How to Stay Positive (and Proactive!) As You Look for Your First UX Role.
So you’re finally ready to take your new skills to the real world, but looking for a job can feel like a job in and of itself. Let me help keep your sanity and your positivity alive.
1. Go to Events
After you finish your course and have your portfolio up and running, it’s important to continue to actively engage in the UX/tech community. Not only can it help on your job hunt, but it’s also a great way to talk to other people who understand what UX is and geek-out with. Whether it’s a hackathon, panel series, conference, networking event or something else, it will be worth your time and effort. Meetup.com, Tech Ladies, General Assembly, BuiltinLA, and various Facebook groups have been great resources for events near me.
2. Build your Network
As you’re starting out your UX career, it’s possible that you might not have any real-world connections in the tech industry. Making those connections and building your network will be crucial — not just for this first step in your career, but throughout. Be sure to connect to people you’ve met at various events, people from your course, and people you know from Facebook groups, etc. LinkedIn even has an option to get career advice from other LinkedIn users. Just set it up and you’ll receive people who are willing to answer questions, every week! But however you make your connection, make sure that you’re building your network from a sincere place and are not immediately looking for those people to help or hire you. The idea is to build lasting relationships and immediately asking for help can halt that relationship in its tracks (trust me).
3. Tweak your Application
As we all know, your application is your chance to make an impression on a company and get your foot in the door (unless you’re applying through a connection). As such, your application pieces are the most important things for your job search. Do everything you can to keep your profiles and documents up to date and error-free, utilizing correct keywords and titles. Also ensure that every single link on all of your documents and web pages directs correctly (thanks for the reminder, Ryan Gonzales). For more tips on LinkedIn, cover letters and resumes, I follow Madeline Mann on LinkedIn. She talks about refining your cover letter so that it doesn’t contain vague speech and how to check your resume on a site like JobScan, which will help you know if it will pass through Applicant Tracking Software (ATS). For tips on creating the best portfolio and case studies, Sarah Doody’s Facebook group is a great resource. Also reach out to people in the field (ideally that you know) and see if someone will look over your pieces for you and offer to look over theirs if they’re also currently looking. Getting a fresh set of eyes can shed light to major and minor fixes you can address.
4. Keep Designing
I know that looking for a job can take up a lot of time, but putting in time to continue to work on your design skills will not only help you land a job, but will help you succeed in one. There are many ways to continue to get design experience, both paid and unpaid, including creating a mock project, volunteer work, hackathons and freelance projects. Attending a hackathon is a great way to gain experience designing on a team and in a time crunch (Techstars often does start-up weekends which are fun weekend-long events). Creating a mock project is one of the easiest ways to keep utilizing your design skills. Simply think of an app or site that you wish existed or a problem you’d like to solve and go! This will be even more effective if you’re able to partner up with another designer or developer to get team experience. Otherwise, doing real-world projects by volunteering or getting a freelance project on sites like Upwork and Fivver. No matter what, make sure you recognize that your work has value and will take time. Never work for free or for a small paycheck unless you are okay with it and absolutely understand the scope of the project before you agree to it.
5. Don’t Let Yourself Stay Down
The truth is that job searching can be a frustrating process with ups and downs. Remember that finding a job takes time, especially as someone new to the field. Keep things in perspective and remind yourself that you only need one job or one connection to pan out, so don’t see a rejection email as the end of your line. And if you do find yourself feeling down, reach out for support from your family, friends and your network. In the end, you can only do so much, so remember to also relax, breathe and keep going. You got this.