How to break into the UX industry, land a job, and keep your sanity

Or at least… what I did on my job hunt.

Source: http://www.davidepaterniti.com/uploads/2016/04/28/ux-design.jpg

I just landed my first full-time role as a UX Designer in Denver, CO and officially closed my job search. I began my job search after completing General Assembly’s UX Design Immersive course in San Francisco this past May. This was a complete career switch, coming from the environmental non-profit world. After countless coffee meetings, informational interviews, phone screens, in-person interviews, and design challenges, I wanted to share my most valuable lessons learned from the past 2 months of job searching. I’m not an expert, by any means, but I hope that these lessons help you in your own search!

To all my fellow job hunters, I know how HARD job hunting is. It sucks. It’s you constantly putting yourself out there. It’s dealing with rejection and navigating through weird negotiation dances. It’s frustrating and excruciating. And why wasn’t this something we learned in school!?

But fear not! The magical secret to landing a job?

HUSTLE + POSITIVE CONFIDENCE + PATIENCE.

If you keep in mind these three elements through all stages of your job hunt, you will be putting your best foot forward.

Now let’s see what this actually looks in the job hunt process below:

Getting the interview

NETWORKING

If you’re like me, you may literally shudder at the word “networking”. Immediately I think of going to an event filled with important people I don’t know and trying to desperately convince someone to give me a job. PASS.

It doesn’t have to be that horrible. Here are tips to approach networking:

1. Find events that you are actually interested in. Shocker, right? But going to interesting events guarantees that you’ll actually learn something new.
2. Do informational interviews over the phone or at coffee shops. If you’re an introvert like me and dislike speaking up in crowds, ask people out to coffee. Very rarely do people say no, especially when I mention that I’m new to the design scene and looking to learn more. People love talking about themselves. So approach each coffee date as a chance to learn more about them — their interests, their job, their favorite things to read, their favorite events to attend. And finally, at the end of the conversation (yes, conversation NOT interrogation!), turn the spotlight to you. Ask them if they would be willing to look over your resume or portfolio. Ask them if they can connect you with 3 other folks in the design community. Ask if there’s any opportunities they know about for UX designers like yourself. Expect each meeting to take around 30 minutes! And of course, send a follow up thank you email afterwards.
3. Find interesting companies and reach out to staff members. A lot of the time, I’d find agencies or companies that I thought were cool and see who worked there on LinkedIn. Find their contact info through LinkedIn, design portfolios, or SellHack. Reach out to them and ask for an informational interview! This works whether or not the company has a job posting. Even if they’re not actively hiring for a UX Designer, but you’re still interested in the company, reach out to HR, send an introduction email with your work examples, and ask for a coffee meeting. You never know, they may be secretly hiring or have an opening coming up! Also, don’t be afraid to reach out to multiple people at the same company. Don’t reach out to three UX designers, but mix it up with a Sr. UX designer, Product designer, and HR.
4. Ask people you know for referrals. If you are applying for a job at Company X, and you know Sally who works at Company X, ask Sally if she will refer you. It’s no secret that HR/hiring managers are often buried under the sheer number of job applicants. Sometimes, the only thing that helps them sift through the pile are referrals.

If you’re new to the area or to the industry, the problem is that no one knows who you are. Networking gives you the power to change that. It lets you put yourself in the back of people’s minds, so that when an opportunity does come up, they know who you are.

As for as the hustle component goes, aim for 2–3 informational interviews a week! The more you do them, the easier they get.

UX DESIGN YOUR OWN UX DESIGN PORTFOLIO

As UX Designers, we’re used to constantly testing and iterating our designs and projects. So why not your own portfolio or resume?

When you meet with someone in the industry, ask them to review your materials. Take the data. Pull out the trends. Incorporate feedback into the design. Iterate. Repeat. (Sound familiar?)

After making some simple tweaks in my portfolio, I saw significant improvements in the rate that people would reach out to me after applying online. Examples included creating a “brand” for my portfolio, using better images, and making the case studies easy to scan.

DO SIDE PROJECTS

At some point, there’s only so much time you can fill with informational interviews, networking events, and job applications. What do you do with the rest of your day??

Solution: Side projects.

Why do them?

1. It lets you practice your UX skills so they’re not just deteriorating into nothingness, and then at job interviews you’re not left flopping around like a fish on land when asked to demonstrate said skills.
2. It’s an easy way to show your skills and UX knowledge to folks you meet in the industry, whether they are looking to hire or not. Include them in your emails when you’re reaching out to people.
3. These projects can also help you land a job at a company. How? By demonstrating that you have the skills, you’re ready to help the company improve the product, and you can hit the ground running. Read more:
   — How to Get Any Job You Want (even if you’re unqualified)
4. BECAUSE BOREDOM IS NOT YOUR FRIEND. Seriously.

Here are some examples of side projects I did. They can be simple, solo one day guerrilla tests or long-term, team projects. Whatever it is, make sure you’re working on developing the skills that you want to showcase for future jobs (i.e. don’t do only user research if you want to be hired as a UI Designer):

• Google Keep: Is it a Keeper?
• BiggerPockets Usability Testing
• Avery Beer Company: Avery Beer Curator (Hackathon)

An example of the project I did for Google Keep.

Nailing the interview

Here are the golden rules that I followed for interviewing:

1. Do NOT be unprepared, whether it’s an initial phone screen or final on-site interview. Do your due diligence and research the company and the person who is interviewing you (if you know in advance). The former shows recruiters/hiring managers that you’re genuinely interested in the position and aren’t just blindly applying to every job out there (even if you are). Knowing your interviewer’s particular skill set (i.e. visual, research, coding, etc) could be handy in helping you figure out what topics to talk about, in turn leading to a deeper connection with them.
2. Practice both answering questions and asking questions. Everyone knows about the first one…that’s the whole point of interviews! But many folks forget that asking questions is also a way to demonstrate your interests, passions, ambition, and knowledge. Here are resources I used to prep for each interview:
   — 10 Questions You’ll Be Asked in a UX Interview
   — 10 Questions You Should Ask in a UX Interview
   — Also, for whiteboarding challenges, check out this resource.
3. Keep up with the latest design trends. Not only is this a good thing to do as a professional in the industry, it also demonstrates your passion for UX, your interest in continual learning, and your aptitude for staying current with the industry’s trends and best practices. More often than not, the person interviewing you is also staying current, so this is just another opportunity for you to have a conversation and connect. To stay current, I subscribe to multiple newsletters. My favorites include: Medium (especially their UX specific feed), InVision, UX Magazine and UX Mastery. I’m sure there’s tons out there, but find one that works for you and commit to reading at least one article from each newsletter!
4. Send a follow-up Thank You email/letter. Pretty self explanatory, but here’s a resource I used for inspiration.
5. Be calm, confident, articulate, and YOU. I know, I know. This is MUCH easier said than done. But figure out what techniques you can use that will make you calm and confident, whether it be talking to yourself in the mirror, smiling until your cheeks hurt, or watching silly YouTube videos of puppies playing before an interview. Find your magic and use it.

Be calm, confident, prepared. But also be YOU.

Negotiating during the interview process

So you’ve made it past the phone screen, 2nd round interview, final interview, and all the other things that go along with interviewing! WOOT!

Proud of you.

But don’t forget, landing a job is as much about finding the right fit as it is selling yourself. As someone newer to the industry/without as much experience, it’s easy to forget this and just fall head over heels at the first whiff of an offer.

I’m telling you, don’t forget to negotiate. You may not have much past experience, but you’re selling more than that. You’re selling your brain and all the future work you’ll be doing for the company. So do your research, figure out your fair compensation range, and practice negotiating. Here are some resources that I leaned heavily on throughout my interviewing:

— 10 Rules for Negotiating a Job Offer
— How Not to Bomb Your Offer Negotiations
— How I Negotiated for an Additional $15,000 at Yammer

Just remember, try your hardest to NOT be the person who discloses salary range first. I 1000% guarantee that it will be awkward when HR/hiring manager asks you to disclose your goal salary and you’re just like…. “Uhhhh….” But practice avoiding giving a number and I promise, it’ll get less awkward (Great examples on what to say are in the Yammer article above).

https://m.popkey.co/381d23/LqxQq.gif

Staying POSITIVE during the process

This is probably one of the more difficult parts of the job hunt process. Every day you are putting yourself out there, confident that you’re capable and qualified… only to be met with the stone cold shoulder of silence or rejection. Job hunt depression is REAL and different people are affected differently.

I’ll be honest and say that there were weeks where I sincerely doubted that I’d ever get hired. I had just moved to Denver, I knew no one in the industry, and I was applying to SO MANY jobs. But I kept my head up, kept hustling, tried to stay positive.

Things I did that helped me keep my head up:

1. Side projects. Seriously, the side projects kill time/boredom and help you practice your skills. Practicing your skills = increase your confidence in your abilities. Increased confidence = positivity!
2. Talk to people. Your career coaches, advisers, mentors, friends, former bosses, significant others, family… ANYONE. Find someone who can listen, understand, and help support you during this draining process. For me, it helped talking to someone who was a third party who could objectively remind me of all the good hard work I was putting in, regardless of the outcomes.
3. Write weekly updates detailing what you did last week and what you’re planning for this week. This not only helps you stay organized, but actually detailing all the things you did in the past week helps remind yourself that you are putting in the work. When you put in the work, things will come.
4. Be patient. OH MAN another thing that is WAY easier said than done. I for one am terrible at this. But when I did force myself to realize that I wasn’t going to land a job within the first couple weeks of graduating (or even first month), it really took the pressure off of me to be employed ASAP.
5. Have some “me-time”. Job hunting is draining. Take some time out of your day to do things that are fun! Take time for yourself and make sure that your mental health is not suffering.

Hustle. Be confident. Be patient. Stay Positive.

You’ve taken an enormous leap into a new career. Reflect on and share your experiences, especially all the strides you’ve taken to get to where you are now and where you want to go. There is so much potential ahead!

Remember that job hunting is a process that sometimes is out of your control. But for the parts that you can control, hustle hard and stay positive.

Good luck on your job hunt!

Have thoughts on the whole job hunt? I’d love to hear what you think! Find me at on Twitter @achipham or reach out to me on LinkedIn!

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