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Networking in a remote world: How to get a job in UX with no experience
Using Ken Coleman’s Proximity Principle as a framework to land your first job in user experience
During my senior year of college I encountered a catch-22 that is all too familiar to job-seekers, that is: How do I get a job with no experience?
I was fortunate enough to have a solid idea on the field I wanted to enter, but past that I didn’t exactly know the best way to set myself up for my career. Not knowing where to go next, I asked my father, who in all his years of infinite wisdom, told me the following:
Read a book.
After four years of studying English I wasn’t so psyched to hear this… as I pretty much thought I had read every book possible to prepare me for this next phase of life.
Nonetheless, I listened and picked up a copy of what he recommended: The Proximity Principle by Ken Coleman. 200 some pages later, I had finished and decided to go the preferred route of my generation: Googling as much as I possibly could.
Still, the idea of the proximity principle kept creeping back in my mind. I wondered if the lessons of the book, written in 2019, still rang true in the post-pandemic world of the Great Resignation and remote work. Were people still seeking connections to find new jobs…
