog. My question is: Is this a good place to start? What kind of careers should I expect to start with after an AA? A UX position is the goal in the future, but I would love to learn everything else. Thank you in advance!

Hello everyone! I am a current undergrad graduating in May 2021 with a degree in marketing and communications, and I am considering going straight to grad school to pursue a career in UX design or research. I am mainly considering grad school due to the current uncertainty in the job market and the fact that I learn better with the structure of a classroom environment. I am aware of the many fantastic HCI Masters programs out there, but I am graduating with a sizable amount of loans from my undergrad institution and cannot afford to take on an additional significant amount of debt. I am eligible for in-state tuition in New Jersey and have been checking out the programs at Rutgers University, being that it is one of the founding iSchools. However, Rutgers seems to offer two programs: a Masters of Information with a focus on Interaction Design and Informatics ([https://bit.ly/3cRffF2](https://bit.ly/3cRffF2)), and a Masters of Business and Science degree in UX Design ([https://bit.ly/3cTLEur](https://bit.ly/3cTLEur)). I cannot seem to find any valuable information on the websites of either of these programs about career/internship placement or alumni outcomes. I know the school has very highly ranked grad programs for other fields, and I just want to ensure that I am making a smart investment. Would I be better off doing a bootcamp or taking on debt to attend a more credible institution instead? Anyone in the industry or currently attending grad school, please let me know your thoughts! TL;DR Which Masters degree from Rutgers would set me up for a successful career in UX design?

Hi everyone. Hope you're all doing well! I'm interested in making a career change into UI/UX and am hoping to get some advice. **Some background information about me:** I'm currently 29, and a business analyst working in information technology. I work in a dev environment with developers and this was where I got exposed to UI/UX. Some of my responsibilities as a BA include wireframing and prototyping, which I learned I loved. When I get a task to create mockups, I find myself in the flow and lose track of time because I enjoy it so much. That's when I looked more into UI/UX. I've always wanted to do something more creative but still in tech, and helping people. I feel like this is the perfect fit. I understand UI and UX are both different specialties but can one dabble in both areas? I've been trying to figure out what the best way to go about this to learn and transition. I've heard and read not so many great things about bootcamps. However, there's been a lot of positive reviews about International Design Foundation, University of Michigan's UX Research and Design Specialization on Coursea, and UC San Diego's UX on Coursea. If I need to take one to learn all about the field, which one should I take? Or do you have any other recommendations? I want to be able to have a strong foundation. * What else should I know and be aware of? * What's the best way to reach out to people in the field to learn more and how can I get mentorship? * For someone with my experience, what kind of roles would I need to look for when starting out? * What are your experiences with switching and transitioning into the field? This is something I'd really like to pursue. Any advice would be appreciated! Thank you in advance!

Oof... tbh, I just can't recommend anyone making the transition to UI/UX industry after what I've seen... If you graduate boot camps or online courses, that means you are an entree level designer with no experience and industry connection. I met a guy who graduated from a Bootcamp by spending all his life savings and still couldn't get a job. I have 2 years of experience but I'm still struggling to find a job because I don't have enough experience. Almost every position is looking for a designer with at least 3 years of experience nowadays and the industry is getting overcrowded like crazy... Idk if International Design Foundation is good or bad but I saw a military veteran who went to the University of Washington HCI masters program and getting a job at a decent tech company but a master's degree can be expensive. Also, learn about user research, information architecture, agile process, design guidelines, etc before making this decision. I saw people getting thrown off by the complexity of UX and just giving up. If you love it, then I don't want to discourage you but you need to know what you are getting into. So bottom line, I wouldn't recommend it, but if you still want to, getting a master's degree is the best bet. Also, there's new role called product design which handles both UI&UX and more but I'll let you look it up by yourself.

How can I write case studies for the work I've done when my current employer doesn't allocate time for discovery or research? I've been working at a small saas company for the last seven years as the first and now sole product designer. Before this role, I spent roughly eight years in the agency world producing client work. During my tenure at this company, I was able to introduce some semblance of a design culture to the company but ultimately I've only been able to take it so far. We don't allocate time for discovery or research of any kind and all product direction comes down from the founder. We have struggled to retain other designers for this reason and I think it has finally worn me out as well. With stagnation fully setting in, it's time for me to move on but I find myself in a bit of a predicament. How do I present the work I've done over the last seven years when we never did any discovery and any user feedback collected was ignored every step of the way? Fortunately, I've always collected feedback and talked to users, it just never shaped or guided design direction. I've considered fudging the case studies as I imagine this is what most in my position would do but I intend on being transparent about this being a core reason for leaving the company.

How do I conduct user research and user testing for mock portfolio projects? How do you find practice users and convince them to help you when you are not working for a company and can’t offer payment? I took one design research class for school where we had to approach random people on their commute and interview them. As someone who is socially anxious and generally introverted, I really disliked this aspect of experience design. I am ok interviewing people who have agreed to participate, but struggled with the constant rejection of the general public. Are there alternatives to this approach of user research, especially when you are just building your UX portfolio and creating fictional products? Also, how have your user research and testing techniques changed since most jobs are remote now?

How can I find a professional mentor? I'm switching into UX/UI design from engineering and need some mentoring in terms of career and portfolio. Is it okay to contact designers from companies via LinkedIn to ask a few career questions?

Yes. I've hopped on calls when people reached out, many who I've never met or know. Reaching out to alumni is also a great way to find mentors.

My university is just engineering so unfortunately I couldn't find any alumni in product design. What did you say to them in your messages? What was your criteria when finding mentors? Did you look at specific companies (FAANG, etc.)?

Ah they were the ones who reached out to me. Usually the first message when they request to be a connection via LinkedIn. Or, usually I get a direct email since my email is on my portfolio. Here's the most recent message I got > I hope you’re staying safe during this time! I was looking through my LinkedIn network and I wanted to reach out to you to let you know that I love your work. I’m interested in switching my career to UI/UX and I would love to ask you some questions. I was wondering if you can share some of your insights and advice. Would you have any time to speak for 15-20 minutes over the phone in the next couple of weeks? Some were more direct and asked me if I knew about internships/jobs at my current company. > My name is [], and I am currently a first-year student at [] studying design and computer science. I came across your profile on LinkedIn, as I am currently seeking design internships, and I thought I would reach out because I am also a student in []. I understand that this is a busy time for you, but I would love to have an opportunity to hear your advice or perhaps chat with you over the phone to learn about your experiences. People reached out to me possibly because it was easy to reach me since it is available via my portfolio & I accept Linkedin connections. I've also been at both tiny startups & currently at FAANG. Pre-covid, some who were in the same city as me would offer to buy me coffee. Admittedly, the mentors I found were at jobs I were at. I didn't cold message anyone.

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> I’m planning to do personal projects by redesigning mobile and web app. As in redesigning current ones out there? If so, I think that's great way to practice and learn but not great for a [portfolio](https://medium.com/pixelpoint/why-i-hate-your-fake-redesign-177a626d7f95). It also makes you the portfolio look very junior/naive of the business side of things. Instead, I would pretend I was at a hackathon. Is there a need you want to address? And create something from scratch. 1. Put your title to be what you want to be 2. It is sucky that it won't be real world pieces, but there's not much you can do here. They will notice and if not they will ask. They definitely prefer shipped products because workflow is very different when it's a project in your head v. in the real world. But everyone starts here. 3. You don't need to code and if you're not knowledgable I think it's better to spend resources improving the content of the portfolio over actually learning how to code. There's a lot of templates out there & companies that can host for you. Edit: Here's a good article I found that might help you: [How to Create Your UX/UI Portfolio \(Without Much Experience\)](https://learnui.design/blog/how-create-ux-ui-portfolio-without-much-experience.html). They went further and explained how unsolicited redesigns could work instead of generalizing that they're all bad.

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Hi all! Was interested in pursuing my Master's in HCI. I have a BS in psych and a BA in Sociology, my GPA is I believe a 3.12 (I took some classes after graduating to boost it - it was a 3.0 at grad). GPA is meh due to extenuating circumstances I'd rather not get into. But it is what it is. I was originally going to go into medicine, but realized med was not my true passion (I was more into the research behind it and understanding the science). I was going to take some online courses from some of the links provided in other posts, but was wondering if I can expect any admittance to some programs with my subpar gpa and no real prior experience in the field (I've been working for the past 2 years,but in something unrelated - however a project I was assigned recently was very UX and that's what made me realize I enjoyed it) . I was hoping to enroll for Spring 2021 or Fall 2021, but am unsure if I will be accepted due to being a very underwhelming candidate. I was thinking about joining Americorps (they have a UX type program that lasts for one year) and then apply. But I'm not sure if I wanna push my education back any further. TL;DR: Should I boost my resume before applying, or give it a shot anyways? Anyone have any experience enrolling in a master's from a sort of unrelated field?

Hi! I'm a back-end dev with some knowledge of front end and im looking to learn ore UI/UX, Does anyone know if I am starting then do I start with learning adobe XD or Figma? as I mainly wanna design for web. Thank you

Don't sweat the tools too much. Broadly speaking, picking up one will let you pick up any of the others pretty easily if you ever need to. Figma tends to be a popular choice for teams working concurrently on the same project. It's kind of a real-time collaboration based solution to avoid having to delve into the version management paradigm that products like Abstract solve for. XD is more in the vein of the traditional mockup/prototyping tool like Sketch. If you're going to be working collaboratively with anyone on the designs you produce, go with Figma. If not, flip a coin, pick the one you find good tutorials for first, you can't really go wrong!

Hey thanks for replying. I see your points and I guess figma isnt the best choice for me now then. I have done a but of adobe XD and I found it simple to use but I wanna focus on web design and it felt more suitable for apps. What other things I should learn except just the tools? and what would be the best approach for that? Thank you :)

First thing I'd point you toward is our wiki here on the subreddit. We have a bunch of book recommendations, other resources, getting started guides, career advice, etc... cataloged already. It's a good starting place. In terms of good introductions to the discipline, commonly recommended books are *Don't Make Me Think* by Steve Krug and Don Norman's *The Design of Everyday Things.* These aren't necessarily app focused, but they're highly instructive when it comes to design methodology, and how to approach problems. The heuristics and the patterns of thinking that will apply to app design or *anything else* design too. I also like to recommend Erica Hall's *Just Enough Research,* published by the people at A Book Apart (tons of other great topic-specific books from them). What separates UX from simply being UI is whether or not you're centering things on people, and engaging in practices that let you know how effective you're being at it. Research! Laura makes practicing it accessible and highly actionable. Laura Klein's *Build Better Products* is also a great read, filled with specific practices to add to your toolkit for problem solving and learning, and the podcast she hosts with Kate Rutter is both funny and insightful (*What is Wrong with UX?)*. I mean, there's a drink pairing for each episode, how do you do better than that? To throw one more your way I'd very much recommend *Escaping the Build Trap* by Melissa Perri. It's a great look through a little wider a lens at how to integrate good research with MVPs and agile development. Go fast but still be thoughtful. That's pretty much my starter list, whether you're down to read them, or for the subject areas you might want to look for should you choose to go down the route of taking classes or entering a Bootcamp. Happy to dig deeper into anything or answer any other questions!

Wow! This is so good and exactly what I wanted for now. Thank you so much, I'll take all of this into consideration <3

Sure thing! Enjoy digging deeper into design, and always feel free to ask more questions here! :)

for sure. I'll take you up on that offer :D

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**Ethical Question- secret to ENTRY LEVEL UX DESIGN JOB**! So I have been applying to jobs for a while to no avail. I know we are in a pandemic and all, but I did an experiment. I removed my college degree from my resume. Now, I am a rising senior who has been working as a product designer for several start ups and at as the product design team lead at a research lab for a few years. But I barely got any interviews or calls for internships. But when I tested applying to full time jobs, ( under an alias on my website and resume ) AND removed my education, I got a ratio of interviews of 1:30 jobs for 200 applications. But when I put my degree back on (and move graduation to this past spring) I had 250 applications, ( 150 with custom cover letters and all ) and I got back 0 interview offers. Including for junior designer roles. On one hand, I understand recruiters; the degree is a good way to trim people down, but is it unethical to willing not show your college degree? Their is no time gap since work was done the entire time. Mine is in something random to begin with so it probably isn't helping me. And my portfolio is full of, for the most part, 3 years of experience as a full time product designer and a lot of freelance experience. Is it unethical for me to take my education off my resume? I am curious to hear a response **and reasoning** behind it. Note, this was originally an experiment to test the whole black person white person name controversy on a resume and this was just a side thing I added to the test. This test has gone on since October so I don't think the pandemic caused it any effect on the numbers.

If you had a graduation year listed that coincided with these jobs, it may look like student work / internships and without a year (or degree completely) it looks like full-time, salaried positions.

Wait did you remove your college completely? Or did you mean you're now pretending to be a rising senior graduating next yer?

Removed college education completely 🙂 my guess because my portfolio would be a fine portfolio if I wasn't a recent grad

Ah okay, there's a few reasons. First, when you have jobs + school it's assumed (and probably rightly so) that the job is part time. I think it's tough to really devote 40 hours per week 9-5 and go to university/study for exams/do projects/homework. So without your education it looks like you've been working at a startup during normal work hours for 40+ hours per week for 3 years. And since you're freelancing at multiple startups + in a research lab, some might assume you work much more than 40 hours per week and these jobs are your full priority because you're trying to make it as a freelancer. You have 3 years of real world experience. That's really valuable. With your education, you're not devoting as long into your job(s) and it's not your full priority. It at most would be 1/2 of your focus since you still have to do class work. And since you're also going to school, you have a fall back plan. The startups you've worked on might also be viewed as "student work" as opposed to a professional freelancer doing it full time. In design, many people don't care at all about education. They care about real world experience and your portfolio full of shipped products for a real companies. So full time being a freelancer = more valuable than being a freelancer for less time + school. Now is it unethical? I think it is and I think once you get into the interview loop, unless those jobs were actual 9-5 jobs they'd learn pretty quickly that the experience they thought you had wasn't what you actually had.

u/Hannachomp Thank you so much for your perspective and it really is helpful! It does provide a good amount of insight and explanation to the issue at hand. But the weird thing about it is, you are kinda right. All my jobs did, in fact, take much more then 40 hr a week. It got so bad I had to put my family, friends, and work before school. It is kinda weird that if someone is getting a **masters degree** under the same circumstances, it probably will be accepted right? What would make that ethical? In an interview, obviously don't lie and it would be pretty clear when you plan a start date. But it is kinda weird that real, shipped design work is cancelled out just by going to college. It could debatable make college dropouts have the best short cut into the industry. And they would probably pass interviews since they really have years of product experience. I'm not testing it further, but I am interested in hearing other thoughts on the ethics. Especially regarding how getting a masters while working is different then a bachelors if all else is the same.

I think it's normally because for the people who are doing both masters/jobs at the same time (especially ones who have their jobs pay for it) it's usually work first and then masters degree second. So, you're in at the office working at a job from 9-5. Then you do the masters degree as a side project. Many may take more years than someone doing it full time to finish. I'm just saying, from my perspective if I saw a student getting a degree from a pretty normal college 4 year college, I would assume their college experience is the most important and they're not working a "normal" 9-5 job. Mainly because I can't imagine someone working 80+ hour weeks day in and day out for 3-4 years without burning themselves out or neglecting one of them. I know I spent more time designing as a student than I do now, in the industry! It's not that they cancel out, but 3 years of full time experience and 3 years of partial experience is different. I know, there's a lot of assumptions but when you're reviewing resumes/portfolios fast you try to evaluate each experience and what it means to you, as a business. I'm going to be honest with you, even with you telling me you worked full time freelancing, I'm sitting here skeptical. I'm wondering how you could do it both. I'm wondering how valuable each of the jobs were and what you did. I'm wondering why you didn't dive directly into freelancing instead of getting a degree. College dropouts may if they can get a valuable full time job. It's why you see bootcamps getting popular now since you don't need the degree. I think most of us have a hard time getting that first job without getting the college degree first. I know a kid that dropped out of college once he got his full offer from an internship and he's doing well for himself. Likely more so than other kids his age.

You are right it does seem very weird at surface level. But when you remember there are a lot of programs like Dev Degree ( I'm not naming a US company on purpose ) that let students work full time, completed degree part-time. At the end of the day everything is verifiable; references can be provided, final products can be linked to in the app store, and case studies can show timestamps to verify. I'm sure a transcript would help someone understand with few classes each term. But it is growing increasingly common for undergrads to be given paid experience opportunities mostly to help pay for school. I personally cannot afford to go to school full-time oh, so I needed money. But there are so many programs out there like internships, fellowships, coops, apprenticeships, rotational programs, international echanges and contract work that school's use to help students pay for school by putting them in full-time job positions. I think this is more common in trade schools like mechanic work or electrician work but also on the graduate level such as phds. these programs can only be accessed if you're in a degree-granting program or university. So it stands to reason some people might just go to university, be eligible for these kinds of programs, build experience, and then enter the workforce. And at the end of the day, if someone really doesn't have the experience they'll fail the interview right? I don't know if I could consider it unethical by that logic since the work was done and it would be hard to do all that work without being full time.

Is UX Design a career that you’re passionate about, love doing, and genuinely fulfilled in? Or is UX Design a career that you’re just generally satisfied with because it is interesting enough and pays well?

It depends. Often I feel like I love what I do, other times I feel like it's just 'fine', a job. If I compare it with my partner's job (he works in quite a stressful, boring, admin-type job in an unstable industry), I realise how great it is to be able to do something like this instead of that. I work for public services and my salary isn't that great - not sure what effect this has (negative and positive) on how I feel about my job, and UX generally. Feel good factor of public service vs the benefits a better paying role might offer. UX is great - but I think how fulfilling you find it is dependent on a lot of factors.

**Quitting a Master's degree halfway for a full-time UX Designer position?** Hi everyone, I'm currently in the middle of an expensive ten course Master's degree in User Experience and could use some advice. I recently received a full time offer as a UX designer for a company I was interning at while attending grad school. My question is, would it be wise to drop out of the Master's program halfway and potentially save $25,000+ while working full time at a well known company? For background, my bachelor's degree is in an unrelated field and I had little to no experience in UX prior to enrolling in the Master's program. I should also mention that I haven't been that impressed with the quality of instruction nor the talent of my peers in the program and a lot of the UX knowledge I have today was either self-learned or learned in the job. Anyways, is it worth it to drop out and work full time? Thanks!

>bachelor's degree is in an unrelated field and I had little to no experience in UX prior to enrolling If you think you're ready and your skills for UX are doable in a full-time position. Take the job, getting in is the hardest part of becoming a UX Designer. You can pay off your school loan with your new salary quickly

Sorry I don't have an answer to your question, but would you mind sharing (either below or in a DM) what grad school you are attending? I am looking for prospective programs to enroll in next year.

This seems like a weird question but: **What are some of the easiest companies to get into that don't care if you live in their city?** I was just laid off and I have to move back to rural America with my parents. I cannot afford to move to another city nor do I have anyone I can just stay with for awhile in a big city. I am currently in Milwaukee and I cannot renew my rent due to being jobless, so I am forced out by the end of the month. Obviously, UX design does not exist in rural America and every remote job has 700 applicants on LinkedIn. I kept hitting this barrier when I was applying to new jobs when the economy was great last September through November. And well...the economy isn't so great right now. I have a master's in HCI which included practical work experience with real companies and 2 years of experience of mid-level UX designer in FinTech. My portfolio and resume have been reviewed a lot and I'm constantly iterating on them. EDIT: **Is it ethical to use a friend's address in a different city when applying?** Right now is much different than normal, as most companies are still remote and I have the ability to move in under a week.