Think your current career wont transfer into UX Design? You’re wrong!
Are you stuck in another career, want to get into UX design but don’t want to start at ground 0 all over again?
I’ve had everyone from teachers, graphic designers, physiologists, to event planners reach out to me wanting to know if their skillset is applicable to being a UX/Product designer.
What if I told you those skills are actually what sets you apart from the sea of other applicants out there?
At the end of the day Product Designers are just problem solvers and in order to be one you need to have a strong set of soft skills like communication, empathy, critical thinking, and organisation combined with basic hard skills like visual communication, research, and iteration.
I’ll pay anyone FIVE BUCKS if you can’t find even 1 transferable skill in your current career. GO!
So here is a list of professions and how your skills translate into UX/product design. If I’ve missed one you’d like to see covered leave a comment!
To my friends in:
Event Planning
You possess a keen understanding of event attendees “users” needs and pain points to ensure a successful event. Just as you tailor event communication for diverse attendees, you’ll excel at crafting interfaces for different audiences. Your meticulous planning skills translate directly to designing intuitive user flows and sitemaps, ensuring users can navigate products with ease. Additionally, your ability to manage complex event logistics and anticipate peoples needs aligns perfectly with the iterative design process, where solutions are constantly refined based on feedback. You have a clear understanding of balancing the needs for the business (your clients) and your attendees, this one really sets you apart from the rest.
Content Writing & Editing
You already have a strong skillset in user empathy & understanding. You research your target audience extensively, understanding their needs, pain points, and desired information. You tailor your writing style and tone to different audiences just like designers do for their designs. You plan and organize content, ensuring it’s well-structured and accessible. Just like designers creating sitemaps and information architecture, ensuring users can find the information they need easily. You consider the user journey and how users will navigate through content which translates to understanding user flows and designing products. Not to mention you likely have strong visual and regular communication skills and understand the importance of iteration and validation research.
Marketing
You’re already a master of understanding peoples needs and motivations, honed through market research and crafting campaigns for target audiences. The user-centric approach ingrained in marketing aligns perfectly with UX design principles. Your ability to create clear and compelling messaging translates directly to crafting user-friendly interfaces. Furthermore, your experience with A/B testing, understanding data insights and iterating on marketing campaigns mirrors the UX design process.
Graphic Design
Easily the most common background for .com era UX designers. You already possess a deep understanding of visual communication and design principles. Your ability to translate complex ideas into clear and engaging visuals translates directly to crafting intuitive interfaces. You’re a master of hierarchy and layout, skills crucial for designing user flows and information architecture. Furthermore, your experience with iterative design cycles in graphic design aligns perfectly with the UX design process, where prototypes are constantly refined based on user testing and feedback. You’re likely to have even utilised some of the software needed in UX design.
Sales
I often compare designers to car sales people (in a good way) if you can’t sell your design solutions, you’re better off not making them in the first place. As someone in sales you already excel at understanding peoples needs and pain points, honed through in-depth customer interactions and negotiations. The ability to translate complex features into clear benefits for customers translates directly to creating user-centric interfaces. Your strong communication and persuasion skills are crucial for user research and pitching compelling design narratives to stakeholders.
Teaching
You’re an expert in breaking down complex information into clear and understandable concepts, a skill crucial for crafting intuitive interfaces. Your ability to assess student needs and tailor instruction translates directly to user research and designing products that address pain points. You excel at information architecture, organising curriculum for optimal learning, similar to creating sitemaps and user flows for intuitive navigation. Furthermore, your experience iterating on lesson plans aligns perfectly with UX design.
Project Management
You already possess a strong foundation in stakeholder management honed through managing projects that meet their needs. Your ability to prioritize tasks, juggle multiple deadlines, and manage complex workflows mirrors the iterative design process. Just as you break down projects into manageable stages, you’ll excel at crafting the right approach to tackle any design problem. Furthermore, your expertise in communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management translates directly to collaborating with developers, researchers, and other UX professionals.
Customer Service
You’re an expert in user empathy, honed through daily interaction with customers and resolving their pain points. Your ability to identify user needs and frustrations translates directly to user research and designing products with user-centric solutions. You excel at clear communication, explaining complex features and troubleshooting issues, a skill vital for any designer.
Dog walking 🐶
As a dog walker, you’re a master of empathy and adaptability, with a keen understanding of each canines energy levels, sniffing preferences, and leash-pulling tendencies. You’re an excellent observer of subtle cues —ensuring each dog has an enjoyable and safe experience. This translates directly to user research, where you’ll excel at identifying user needs through observation and feedback. Furthermore, your experience iterating walks based on the dogs reactions (detours for surprise squirrels, extended sniffs at fire hydrants) mirrors the UX design process of constantly refining and spotting areas to improve
So, don’t undersell yourself.
UX Designers come from all kinds of backgrounds so use yours to your advantage!
Please remember to 👏 if you found this helpful or forward this to a friend in one of these careers, get them thinking 😉 #designBuddies
If you ARE looking to switch careers into UX/Product design feel free to get your toes wet with my FREE UX Learning Guide ❤️ 👇
But wait, there’s more…
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