The benefits of starting your UX career from a non-traditional background
Advice from a non-traditional candidate
I joined Airbnb’s social impact team as a UX researcher in March of 2018. At the time, I had no formal training or experience in UX. I joined the team with two years of policy research experience at Airbnb, two years of experience as a policy researcher in the US government, and a smattering of UN and World Bank internships. Needless to say, I was a little bit intimidated to be joining a product team, especially considering that most of the rest of the team had 4–6 years of product experience built during the early days at Airbnb. But I knew I had earned a very rare opportunity and I refused to let anything get in my way.
“What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” — Vincent van Gogh
I jumped right into the deep end and, with the help of a couple of phenomenal mentors, was able to swim. In fact, I quickly found that my nontraditional experience actually put me at an advantage and allowed me to bring a more nuanced and varied approach to conducting UX research.
Most tech companies in the Bay Area place a disproportionate amount of weight on one’s tenure within the company. Been here since Day 1? Employee…
