Member-only story
How I got hired as a UI/UX designer without experience
Five things I did to get hired during Covid-19.
Two years back, I got hired as a solo UI/UX Designer for a proptech startup. It was a pre-seed startup where everything was so early; I might as well call myself a founder at that point. It began with general user research, then moving into designing the product to raise angel funding.
From wireframing to launching locally, it was a constant uphill battle as I struggled with not just my lack of experience, but a lingering imposter’s syndrome that incrementally bugged me after I left the company. I couldn’t stop thinking to myself: “do I know how to do UI/UX?” To others, I launched a full-fledged proptech platform with a co-founder, but to me, I felt like I was stealing designs off Dribbble and Behance.
I didn’t feel like a “real” designer — hailing from a mass communications background; I was more well-versed with a DSLR camera than Sketch. I was media-trained personnel, and I barely touched on web design during one of my modules in my diploma. Essentially, I was supposed to have been headed to marketing.
In between my current UI/UX job and my proptech job, I was conscripted into the army to serve the nation as a part of a citizen’s mandatory duties. For two years, I was away from UI/UX, while design trends evolved so rapidly that the latest Dribbble front page looked so different from the one half a year ago.
It was challenging to return to the workforce right after since I had no prior experience in UI/UX when I completed my service — technically, I do have some experience as a UI/UX designer under my belt. Still, I only worked in that startup for three months.
Without formal education and a strong commercial portfolio, I looked more like a UI/UX hobbyist than an aspiring professional.
Without formal education and a strong commercial portfolio, I looked more like a UI/UX hobbyist than an aspiring professional. That means I’m bound to get rejected, right?
After a month of getting up to speed, I got hired amid a coronavirus pandemic. To cut to the chase, here’s what I did to land myself in the…
