Moving 4,000 miles to become a Jr. Product Designer
How life events brought me from New York City to an exciting journey in Berlin
Change can be anxiety-provoking and terrifying, because the future outcome is uncertain. When I was younger, I was afraid of putting myself out of my comfort zone, but I felt like something was missing.
It took me many years of forcing myself into uncomfortable situations before I accepted the beauty that is change.
Long story short, the end of 2017 and beginning of 2018 were really tough for me. At the end of 2017, I ended an 8-year unhealthy relationship with my first boyfriend from high-school.
A few months later, in the spring of 2018, I was laid off my from my first full-time job as a business consultant at a multinational corporation. It was hard not to take these two events as personal failures, despite my understanding that neither the relationship nor the job was quite right for me.
User Experience Design Bootcamp in NYC
Luckily, I found a silver lining during these tough times. My company graciously offered me a severance package where they funded my educational training. During my nearly 2 years as a consultant, I worked on a large variety of projects and discovered my love for user-centric problem solving along the way. After I was laid off, I knew that this was my chance to pursue UX design.
In May 2018, I started a 10-week User Experience Design Immersive course (bootcamp) at General Assembly. The course was rigorous: 40+ hour weeks with lessons, homework, and group projects, but I loved every stressful second. I met other creative individuals looking to shift their careers and worked on projects that enabled me to apply what I learned in class. We worked on user research, ideation and design, and prototyping and presenting solutions (as well as all the things in between!). Our final project even allowed us to work with small start-ups as their UX consultants.
Although I enjoyed my course at General Assembly, I wouldn’t say it is the ticket to UX stardom (a.k.a. landing a role in the field), but it is certainly a great springboard.
I left the course with more resources to utilize during my job-search such as a foundational understanding of UX, new connections in the field, and a portfolio with the projects I worked on during the course.
Landing a Jr. Product Designer Role in Berlin
After my course ended in August, I took some time off to self-discover, since I knew that it would be more difficult to have those breaks when I start working full-time. I spent several weeks in Europe, taking in the beautiful architecture and sights, learning about the culture, and meeting new people. I had a few phone interviews during my time in Europe, but I fully dove into the job-hunting process after I came back to NYC in October 2018.
During my time in Europe, I met up with a college friend that was studying for her Master’s in Berlin at the time. She mentioned how much she liked interning at a fashion e-commerce company, Zalando. I went on their website and found several openings for product designer roles, so on a whim, I applied directly. I didn’t expect much of it, because I was used to my applications disappearing into the job portal void. Most of my applications to large American companies either got a very generic automated response, or no response at all.
I applied to Zalando on a Friday. The next Monday, I got an email from a friendly recruiter who apologized to me for the wait. What wait? She was one of the most responsive recruiters I’ve ever met!
Thus, began my interview process at Zalando:
- First interview: screening with a recruiter to see if there was a cultural fit and brief review of my work experience
- Second interview: deep-dive with 2 product design leads, to discuss my portfolio and applicable background experience
- Third interview: 3 hour extensive interview — 1 hour with a recruiter, 1 hour with a design lead from my prospective department, and a 1 hour case study with another design lead
All of my interviews were via video chat, which can be difficult to get a real feel of the company and the team members working there. However, albeit digitally, I sensed a good energy from everyone at Zalando I interacted with.
These 3 interviews at Zalando happened over the course of nearly 2 months, thus, I was also interviewing with other companies/agencies within the U.S. and in European cities like Barcelona and Berlin. You know that saying “when it rains, it pours”? That’s exactly what happened around the time of my 3rd interview at Zalando. I was also approaching last stage interviews with other companies, involving in-depth case studies and projects that I needed to submit and prepare for. I was really overwhelmed and unsure of where my future job would lead me, but when I finally got an offer from Zalando in December, I felt no hesitation.
Of course, I took a few days to review the offer letter and details. Although I knew the company and role seemed like a great fit for me, I never actually visited Berlin, or even Germany before. I read blogs and watched videos about life in Berlin, and asked people who have visited the city. After getting mainly positive feedback, I made the leap and moved to Berlin in February 2019!
The Beauty that is Change
February 1, 2020 marks my one-year anniversary living in Berlin. It can be hard being so far away from friends and family, but I’ve gained a newfound independence and understanding of myself. I’m extremely grateful for the meaningful friendships I’ve made, my team’s willingness to help me grow as a product designer, and my close proximity to so many countries in Europe!
It’s been an exciting 365 days.
Stay tuned for my next article: Learnings from my 1st Year as a Jr. Product Designer
