Ask HN: I'm Lost. Struggling to Land a UX Design Job After a Career Switch
18 comments
UX practitioner of 10 years here. The market is very much depressed, especially for juniors who've only done online courses. Are these courses through a bootcamp? If so, does the bootcamp have any sort of career center that you can utilize?
I also see that you've only applied for 20 jobs. That's really not enough, especially in these tough times. As an example, a job for a junior that was posed by my prior company ended up getting 1000 applicants. Have you asked your UX mentor if any of their connections are hiring juniors? If so, your mentor should be able to put in a good word for you and at least get your foot in the door.
I also see that you've only applied for 20 jobs. That's really not enough, especially in these tough times. As an example, a job for a junior that was posed by my prior company ended up getting 1000 applicants. Have you asked your UX mentor if any of their connections are hiring juniors? If so, your mentor should be able to put in a good word for you and at least get your foot in the door.
My friend switched to UX from not-a-programmer job (and after longish CV gap) and it took her 9 months to land job. She had her ups and downs but she was persistent, also she met a few good souls who gave her a bit of coaching along the way.
So, don't give up, you might be closer than you think.
So, don't give up, you might be closer than you think.
1. Find an open source project, contribute to it. You’ll make connections, sharpen your tools and collaborate with a team.
2. Do a ux case study of emerging technology. It’s much easier to get a job in a sector where no one has ‘years’ experience.
3.Build something. Take your skills further and build something, and try and sell it. Most ux’er have little knowledge of end to end product, I.e what decisions are trade-offs are needed to build, sell and market a product. Build something and lean into the full product cycle.
2. Do a ux case study of emerging technology. It’s much easier to get a job in a sector where no one has ‘years’ experience.
3.Build something. Take your skills further and build something, and try and sell it. Most ux’er have little knowledge of end to end product, I.e what decisions are trade-offs are needed to build, sell and market a product. Build something and lean into the full product cycle.
1. Where did you link your portfolio?
2. You said you applied to 20 companies, that seems very low
3. Have you tried to provide your services on a marketplace like upwork etc?
4. Have you tried to contact local companies and offer to re-do their sites for a small fee and a good recommendation letter?
5. Do you go out networking at local meetups/events?
6. Did you hire/asked someone to review your resume and improve it?
Don't give up, there are many things you can do!
2. You said you applied to 20 companies, that seems very low
3. Have you tried to provide your services on a marketplace like upwork etc?
4. Have you tried to contact local companies and offer to re-do their sites for a small fee and a good recommendation letter?
5. Do you go out networking at local meetups/events?
6. Did you hire/asked someone to review your resume and improve it?
Don't give up, there are many things you can do!
extremely low, tbh. OP needs to learn that it's a numbers game. Don't be picky, and shoot for positions that may seem out of reach. There's a lot of extra things I find that most don't try (most likely because they don't know). I didn't know either at first, but I spent probably mid double digit hours finding tips and tricks to maximizing interviews. OP, if you're reading this i'll list some out, it's not all inclusive, there's much more out there that I'm probably leaving out. You got to be hungry.
- cold messages + emails, use chatgpt or find recruiting influencers to best cater how to write good messages. Jeff Su had a really good one where he had a regex search pattern for recruiters who had emails in their profile that you can use.
- apply everyday, jobs refresh all the time. be the first 50. if there's over 100 or 200 applicants, might not be worth your time going through workday to fill everything out.
- have multiple versions of your resume catered to slightly nuiance positions. I had 3 version of mine that differed in the metrics I exemplified and the focus on what I worked on/achieved.
- use fishbowl,blind,reddit, any social media to get random referral. people are willing. take advantage of the playing field.
- small things like profile picture, format of resume (i spent over 25 hours on my resume getting it destroyed by friends and willing helpers, making small changes to action words and nouns).
- there's too many sites that have job postings, if you're only looking at monster or linkedin, you are probably 10 websites too short. scrounge the internet for all the sites and just send it.
- volunteer work pro bono, get some experience.
- apply like crazy but not all at once, i applied on avg to about 5-10 companies a day for 1.5 months. it helps you not get burned out. i only spent an hour per day, the rest i worked on my portfolio.
that's all i can think of off the top of my head. I hope you achieve your goals OP.
- cold messages + emails, use chatgpt or find recruiting influencers to best cater how to write good messages. Jeff Su had a really good one where he had a regex search pattern for recruiters who had emails in their profile that you can use.
- apply everyday, jobs refresh all the time. be the first 50. if there's over 100 or 200 applicants, might not be worth your time going through workday to fill everything out.
- have multiple versions of your resume catered to slightly nuiance positions. I had 3 version of mine that differed in the metrics I exemplified and the focus on what I worked on/achieved.
- use fishbowl,blind,reddit, any social media to get random referral. people are willing. take advantage of the playing field.
- small things like profile picture, format of resume (i spent over 25 hours on my resume getting it destroyed by friends and willing helpers, making small changes to action words and nouns).
- there's too many sites that have job postings, if you're only looking at monster or linkedin, you are probably 10 websites too short. scrounge the internet for all the sites and just send it.
- volunteer work pro bono, get some experience.
- apply like crazy but not all at once, i applied on avg to about 5-10 companies a day for 1.5 months. it helps you not get burned out. i only spent an hour per day, the rest i worked on my portfolio.
that's all i can think of off the top of my head. I hope you achieve your goals OP.
Perfectly summed up, good job
Hey, I switched to design in my 30s as well. In my case, it was easy because I was working as a programmer for a consulting company already, and could just ask to take on more and more design responsibilities. The advantage with small consultancies is that they have a constant churn of shortish jobs, so you get plenty of reps in across different areas. My recommendation, then, would be to look for contracting or consulting jobs. As a side benefit for the worker, it's not terribly hard to get poached by a client if they like you.
Also, recognize two things:
1. Not getting a job you apply for doesn't mean you suck, or that you aren't valuable, or that you won't ever get hired. If this is your first software job, you may not know it in your bones yet, but the hiring process in our industry is flat out broken, don't let it break you too.
2. This is a tough time to apply for jobs across the board.
Also, recognize two things:
1. Not getting a job you apply for doesn't mean you suck, or that you aren't valuable, or that you won't ever get hired. If this is your first software job, you may not know it in your bones yet, but the hiring process in our industry is flat out broken, don't let it break you too.
2. This is a tough time to apply for jobs across the board.
Be more specific about UX. For example do you mean product designer or frontend web developer?
If you mean frontend web developer learn React. Take all the glitter away and your goals are just put text on screen and manage events. As a beginner everything will be about “how to write code”. Think of it as extreme vanity but in code. Then later you can graduate to configuration junkie. That is why I moved on.
If you mean frontend web developer learn React. Take all the glitter away and your goals are just put text on screen and manage events. As a beginner everything will be about “how to write code”. Think of it as extreme vanity but in code. Then later you can graduate to configuration junkie. That is why I moved on.
I'm currently focusing more on product design. Coding was for now not my main focus, this is something I'm starting to learn.
Lots of great advice in this thread. If you're looking to add something real and live you can show to companies, to your portfolio, I'm currently working on a side project and doing all the code and design. I would love some help with the design. It's a job board/ATS. If you're interested, please email me!
Yes I would love to collaborate. Sounds interesting, let me know how to proceed
Your profile doesn't list an email, please email me at yeyo ATTTT hey DOOOT com
Let's chat!
Let's chat!
I’d be happy to take a look at your résumé and portfolio and provide some feedback & next steps. My email is in my profile.
Thanks for the reply. I just sent out an email, really appreciate it!
Maybe a role where you can make use of your design skills as well would be a good fit as well?
How many applications did you send out so far?
How many applications did you send out so far?
> Maybe a role where you can make use of your design skills as well would be a good fit as well?
Yes, I also consider this, but so far didn't see a job offer
> How many applications did you send out so far?
Around 20 or more
Yes, I also consider this, but so far didn't see a job offer
> How many applications did you send out so far?
Around 20 or more
I would suggest sending out way more. It's a numbers game. Starting out fresh for myself took 500+ applications before landing a job.
What was your background? Did you transition from another career? Are you working now as a UX designer?
I'm getting desperate now, can't sleep, and am losing hope. Despite my genuine interest in UX and my dedication to learning about it, I can't seem to find a job or make a living from it.
Any advice on what I can do? Thanks :)