UX designers make just as much and dont have to grind leetcode, deal with tough technical challenges, be on call, work long hours, etc.
They still have tough interviews, it's just not coding interviews. I would get bored doing their job, and wouldn't do it as well as I do my job. I have no idea if they make as much short-term or long-term.
Oh yeah our interviews are just as long. For google I had to present my past work and present a take home assignment (that I worked 12+ hours on) to a large panel. Then I had 3 whiteboard ux challenges (they present a scenario and you have to work through it). Another behavioral interview. And one “technical” where they asked about tools/working with devs etc. Facebook requires you to do presentation. A whiteboard challenge. An app critique. And a behavioral interview with a manager. Most companies was presentation + take home assignment. 4-5 one on one or two on one interviews.
That kinda sounds like a pm interview. At least you can draw on your experience for those whiteboard challenges and design that scenario just like you would if you were asked to work on it. With software interviews, it’s all about pulling algorithms out of your ass and solving impractical puzzles.
Oh god no. I’d kill myself.
Or go home to your wife at 4 pm knowing you have no work for the rest of the day.
Nope. Kill myself.
Engineers still make more... I don't know what you're talking about.
I’ve seen plenty of posts where ux designers make as much as engineers.
Janitors make more.
Can UX designers reach Don Draper status? I can picture presenting a design like Don Draper lol.
Maybe! But it's a very small number that have name recognition.
Oh, you meant Don Draper presentation style? That's like the cherry on top of the hours of criteria gathering, user research, design iterations, prototyping, user testing, let alone more hours spent socializing your design with stakeholders to get buy-in.
If switch to Johny Ive job. But not generic ux designer.
Design has its own kind of grind, challenges, and pains. Also less head count per org compared to SWEs because you don’t need as many designers.
That's a nice idea for a movie: swe wakes up after Halloween and figures he is actually a ux designer
You don’t have to grind leetcode but you do have to prepare a portfolio and work on take home assignments. It took me a year of off/on work to get my portfolio case studies up to par. Also UX design is competitive as heck especially lower levels. That being said I’m freaking glad I don’t have to do leetcode or math problems and wouldn’t trade it for anything. And there’s almost never any ux/design emergencies.
After you’re a seasoned ux designer with a good portfolio, there’s not much you have to do I assume. As a seasoned developer, all that matters is your interview performance on things that are completely irrelevant to your job and it doesn’t really get any easier.
If you keep your portfolio up to date sure. But usually you have a lot to do to make it up to par with all the changes happening in the industry. You can’t have things from a few years ago because it’s out of date now. It’ll still probably take you a few months to write your case studies. I agree though, as a seasoned designer I don’t have to remember shit from college. Everything is pretty much what I do on a day to day basis. You do have to do a lot of presentations and take home assignments though. I’ve had to give presentations in every one of my onsites. As well as presentation video calls before the onsites. Take home assignments generally take about a week to complete if you work full time. Everyone says they want you to work 6-8 hours on it but having been through multiple onsites that’s bullshit. They want you to spend a f ton of work on it. Then you have to make a presentation and write up of all you did for the take home.