Should you Become a UX Designer or Front-End Developer? (Career Advice)

hey guys what's up my Kiryat thanks for tuning in to another video in this video I want to talk about whether or not you should become a UX designer or a front-end developer okay this question comes about for those of you who are about to reposition yourself in the job market you have a passion for both design some front-end development even maybe you're doing this in the freelance world or maybe you're at a job where you do a little bit of both but you look into the job market and you notice that you have to get specific and that is a fact you have to choose companies are looking for a highly skilled highly experienced UX designers companies are looking for a highly skilled highly experienced front-end developers let's talk about this I want to give you some facts and I'm gonna give you my opinions and I know why people are asking this question because around you you you kind of have this this feeling that and this happens in the tech world that front-end developers are in more demand they're more valued in the marketplace right you will get paid more let's talk about that but you have a passion for design right and you don't want to lose that right these are some hard core facts and these are some things that people deal with in short obviously I'm a UX designer but if you go back to my career I'm highly proficient in HTML CSS I've got it gone either way but I had to choose you do have to choose and the short answer is this if you dig down deep you know exactly which one outweighs the other put market value aside if you feel you love the passion of creating designing you probably should go that route in fact you do need to go that route that's my opinion if you feel you like getting under the hood you like the you like being valued in terms of like having you know being the person that actually created made this thing work like coding things JavaScript HTML CSS react and whatnot and that little bit outweighs the design side you need to go that route that's my opinion all right let's talk about this and so the truth is this here are the facts you're about to reposition yourself in the marketplace and you may be come to my videos and you know the pen I have the passion for UX design and you're like Mike I like both which one should I do the truth is this here's the facts the fact is front-end development is a more in demand skill because it is harder to achieve anytime you have a skill a skill set that's harder that's hard to replace that one's gonna be in high demand okay something that takes you a little bit more to become skilled at I mean not the average person and like no one can I mean it's really hard to become very very good at friend and development like HTML CSS and JavaScript that's a very in demand skill because it's hard to accomplish that if you can get the skill at doing that you will have you know you would be highly valued in the marketplace yes UX designers are highly valued but on average a friend and developer is in more demand than a UX designer I'll tell you well because of the skill set for every like one UX designer in a company you probably have three you know front-end developers for every you know you have two designers you probably have six developers working on a project right they're just and they're just a heavy need for front-end developers and on average a friend and developer will get paid more at face value for someone with five years experience doing UX design someone five your experience doing JavaScript the JavaScript person will probably get paid more guesstimating fifteen thousand more on average maybe twenty thousand more on average give or take that's just that's just the reality of the situation because it is harder to learn this it's harder to replace you know they're gonna pay you a little bit more so in the tech world that we live in San Francisco LA in India they value IT and technology a little bit you know more so than UX design right in all areas you're gonna get paid a little bit more for the technical skill of a friend and developer okay so that's the fact so if you're only concerned about hey getting paid $15,000 more on average between doesn't look more in the marketplace and being and and having a skill that is really hard to replace then front-end development is probably the thing for you I want you to decide I want you to go down the route that you really truly you know hopefully what I'm saying here helps you kind of make a decision now the flip side is this now get into some opinions probably some facts too but the opinion is or on the flip side is I've always overcame that difference in income through outside freelance work but most part designers UX designers UI designers are you you have an easier you have an easier time getting freelance work designing websites designing brochures or whatever right designers always have an easier way of obtaining freelance work and so I've always offset that that pay difference through freelance work I would do a full-time job as a UX designer that would make 15 20 30 40 the highest in my career I made freelancing on the side with my job was around fifty four thousand once where I had I obtained a customer I was working with them every single month so I made you know let's say I'm getting paid a hundred thousand dollars my job I'm making fifty thousand dollars outside of freelance work working on the weekends and stuff like that nights and weekends and you know that offset that difference in the marketplace the other side is this if you are someone and I would say this this is my opinion if though you understand you you're in a dilemma right you want to be highly valued marketplace but you have a passion for opening sketch or opening Adobe XD or opening Photoshop or opening figma and actually designing the screens if that is a passion of yours even though it might not be something in me you have a passion for that you need to go the UX designer route because I chose to go that route because if you chose a front-end development route you're going to be it's more specific in my it's more specific it's more detailed right you're you're focused on writing code you're focused on writing you know getting the right syntax and things like that you're not going to scratch that itch on that design site if you focus here the the UX design side you have more of a voice at the table alright the reality is the customers see the end result the business leader sees the end results although they know we need front-end developers or resources to accomplish this stuff to get this stuff working they see the end results who or who the guys who the the guys and girls that go up there and speak on these products are the product owners or the leaders of that design team and things like that right they have more of a voice a more of opinion at the table in terms of even embarking upon this project right and that's a simple fact I've always am very boisterous obviously I talk a lot on my YouTube videos and so I have an opinion about things right whereas designers or engineers are more structured or more positioned in you know hey within this sprint do this amount of work right whereas designers it's more overlooking the whole eye the whole concept of the project you know kind of figuring out how this is all going to work from the end customers point of view and things like that right you just have more of a say right that always favored me even early on I just had more I would I started off as a graphic designer so I knew I just favored more aesthetics than being specific also if you're like me they could your surroundings are you more concerned about specific details of things or are you just focus on the essential overall overall him goal like I don't care about you know like I'm just not specific like that you go around I have a TV I don't care what type of what the specs have as long as it works it looks good my car I just care more about the aesthetics the the I'm getting a new car the guy wants to talk to me about the engine and stuff I'm like I already know the brand the car works just I want these wheels you know I want this look and feel on the car right I'm more about the aesthetics of of something rather than the nook and cranny of the details right but if you are that detailed person then you know friend and development might be your passion it might be your line of work right also I think friend and develop our design the design side you have like you're more on the creative side you have one leg out in terms of if you want to embark in other things you want to get more you know obviously I do more creative stuff by you know I do blog I want to branch out into digital marketing then things like that and so I'm more concerned about the end goal rather than specifics and so I think design kind of lend itself towards that as well in my opinion but at the end of the day you know obviously you have one outweighs the other in terms of pay and you know but they're both highly valued in the marketplace but at the end of the day you do have to choose you do have to choose one way or another because it is almost impossible for you to become highly proficient in both at the same time I'm oh it's almost like if you're missing this conversation over here this UX design conversation on on customer limitation that customer pain points and things like that or if you're over here discussing that you're missing you know recreating this problem and figuring out how this JavaScript error is how to fix this particular error right if you're over here focus on characters and syntax and in JavaScript filing and reacting things react native and all that stuff you're missing this conversation over here it's you have to focus on this one to become highly skilled at this you have to focus on this it's something a small percentage of people unicorns that are highly skilled at both and so I think you do have to go down one path having said all that salespeople are more value than any position because if it wasn't for salespeople if they didn't acquire the customers to actually use your products we wouldn't all have jobs so in any kind but you work with the salespeople are actually the more that's why they get paid the most but having said that you do have to choose and so in my training course if you want to learn about actually this is one of the principles I talk about when I talk about positioning yourself for success as a UX designer you have to focus on a discipline and choose one if you want to learn more about this video click on that link right there visit my site in my yolks Academy click on the link on the homepage just that's free lesson in that lesson I go over five things that you need to focus on in order to become successful in UI UX design and learn more about the things that I teach and you know maybe you're interested in going down the path of UX design you can learn it there at my website you click on the link in the description as well anyway hopefully this was helpful give you my opinion get you my thoughts give you some food for thought on which way you should go gave you some facts and some opinions hopefully you can make a decision alright thanks for watching guys as always hit me up in the comments below if you want to send me an email visit my site in Malek's Academy and use the contact link on that site to ask me a questions I'll be happy to answer it for you talking about this [Music]

Channel: Mike Locke

Views: 108,882

Keywords: UX Design, UI Design, Front-End Development, UX Designer, UI Designer, Coder, Tech Industry, Career Advice, Learn UX, Learn UI, Learn Product Design

Id: 4K6hauan2qU

Length: 13min 20sec (800 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 13 2018