5 bits of advice for Product Designers just starting out
By: Jenna Newton
Tags: Design, User Experience, Careers, Advice, Market Yourself

Starting out in UX design can be difficult. Especially as time goes on, bootcamps are churning out more and more competition into the workplace, and it’s becoming more and more difficult to find that first job.

Any combination of things can be standing in your way. Many companies, after interviewing multiple bootcamp grads, have decided that they are all lacking in the same way and have stopped even giving the chance to interview. And, of course, there’s the chicken and egg problem that requires you to have real world work experience, which is hard to come by when no one will even let you interview for a job, let alone hire you for one.

It’s not an easy position to be in. It takes real tenacity and perseverance to make it over that first hump. But, once you do, it gets a lot easier.

In order to help, I have compiled a list of 5 bits of key advice to help you land that first job. This is not a guarantee, but I do hope it provides you with some insight.

1. You don’t know everything, so go out and learn

Photo by mohamed hassan form PxHere

Technology and design are fields that constantly change and evolve. It is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting things about being a UX designer. You will never know everything.

Especially when you are starting out.

No matter your training, if you are just starting out in design not only do you have a ton to learn about the practice of design, but you still have not solidified your own fundamentals. Your teachers have given you tools and processes of design, but you have yet to apply them in a real life scenario.

This is frustrating to you. You have applied them in projects of your own; school or otherwise. The key difference between hypothetical and real world applications of design is that not all real world projects will check all of the design process boxes. Some will have been checked for you. Some are on tight deadlines that prohibit you from taking all the steps that you would usually prefer to take. Some don’t have the budget for the kind of research you need. More often than not you will have to work with less than. You will have to make compromises constantly. You will have to pick your battles and know how to win the ones you choose.

Designing for a hypothetical project is like designing in a vacuum with monopoly money. The key to success is revisiting the fundamentals of design process. Why do you create personas? What kind of information does it provide, and why is that important? How does it influence your design?

I have seen portfolios where the designer has checked all the boxes for no other purpose than to show that they did. One in particular featured personas with very specific demographics like gender and age. When asked why he collected that specific data and how he applied it, he became very flustered and said that he was not sexist.

In the case of his product, age and gender were not important. These can be useful demographics to capture in certain cases, but in this case they weren’t. All it did was show us that he did not truly empathize with his users. He did not respect the diversity of his clientele and applied the demographics simply because someone told him that is was good design practise to do so.

This is just one example of the ways in which we can better educate ourselves and hone our design practise, especially when starting out. Read books, blogs and portfolios, and always remember to ask questions. Challenge your ideas and the ideas of others so you can better understand yourself as a designer.

2. Be confident in your skills

Photo by mohamed hassan form PxHere

You have spent most of your life developing your skill set. You, my friend, are a skilled individual. You have a method of approaching a complex problem that is completely personal to you.

Know your skills. Own your skills.

You may just be starting out in design, but you have a background already. Whether that is school, or work experience in a different field, you have been learning and growing every day of your life. Now you have to ask yourself: how do my existing skills translate to design?

I was an actor before I was a designer. Most people think that that is a large leap to make, but what they don’t understand is the nuanced ways in which acting and design are similar.

As an actor, I needed to intimately understand a character. I needed to know who they were, what were their dreams and what were their faults. I had to empathize with them, even if they were completely different from me. I had to take that knowledge and find a way to communicate it to an audience.

Sound familiar?

These skills translate well when I am trying to understand my users. But more than that, they help me when I work on a team. When I am collaborating with another designer, or developer, or project manager I can use my existing skill set to communicate and collaborate effectively.

Now that’s not something I learned in a bootcamp.

I also had existing skills in problem solving, public speaking and writing. These are all skills that make me a better designer.

No one knows you better than you. What are you good at? Break that down into its parts. How can those skills translate to design?

3. You know your skills, so what’s your specialty?

The infamous ‘T’ shaped designer

Now that you know what you’re good at and how it translates to design, you can leverage it to market yourself. Use that knowledge as ammo. It’s what’s going to make you stand out from your peers.

When a company is hiring, they are generally looking for someone to bridge a gap in their workforce. They know what their team needs, and you may or may not be the right person. But how will they ever know if you’re the right person if they know nothing about your true strengths?

Process is important. How you approach a design challenge is important. But your personal areas of expertise and skill is the difference between a maybe and a yes.

For me, it’s communication. My skills in empathy, speaking and writing make me a stellar communicator. That’s how I got my first job. My client was beginning an ambitious project and there was a major communication gap between himself and his developers. I marketed myself as a good communicator, was able to prove it to him when we spoke, and because of that I won my first freelance contract.

This works for any number of skills. Whether you are a great artist, have a keen business mind or speak multiple languages, there is a company out there looking for someone like you. The key is to help them find you.

4. Uplift your portfolio

Photo by form PxHere

I’m sure you’ve heard it before, and I’m here to say it again:

You are a UX designer. Apply your skills in UX as you design your portfolio.

Ask yourself the same questions that you would ask yourself at the beginning of any new project. Who are you designing for? What information do they need? Where would they expect to find that information? Why do they need to know that information? How might you give them what they need effectively?

When I was first starting out, I reached out to design leaders at some of my favourite companies. I wanted to pick their brains about their design teams and the future of design, and I wanted them to get the chance to speak with me. I knew, as I searched fruitlessly for my first permanent job, that if someone would just agree to speak with me that they would see that I had so much to offer.

I met with one such individual, a director of design at a company in downtown Toronto. He brought me into his office and we chatted for a while about the company and his design team. I asked about the structures of work and the hiring processes at his company. After speaking with me for a bit, he suggested we look over my portfolio so he could provide feedback.

At the time I had seen many portfolios feature stylish cards with screenshots of the subject product edited onto a desktop or a mobile screen. On hover the card would reveal the name of the case study. I had copied a similar design into my portfolio, thinking that if it was working for them, it would work for me.

I never stopped to ask why someone would want to click on a case study. What would compel someone to sift through paragraphs of information without first knowing what they would get out of it?

This flaw was pointed out to me in that meeting. He suggested that I include some information up front about what skills the case study featured. What would he learn about me and my process?

That information was within my power to give long before someone decided to actually read my case studies. Better than that, providing that information in a user friendly way would improve the scalability of my portfolio. It would allow me to call out my strengths so the right employer would have an easier time finding me.

Just like a project never feels completely done, your portfolio is never finished either. There are always improvements that can be made. Check out other portfolios and see what people are doing. Ask yourself what you like and don’t like about their design choices. Use your skills in feedback and design critique. Learn to recognize patterns that look good on the surface, but that undermine the user experience.

User experience design your portfolio. Answer the questions I laid out above. And, most importantly, answer them in a way that tells people who you are, what kind of designer you are, and what kind of designer you aspire to be.

5. Why not freelance?

Photo sourced from iStock

I mentioned in an earlier section that my first job was freelance. When I graduated from my bootcamp, I was ready to hit the ground running. I sent out so many cover letters, I had a folder on my computer full of the versions I had sent out to different companies. My portfolio went through two full redesigns. I wanted to work. I felt qualified. I had a valuable skill to offer, and no one was going to tell me that I wasn’t good enough.

So, I set up an Upwork account. I wasn’t the only one from my bootcamp cohort to try this, but where my peers were labeling themselves as beginners and being gated from joining the Upwork community, I labeled myself as an intermediate designer.

I want to be clear: I did not, at any point, claim to be able to do work that I was not able to do. I never marketed skills that I did not have. I knew my worth, and I was going to prove it.

I was allowed onto Upwork, and I created a very vague profile. I continually lost out on contracts until I realized that my profile wasn’t marketing to my strengths. Shortly after shifting the focus of my profile to highlight myself as a great communicator, I won my first contract.

Freelance work can come by many different avenues. I chose Upwork, but I had friends that won work by word of mouth, and some who reached out to specific small businesses that they felt they could help.

The point is that you have something unique to offer. If you know what that is, you can position yourself to find work that fits your skill set. It’s not just about being a great designer and knowing your standard design processes. Design whenever you can, always be learning, and never give up on yourself.

Be tenacious. Be unapologetic. Someone out there is looking for a designer just like you. You just have to make it easy for them to find you.