Your accent is not a barrier, but a bridge to your message
Your heritage can bring so much value to the table
I was born and raised in Barcelona, Spain. Even though I learned English in private school for most of my life (I think I probably started at 5 or 6 years old), English was never my forte. In fact, during high school, I focused my attention on learning Italian and French. As a result, my English was always slightly neglected, and my strong Spanish accent was (and still is) quite prominent.
When I came to the US at 22 years old, cultural immersion forced me to improve my basic English, but my accent at that point was a lost cause. I feel very proud of myself because, in a span of 5 years, I went from barely being able to communicate to studying for a degree and entering the tech corporate world at Microsoft. To do so, I endured an 8-hour interview day (in English), where I did all the talking as I presented and defended my UX design portfolio.
Let’s not sugarcoat it: in the UX field, we immigrants have it tough. When we think about a UX designer, we often forget how much the role entails being a salesperson and how little it is in actual design. My day-to-day consists of 20% designing and 80% pitching, influencing, debating, making trade-offs, or strategizing about the designs. When you operate in a second (or…
