How I became a UX designer with no experience

maybe you're like me terrified of the work week not motivated in your job Sunday scaries sound familiar at all well 5 years ago that's exactly where I was in this video I want to talk about how I transitioned from having no design experience to becoming a fully-fledged uiux designer at a top tech company in London all within 6 months I don't want to paint unrealistic expectations here this kind of career transition is not easy and it does take work and determination but if you have the right Ambitions and this is something that you want it absolutely can be done and I want to talk about some of the tools and techniques that I use to get there and how you can too so let's jump in okay so let's back up a bit you might be thinking why the pivot and why the transition in the first place it might seem self-explanatory based on the Sunday scaries that I was talking about but doing something with no experience jumping into it head first it's pretty scary so the why is actually really important and for me that why was I didn't want to roll out of bed in the morning and hate myself I wanted to know that there was more out there than just getting up for a 9 to5 that I dreaded every day the bottom line is I wanted to like my job and I don't think that that is something that most of us should have to beg for the way that you get there is by chasing the little things that make you happy I really just started designing by accident and I loved doing it so much I just decided to chase that small feeling of happiness and make something more out of it sounds simple enough right well it's not that simple but we'll talk about some of the complications and how to overcome those so I want to address this if anybody is telling you that you can roll over in bed and slap some designs together without any experience to become a designer in a couple of months they're lying to you or they're a genius and I really want to get to know them but the reality of this is that making a career transition especially into something that you don't have any experience in you can't just snap your fingers and make it happen I wish that was the case but like with anything in life worth doing it does actually take some Drive commitment and some effort to get there so the why that I was talking about earlier it's actually really important because you're going to need to remember that why as you're going through some of the ups and downs that come with a career transition being able to refer back to those reasons can actually be a really powerful way to stick to what you're doing maybe write down three or four of the reasons why you may be considering this kind of career change and this kind of pivot you might be referring back to those in a couple of months when you're saying why did I watch that video that Leander did those affirmations those can bring you back I'll give you a little hint if it's just about money it might not be enough for you ux design is not a get-rich quick scheme yes it does pay well but just getting a job takes time and then you still need to work your way up so it actually does help to like design now back to my own experience when I was actually starting to consider turning this into a full-time job sure I'd done a couple of weeks of Photoshop and some figma and helped my mom design her website but was that enough to make a full-time career transition I had a lot of questions when I started deliberating about whether or not I wanted to do this was it even possible with no experience were other people like me trying to do the same thing how long was it going to take what would my job prospects be if I got a job what would my career longevity look like like I Googled talked to my parents friends friends of friends and I tried to talk to people that were in the industry by reaching out and yes I watched a lot of YouTube videos weird how it all comes full circled like that but anyway let's talk about some of the answers to those questions number one was it possible yes it absolutely is possible to become a uxui designer with no experience you have to get the experience but there are absolutely ways to do that without having been employed as a uxui designer previously so the answer to question number two is there anyone else like me out there doing this yeah there are plenty of people out there doing this in fact statistics show that there are thousands of new ux designers joining the industry on a yearly basis so trust me you're not alone in terms of how long it would take well this part really depends on you it depends on how much time that you have to give transitioning into a discipline like uxui design with no experience is really going to take anywhere between 3 and 12 months just depending on the person the situation the circumstances and how much time you have to dedicate to learning a new craft and learning a new skill once you actually get there and you start interviewing for roles job prospects and career longevity again these largely depend on you and they depend on circumstances like the job market the openings around you but looking for a job it's always going to be tough interviewing is its own skill maybe you've done interviews for jobs plenty of times and you'll be great at it maybe you have to learn a little bit about how to interview first and so I can't promise that you're going to graduate from a boot camp or a program or teach yourself have one job interview and then land a roll but I can promise you that the more you do this the better you'll get at it and the higher your chances will be of Landing a job regarding longevity as a ux designer it's definitely gotten a little bit more complicated in the last year with big Tech layoffs however industry statistics show that the ux design job market is only set to grow about 20% over the course of the next 6 s years and no AI is not about to steal your job I worked for an AI company and I still work there so I think I'll be fine and so will you now that we've covered those questions let's talk about the two actual things you'll need in order to get hired as a ux UI designer the first one is a portfolio now your portfolio is your key in the door it is the way that you're going to start having conversations with hiring managers get their interest and the way that you're going to stand out to recruiters you need to actually be able to show that you can use uxui methodologies to come up with Solutions and to come up with designs that solve real world problems this doesn't mean that you need to have a ton of projects for actual companies and actual clients you can absolutely use hypothetical scenarios the important thing is that you show you understand what uxui design is about and that you can use the tools and methods within the uxui umbrella to solve problems and to come up with designs that improve a user's experience what really helps when putting a portfolio together is using real companies as templates you could redesign spotify's home screen to make it easier for someone to create an account redesign Amazon's checkout flow to make it easier for someone to actually pay for their stuff and complete their order the list goes on the point is you need a portfolio to be taken serious as a candidate in this job market the other thing that you need is expertise in a design software now I don't care what anybody tells you the only design tool worth learning these days is figma yes I know there are other ones like Adobe sketch whatever they're not as good as figma if anybody has a problem with figma that's fine just subscribe to the channel leave a like and post in your comment why you think there's a better tool out there and I'll respond to it as soon as I can whatever design tool it is you end up learning you need to showus that you can use this tool to actually do design work and this will probably happen quite naturally as you put a portfolio together it's going to be the thing that you use every day at your job so showing that you know how to use it is pretty necessary I'm going to talk about a third thing that I think everyone needs when they try to break into this market and to be honest anyone that's looking for a job period can make use of this and that is having a foot in the door what I mean by that in a nutshell is knowing somebody that can vouch for you as a person as a candidate as an employee knowing someone that already knows you and that works at the company that you're interviewing for will be a massive leg up on everyone else that is interviewing there maybe you go to networking events you have a friend that works at the company that you're interested maybe they have a friend that works at the company you're interested in people are surprisingly willing to help and if you reach out chances are someone's going to be willing to have a conversation with you the reason I bring up this third point is because the only reason I got my first uxui job is because I met the hiring manager for that job at a networking function I shook his hand I said hello I made a good first impression and that's how I got my interview I don't know if that's why I ultimately got the job but I don't know if I would have gotten the interview if I hadn't met him at that networking function I'm not even sure I would have known that he was hiring for a role so using your network can be an extremely valuable asset when you're looking for your first job or really any job so now that we've covered the two ideally three things that everybody needs let's talk about some of the ways that we can actually get those tools and the first one that we're going to cover by far the most conventional is a design boot camp now you've probably heard of this before but if you haven't a design boot camp is essentially like going back to school sounds fun right and a boot camp is essentially 3 to 12 months of you learning everything there is to know about the basics and Foundations of ux UI design now there are a lot of boot camps out there I'm not going to go into any of them in depth in this video but there are some things to consider when you're doing your research on boot camps and I'll post a link in the description below about the top 10 boot camps that are outlined in a Forbes article each one comes with their own pros and cons and set of trade-offs so it really just depends on what's valuable to you and some of those things that I want to mention are how do you learn best do you like to learn in person do you prefer the flexibility of learning online do you want to be paired with a one-on-one Mentor somebody that you can meet with on a weekly basis that gives you feedback that informs the choices that you're making and helps you get better do you prefer primarily video teaching or reading all of these things are important to consider when you're evaluating these different boot camps and the other one that is quite crucial that I actually didn't think about when I was applying for boot camps I wish I had that is boot camps that come with hiring Partners now some boot camps will actually partner with companies like Google Facebook Uber they will make it easier for you to get interviews at those companies if you graduate uate those boot camps successfully now Boot Camp is the route that I chose I'll talk a little bit about why that is the main reason why I wanted to do a boot camp is because I wanted to structure a curriculum laid out for me to acquire the basics and the fundamentals and uxui design that I needed in order to put my portfolio together the other thing that I wanted was the assurance that other people had gone through the same process the same boot camp and had gotten jobs after it it was just really helpful to know that other people had been in my shoes and had come out successful now the downside of doing a boot camp comes down primarily to financial situation boot camps regrettably aren't free and they'll cost you anywhere between 2,000 and $20,000 depending on the one that you pick now I know not everyone is in that financial situation where they can afford a boot camp like that which brings us to Method two and that is being selftaught this route is arguably a little bit less conventional and a little bit more complicated because you have to hold yourself accountable but there are a ton of resources available on YouTube Google there are free courses available that teach you the basics and the foundation of uxui design and remember you don't need a diploma from a boot camp to get a job what you need is those two things that we talked about earlier in the video portfolio and Showcase of your skills with a design tool and that's it if you can acquire those things by teaching yourself the resources are at your disposal I actually know plenty of people who have gone the self-taught route and become uxui designers without going through UK it might take a little bit longer or it might be a bit more of a winding path but it's a perfectly viable solution if you don't have the financial capabilities or if that's just your preferred method of learning and now the Third vehicle that I want to talk about kind of complements the other two vehicles and that is doing unpaid work as a uxui designer or getting an unpaid internship it doesn't necessarily even have to be unpaid some of these methods might pay as well but there are plenty of people out there and small companies out there that need design help and they can't afford to hire a more senior uxui designer they're constantly on the lookout for help that is cheaper and also eager to learn and the reason that I bring up this third method is because this actually happened to me while I was going going through my design boot camp I was hired through a friend of a friend to help somebody redesign their website this was a really lucky situation for me and another example of why you should really use your network but more importantly it was a great way for me to apply what I was learning to a real world situation and it enabled me to put a project together that I was then able to put into a portfolio now maybe you don't have a friend of a friend of a friend but chances are if you put yourself out there you post on your LinkedIn that you're available to help out you post on your social media that you're available or you ask your mom or your dad if they have any friends that need help redesigning their website or their landing page or their mobile application there are people out there looking and if you don't put yourself out there you won't find them so put yourself out there and that's really it now I just want to leave you guys with this thought W isn't just a straightforward road you can go down this road if this is something that you want and if you're genuinely interested in becoming a designer it'll come with its fair share of ups and downs and so remembering why you went down this road in the first place is important but just know know that I was once where you're sitting I had no idea what I was doing I didn't know if it would ever happen but I can tell you that where I was I like my job so much more now than I did and it's all thanks to taking that initial step towards figuring out what it takes to make this kind of career transition so if you've made it to the end of the video congrats you're one step closer to making that an actuality if you have any other questions about this process or uxui design or anything in general post below in the comments I'll do my best to get to them and I'm planning on making a lot more content like this so if you have any other video ideas whether it's interview advice scaling up as a uxui designer getting better at the craft more resources for being self-taught you name it post below and I'll try to incorporate them in a future video for now I wish you guys all the best of luck and until next time see you later

Channel: Leander Angst

Views: 13,086

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Id: K0j66NxChQM

Length: 12min 48sec (768 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 15 2024