The Impossible Entry-Level Job Market

Part 1 — Introduction & Discontent

I’m what the industry calls a “junior.” We’re those people that fall into that weird 1- and 3-year career experience range. We’re the ones that are most likely kneeling at a hiring manager’s ankles at networking events and groveling for just a few seconds of their time.

It’s no secret that the industry is severely lacking people power. There are tens of thousands of UX jobs just waiting to be filled by people with more than 3 years of experience.

There are significantly fewer jobs for people with less than 3 years experience though. It’s a baseline expectation as a newbie that you’ll be lucky to get one response for every ten applications you send out. People with long-established careers might not realize or remember how much of a struggle it is.

It’s a full-time job to find a full-time job. But why is that true?

It Took A Long Time to Get Hired

The process lasted from April 2016 to March 2017, for many reasons. I was not good in interviews at first and I was losing most of my energy to a full-time soul-sucking job in tech support. In October, I went all-in on the career transition and moved to Austin, Texas for 12 weeks to attend a UX boot camp at General Assembly. From mid-January 2017 to March, I dedicated between 20 and 50 hours a week to landing my first design job.

I relied on recruiters, mentors, peers, friends, books, and my everlasting need for self improvement to land a job. When an offer finally landed in my inbox, it took a few days beforeI fully grasped that the hunt was over — after two decades of love for design, I was actually going to be a designer.

When it was all said and done, I sent out no less than 85 applications to 77 employers. Over the course of the 11 months, there was no end to the number of no-responses and 15 absolute no-thank-you’s.

I Made a Case Study of the Job Hunt

After a while, it was the best way to stay sane and stay somewhat sharp on my skills. Every successive interview I landed was a chance to iterate on my interpersonal skills, my presentations, and figure out how I could get a little closer to expressing my true self.

Everyone knows that interviews can be a very dehumanizing experience, so I worked to break out of that feeling. As it turns out, fighting my nerves and expressing my true thoughts on design was what brought me the best results, the most positive feedback, and ultimately, a job.

But there was so much to it beyond fighting nerves! The books, the feedback, the endless iteration, mentorship, insanity, and the beer and tacos! I had to break it apart in segments in order to make the job hunt make sense.

A Series to Pay It Forward

Over the next few posts, I’m going to talk about my experiences and perspectives as a newcomer to a hard-to-crack industry. I’ll share what worked for me, what didn’t, and what I did to change course.

This is also a way to engage other entry-level designers, hear how they’re tackling the job search, and form some thoughts to address the plight of the junior designer. More to the point, this helps me journal a very pivotal and hard-won time in my life.

I’m not here to tell anyone what to do, but I want to pay forward the endless help I had along the way. There is no end to the number of things I wished I knew months ago. If something I’m doing helps The Next Great Designer get their first job sooner, I’ll consider my struggle a success.

Stay tuned for Part 2!