UX: Why & How?
After writing my first article about my experience as a graduated student in UX Design Program, I received lots of feedback from my friends and many others. This motivated me to write more on this subject as I find this as some sort of self-reflection.
Why UX?
For those who are new or unfamiliar with the field, the question might come to mind… why seek a job in user experience?
Why would someone want to go into the UX field, especially if they’re already an expert in other areas?
Many career transitioners are seeking more creative jobs. UX is more in-demand as lucrative as ever. Whatever your reason for exploring a career path in UX, I admit that the transition is not easy.
Benefit 1: The UX field accepts many transferable skills from other fields — strategy, business analysis, communications, marketing — you get it.
When I started my research before my leap, I found that I actually didn’t have to choose between my interests.
You most certainly can find many relationships between what you’ve been doing as your previous profession, and what you’ll be doing in UX field.
Benefit 2: You get to choose your industry.
The defacto modern business is online, whether it’s a digital product or e-commerce shop. From the smallest start-ups to the huge corporate giants, UX is needed.
You could work for a small online grocery start-up or a well-established international company that produces healthcare tools. I call this freedom as you’re not limited to a certain industry. Sky’s the limit!
And these are basically the reasons why I fell in love with UX! ❤️
How to get started in UX?
Many people choose the path to self-educate themselves using countless resources on the internet. There are YouTube videos, online courses, articles, books, podcasts… you name it. Mike Locke and Sarah Doody are two of my favorite YouTubers.
Additionally, attending various meet ups, conferences, different mentoring programs and workshops are also great ways to gain more knowledge as well as experience and networking opportunities.
For more old-fashioned people such as myself who’d prefer more academic settings, college and university courses are available to get more hands-on learning experience.
You can opt to go for a short program like mine, or longer ones that would take anywhere between 2 to 4 years, depending on how much time you’re willing to invest.
Okay… then what?
When it finally comes to finding a job, it really doesn’t matter which path you take as long as you can prove to the employer that your skills, vision and thought process are well-aligned with theirs.
The other crucial thing that you’d need is patience (lots of it!).
My advice is to make as many connections you can anywhere possible, because no matter where you end up, you’d never know when one of your connections can come to your rescue.
It can be hard work, but maintaining your connections (even if it’s following up multiple times over email) is often the tactic that separates successful job seekers.
I hope this helps those who are at the verge of making a decision to pursue a career in UX.
Just keep your eyes on your goal and move towards it. You’ll get there! 😊
