Hello, all. I come from a heavy writing and content management background. 5 years experience as a copywriter and journalist, and currently a technical writer @ Facebook. I interviewed for a content strategy role at Facebook and received a lot of good feedback on areas where I need to gain more experience, i.e. UX. Does anyone have advice on best ways to gain UX experience to make me a more attractive candidate for a future in content strategy? Thanks in advance!
What do technical writers do at Facebook? Maybe your interviewers want to see more experience in copy for B2C customers... so I would see if any content teams need an extra hand, so that you can contribute to projects that will go live.
As an ex FB designer, my advice is as follows: 1) Talk to your designer and see if there is any feature / aspect of the work you do together that they will let you tinker with. Don’t expect to ship your design but think of this as a thought exercise. Get regular feedback from your designer. 2) Take some time to think about your favorite products and why they have good user experiences. Develop a vocabulary for good design - a kit of parts - and why you think it’s good. 3) If you don’t have access to designer - join a team for the the next hackathon and meet some designers and help them.
Thanks for your response—I appreciate the feedback. Unfortunately, I don’t know any designers outside of previous projects that my interviewer didn’t like. Part of me thinks I got a miserable interviewer, but that’s just me;) Would it be too forward to randomly message designers and ask for...I don’t know...help? Lol.
Sounds like a miserable interviewer. Your designer friends from previous projects are your best bet. Also talk to Content Strategists (Ella, Frank ... people who are good and care) get guidance. They are more of a community and can help.
Contact this Content Strategist called Andie Welfie at Adobe. He is ex FB, just wrote a book and may be able to guide you.
Thank you!
You sound plenty qualified to be a content strategist just about anywhere. If Facebook won't hire you into that position just go somewhere else. Go to a startup. You could write a bunch of content across a product instead of at big tech where you will likely be hyper focused. Don't worry about "UX" unless you want to design stuff. I work with a content strategist who could care less about visual design. That's why we make a great team. Put "Content Strategist" at Facebook on your resume and you aren't gonna have a hard time finding another job.
you have a great background. Maybe my suggestion is weird, but could you approach a local business and do their website / improve their website and add that to your behance portfolio ? I read some medium articles about how a very bare bones set of projects showcased on Behance / other platforms might be good to show your UX exp. I’ll post a link if I can find the article again.
I actually have, in my opinion, a pretty robust online portfolio that showcases big projects I’ve worked on. I’ve dabbled in design on previous projects, but my interviewer mentioned, “not enough.” I’ll see if I can find your mentioned articles on Medium. Thanks for your reply!