How I transitioned from Architecture to UX in a pandemic
By: Anjali Patel
Tags: Product Design, UX, Careers, User Experience Design, Architecture

How I transitioned from Architecture to UX in a pandemic

From job loss to landing my first UX role in 6 months: a collection of resources and insights that helped along the way Anjali Patel Follow Dec 27, 2020 · 6 min read

Step 1 : Processing job loss

Job loss is a story familiar to many, especially during the pandemic, I just didn’t think it would happen to me. The architecture industry was hit by the pandemic at large, clients were backing out of projects left and right. I was let go along with 20% of my company. Beyond the shock, I had to come to terms with not being able to see a project completed that I had poured countless hours into. It took a few weeks to digest and accept this reality. Cue the 5 stages of grief.

Step 2: Turning unemployment into an opportunity

Once the dust settled on being let go, my timeline on pursuing a career in UX suddenly had moved up. Thankfully I was not starting from scratch as I had been dabbling in UX on the weekends with Springboard’s free curriculum.

My interest in the field stemmed from my dissatisfaction with architecture as a profession. UX Design drew me in for it was different, but familiar. The beauty of UX is it shares many similarities to architectural design: the design process, coordination, designing within constraints, and more. The only real difference was an architects’ end product is a building while UX is digital. With this new direction, all that was left was how to execute my new path.

Step 3: Gauging what path was right for me

A few architecture friends of mine who transitioned to UX did it differently. Unlike architecture, UX traditional schooling (college/grad school) was not necessary. You have options:

Bachelor’s or Master’s in University ($$$$)

Join a bootcamp ($$$$)

Take an accelerated online course ($$$)

Teach yourself (Free)

Learn on the job (if you can land one)

Knowing this, I had to decide what was right for me. At first, I tried teaching myself, but what I quickly realized was even though design thinking came naturally, I needed more structure to learn UX programs. At the end of the day, I decided on Udacity’s UX Nanodegree Program, a 3-month part-time course, which opportunely offered a COVID-19 discount for unemployed individuals.

Step 4: Diving into learning

Normally, this UX course is completed in 3 months part-time, but I decided to tackle this program full-time. With dedication, I finished it in 20 days. For me, this course was perfect. It gave me the structure I needed to learn programs like Figma, the UX design process (similar to architecture, which wasn’t so bad!), and gave me a project at the end. This course not only helped me gain confidence in my transition, but also get a kickstart on my UX portfolio.

Step 5: Creating a portfolio

Portfolio References (from left to right): Carson Young, Olivia Truong & Timea Hopp

An architecture portfolio and UX are completely different. To understand what was typical for UX, I looked at other portfolios of people in the field. Here are a few insights:

A main difference between UX and architecture portfolios was UX puts heavy emphasis on helping the viewer understand their design process.

The ability to communicate their journey through defining the problem, conducting research, consolidating findings, developing iterations, and administering testing was a common presentation style for portfolios.

It was a summary of their skills and how they think through a problem.

Many architecture portfolios rarely dive this deep into a project. Given this stark difference, I had to start from square one and redo my website. As I already had a Squarespace account, I created my portfolio there (ps: a website portfolio is common place for applications, some will not accept a PDF from the 200+ job postings I looked at). Here are a few portfolios I referenced:

Step 6: Apply! Apply! Apply!

Once my portfolio was in a good place, I began to apply. It is important to note that even without a pandemic, it is notoriously hard to land your first UX job. Knowing this, I locked down several paths to landing one even without in-person networking and decided to try them all (the more the merrier, right?):

Recruiters (add them on LinkedIn and reach out!)

Digital recruiting services like Vettery

Cold applying (LinkedIn, Dribbble, Built-In NYC, etc.)

LinkedIn networking (adding recruiters from FAANG companies)

Reaching out to colleagues in-network who have transitioned themselves

& to keep up momentum, I applied to 3-4 jobs per day.

Step 7: Getting my 1st interview & absolutely bombing it

My first interview came 1 month into applying. This interview came from a Dribbble job posting. I found out later that they asked me to interview after seeing my iterative work from the daily UI challenge: a quick way to explore a variety of UI designs for different applications.

Even though getting my first interview was exciting, I instantly was hit by imposter syndrome. My lack of confidence influenced the interviewer negatively. They repeatedly questioned why I would transition from architecture to UX, finding it hard to believe. After that experience, I realized a big part of UX interviews is confidence and mine needed a lot of work.

Step 8: Learning from interviews & connecting with UX mentors

With each failed interview, I learned what I needed to improve. Instead of squandering these interview opportunities, I decided to be proactive and get feedback from people in the field. A UX designer recommended adplist, a database of UX professionals available for free mentorship. I made it a point to at least network with one individual in the field per week and talk about ways to improve, market myself, get presentation feedback, build confidence and review my portfolio.

These sessions really helped me hone in on what was missing and ways to improve my interview skills. Honestly without these critiques, I would not have been able to improve and eventually land a role.

Step 9: Progressively getting further through the interview process

Unlike architecture, the UX interview process is very involved. After applying, you have to get through the recruiter, then the hiring manager, then team members, prepare/present a project in-depth, partake in a design challenge, and pass the final interview.

With continuous iteration, improvement, networking, and applying, I eventually lined up several interviews in a given week. As time went on, I kept getting further in the interview process. A game changer was learning UX Jargon (I dive deeper into this in my article Beginner’s Guide to UX Acronyms).

Step 10: Landing a Job!

1 month of study, 2 months creating my portfolio, and 3 months of applying (200+ applications), I had finally gotten through and landed a job! Surprisingly, this job came from a cold call through LinkedIn. With this company every interview was a breeze, I clicked with team members, and they even opted out in giving me a design challenge, since they were confident I could do the job. Throughout this process, many mentors repeated this message: this process is hard, but when it works out, it just fits. And I finally get it.

I hope this gives you more insight into the process and can help all of you Architect-turned-UX Designers-to-be out there. Good luck!