Would you consider web design / front-end dev experience relevant to total years of Product/UX Design experience?
New poster here, though I've been lurking for a couple of months and am grateful for all of the insight gained thus far.
The title says it all, but to provide some detail - I've been freelancing as a Product/UX/UI Designer for the last 5 years. Prior to freelancing, I worked as a Senior UX Designer for 5.5 years at a fairly large insurance company. This combo safely provides me 10 years of relevant experience.
However, I actually started my career in 2000 as a Designer / Front-end Developer hybrid. Mainly marketing websites - small to large scale, simple forms, custom WP theme development, etc. - basic agency type work. I worked that role for close to 12 years before shifting my focus solely to design.
I'm currently contemplating jumping back into full time employment and am spending a lot of time researching salaries on levels.fyi and similar sites to get a feel for my worth. I've been making an assumption that my total YOE is at 20+, but have started to question whether that's accurate or not. Any insight here?
#design #ui/ux #yoe
Levels.fyi - Compare career levels across companies
comments
What matters more than your years of experience is your quality of work, your product sense, leadership and drive, and how well you learn and adapt.
I’ve got several years of marketing design experience that definitely help what I do in UX (understand presenting to stakeholders, have worked on larger scale projects) but it’s not UX experience.