UXer at bank - aiming for FAANG+, doing side projects worth it?
My portfolio consists of drab 0 to 1 enterprise products that I helped take from one line ideas to shipped products. I have worked as a lean UX team of one. Keep getting radio silence from FAANG+, and my guess is that my projects are too straightforward and with no mobile, VR, deep UXR studies etc. I am thinking of doing side projects to fill these gaps but hear conflicting opinions from my friends and colleagues. That these side projects do not count primarily because they do not demonstrate real world constraints. The only firms to entertain me are investment banks who find my experience in the domain a valuable thing. Have not been able to get a tech company to take me seriously. Base: USD 167k Bonus: No clue yet Location: Dallas YoE: design 3, masters and 2.5 as dev #design #ux #uxdesigner #facebook #Netflix #amazon #amazonaws #google #apple #microsoft #atlassian #faang
I do think side projects help, provided you add the caveat you mentioned about the lack of real world constraints. One way to account for that is to simulate what the constraints might be, and detail how you’d work around them
I am chilling on the side projects for a bit now. Instead going with Bloomberg's suggestion to partner with someone with an idea. Can you share from your personal experience a time when you evaluated a portfolio with a side project?
Right on, actually implementing an idea will force you to contend with those real world constraints. Tbh I don’t do much evaluating of portfolios, but earlier in my career my own portfolio was quite side project heavy and it got a steady progression of roles that led to my current job
Well i cant even get fintechs like Square and Paypal to sniff at my resume. #2 is a long play and #3 is an option I am considering. Interesting suggestion on #1, will explore. I don't mind a pay cut, good to have company in my misery.
Gotta expand your horizons and look outside of FAANG+. Have someone look over your resume and portfolio and see if you come across too bank-y.
In the same position but agency side, working with banking + loans companies. I'm afraid that when I want to switch jobs in a couple months I'm going to have trouble finding one. Care to share some insight on your experiences designing for banks + fintech? And if you had time, would you mind taking a look at my portfolio?
Sure thing. My main challenge is lack of designing for high volume user base - like making a consumer product. Because most of my work is B2B with a user base of 50ish, cant have fancy graphs or quant impact.
I think it’s valuable, at least for the mobile part. Or you could try to get in touch with folks with an idea and build it for free/for cheap and then there are real constraints. Good luck! I have dealt with the same thing where only investment firms are interested and tech firms it feels like an uphill battle
Thanks Ill try to find an arrangement like this or do something creative for an NGO that needs it