Hey Blind! Any career insights on the below would be so helpful. Alternatively, would also love to hear how you got your foot in the door w/ your design career. Backstory: Graduated with a B.S. in Business and went into Operations / Sales Administration.. Recently went back to school for a 6mo part time (while working FT) UX Bootcamp through UC Berkeley, which I completed in Aug ‘18. I quit my job in Ops shortly after this to focus on making the transition a reality. Two weeks later I landed a 1mo contract with Salesforce (via a recruiter, via an agency). Today: Since then, I’ve been interviewing pretty aggressively and have been through quite a few interview circuits now. I’ve made it to final rounds on multiple occasions, but never get the job. Typically, the roles I’ve made it the furthest with have been a 3yr min experience req., and even though I make it to the end, it’s always the same feedback: lack of experience. In the interim (while interviewing), I’ve been picking up small contracts to build experience and keep growing my skill set - but I really feel like I’m missing something.. Or is this normal? As a “career transitioner” I’m closed off to a lot of internship opps and living in the Bay Area, from what I’ve seen, Jr roles are slim. I’ve even interviewed for out of state roles but the results have been the same. Any advice, referrals, tips, or guidance would be super appreciated. Thanks in advance!
If interested in referrals for Amazon, DM me.
Agree with the comment above, portfolio is super important. Ask someone to review it for you for feedback. Continue to hone your skills and get that experience.
Thanks! From your experience (or what you’ve seen), what’s the typical experience level for entry UX or Product Design roles? Or would you say it’s more on the quality of work (and how that might affect years of experience)?
Your portfolio should have at least a couple projects (can be from school, or a gig). Show your process, make it straightforward and clearly show your design work (ideally it’s pretty solid and you have prototypes if possible). Years of experience matter less I’d say. As a junior designer, if you have solid work or show potential it doesn’t matter that much. Conversely, when one says they have many years of experience, I would expect a higher quality and larger scope of work.
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your portfolio is super important. Make sure you a few cade studies explaining your process. Also, how are your visual and interaction design skills?
Thanks! I have 4 case studies currently and have gotten pretty good feedback on it (tough when building work that’s concept only though - which is 2/4 of my case studies). Actually a product design manager @ Yelp even reached out directly. It’s currently on Wix though, so I do think it would help to move it (thinking webflow). Any thoughts there? Visual design & UI are pretty strong from feedback I’ve received but definitely continuing to build interaction skills / experience. Any recs on IxD resources that you like?