9 ways to getting that first UX job — Part 1
Through my teaching at General Assembly I’ve met many talented design professionals looking to get into UX: visual designers, interior designers, industrial designers, architects, and so on.
They are great at their trade, but struggle to transition into a UX career despite having educated themselves on UX and have included personal “passion” projects or class projects into their portfolio. This is because — you guessed it — they don’t have any relevant industry experience, or have worked in “projects that shipped”.
Many of them are understandably discouraged and frustrated, so I want to share 9 ways to getting that first UX job. Hopefully this will inspire those of you who find yourself in this situation and give you some options to consider.
Take the paths less traveled
Many designers aspire to work for the big brands, but so do hundred others. Competition tends to be fierce for these jobs and designers with very little experience tend to get no consideration.
Small brands need designers too. Have you considered them? I’ve seen jr. UX roles in finance app startup, behavioral health software enterprise, and most recently, a semiconductor company. These might not be the sexiest UX jobs on paper, but the jobs can be equally challenging, the pay can be just as good, and the co-workers could be just as fun. Perhaps most importantly, this gets you that relevant industry experience on your resume.
Create a job for yourself
Many startups run lean. At early stages they often don’t hire UX designers, but the need is still there. I recently had a student in my UX design bootcamp who runs his AI startup, and he took the class for this same reason — they need UX help, but didn’t have the skill nor the resource yet.
Find them at their co-working space happy hours or meet-ups. Introduce yourself and listen to their problems. Weave into the conversation how you can help them and see if they need pro bono or contractual help.
It’s great if you get paid financially for this but even if you don’t, you will get compensated in more than one way:
- You have potentially another case study to add to your portfolio (be sure to negotiate this with them up front),
- The possibility of follow-up projects that actually pay,
- Referrals. Leave them a great impression and they’ll think of you when their friends ask where they can find great UX designers, and
- Most importantly — that relevant industry experience on your resume.
Go where the jobs are
UX has become a pretty mature discipline in countries like the U.S., Canada, U.K, Germany, Australia, so naturally there are many UX opportunities to be found in these countries. Survey conducted by the nngroup (along with many similar surveys) gives a rough proxy for where the UX jobs are worldwide:
On the other hand, demand for UX skills has also been growing in countries like Spain, Singapore, China, Sweden, India and others, but the local talent pools for UX skills haven’t quite caught up to the demand. For this reason, companies in many of these countries could be more open to taking chances on designers with skills but less experienced.
If you have always had an itch to work abroad, this could be that “have your cake and eat it moment” in your career. Honing your craft in a country you enjoy traveling to, immersing yourself into the culture, and learning a new language can be really cool. Even more awesome is that you will also get to add that relevant industry experience on your resume.
For more articles like this from me, check out /stevenmadesigns.
