Why I Chose Self-Teaching over a UX Bootcamp
Two years after joining my current company, I decided to take a 3-month long career break to learn UI/UX design — a non-paid, temporary leave focused on educating myself and realigning my goals.
Leading up to this decision, I debated about whether I should choose a UX bootcamp or teach myself. A month into my break, I am happy to share that I don’t regret my decision in going with the self-teaching route. There’s definitely been some unexpected changes to my initial plan, but I believe that it’s part of the learning process.
I’ll get into the details of how I built my curriculum in another post, but in the meantime, here’s why I decided to teach myself and why you should also consider it (and save $5-10K as a result).
It was more than just about building a new skill, but about aligning my personal and career goals.
While I craved the intensity that a bootcamp would provide, I also knew that I wanted to realign with my personal and career goals while learning this new skill.
Although working in a fast-paced startup allowed me to learn many different skills in a short period of time, I also had to make compromises on other interests and goals. I wanted to take this opportunity to merge those into my career so that I find my job fulfilling and more meaningful.
Luckily, my personal and career goals overlapped. My personal goal is to get into the habit of creating more, whether that is illustrating or writing on a regular basis. My career goal is to work in the intersection of business strategy and product design, ideally in an industry that interests me, like fashion.
At the bottom of both of these goals was the need to build design foundations. I had always loved graphic design, illustrations, and typography, which all serves as the foundation for web design.
I couldn’t find a UX bootcamp that met all my requirements. So I decided to build my own curriculum.
Here was my criteria for a UX bootcamp if it was going to be worth its $5K+ price tag.
Yes, I admit that I was very picky. But most bootcamps are charging more than most university degrees in Europe, but without benefits such as name recognition or access to other resources, so I thought they were a fair ask.
- Extensive mentoring
I didn’t want a mentor that was going to just grade my work, but someone that I can build a relationship with. I wanted to learn from their work and industry experiences. - UI and UX
While I ultimately want to work in UX, I wanted to have strong UI skills and be able to use Figma like a pro. Not knowing the tool used in design to me is equivalent to not knowing the language that is being used in a workplace. It would impact my understanding of UI designers, as well as tech requirements that I need to know when handing design over to developers. - Real-life projects with real companies, as opposed to the same projects for everyone
I didn’t want a portfolio with the same projects as all my peers, period. If a bootcamp couldn’t connect me with companie, I figured that I’d reach out to companies myself. - Online, remote (time zone shouldn’t matter)
So I can make the most of my leave and travel while studying - Self-paced, but the whole duration shouldn’t be more than 3 months
- Positive review from graduates
- An organization that was focused on web/ux design as opposed to specializing in teaching everything
I considered the following bootcamps: Ironhack, DesignLab, General Assembly, and IDF.
However, none of them met all my requirements, so I researched free courses and watched a ton of YouTube videos from other people who taught UX to themselves, such as Lizzi Kieu and Rachel How. The videos gave me a realistic expectation of the self-teaching route.
I knew that I wouldn’t be able to learn at the pace that I want to, but I knew that I would be have the flexibility to design a curriculum that met my needs and the time to explore other interests that can add to my profile
Plus, I believe there’s something satisfying about being able to achieve something on your own versus when someone drags you through it.
In the end, I designed my own curriculum consisting of different books, free & paid courses, and other online resources that were highly recommended by other UX designers.
There was one paid course I incorporated into my curriculum, which was DesignLab’s UX Academy Foundations course. Since it was my first entry into design studies, I wanted some guidance on how to navigate this new field. This course seemed like the perfect middle ground between not taking a bootcamp and learning everything from scratch. It provided me with just enough handholding in the beginning to set a rhythm for myself.
I wanted to hit reset on my lifestyle and build new habits
Working in a fast-paced environment came with downsides such as anxiety, difficulties with sleeping, and stress. Besides that, I had built up bad habits like spending too much time in front of a screen or stress eating that negatively impacted my quality of life.
So the first thing I did when I went on my break was to take a two week long vacation, with all work notifications turned off. I focused on the nature surrounding me and in connecting with myself and people I love.
Once I returned to my normal routine, I have been balancing studying and reading with other activities for self-care. Now, I’m trying to build more positive habits into my routine that I learned to do from the book Atomic Habits by James Clear.
After all, I want the lessons that I learn in this period to have a permanent change in my life, not just a temporary change that I drop after 3 months. And I truly believe that making these changes would help me become a better person, employee, and a manager.
Are you also in the process of self-learning UX? I’d love to connect and learn more about your journey! :)
