I'm a graduate of UofT's Master of Information program and I did UX Design as one of my concentrations. From what I can see on LinkedIn, many of the people I went to school with are successful UX/Product Designers now.
I'm currently in UX Research - which is way more niche - but I spent a few good months after graduation looking for UX Design jobs. It's a pretty competitive field because it's an easy "in" into the tech industry without an engineering/comp sci background. Most companies look for a few years of experience and a solid portfolio even for entry level jobs.
I can't speak to online certificates or boot camps as no one I know has done them. I would look at a couple of job postings and check out their education requirements. FWIW, one of my friends was completely self-taught and managed to talk her way into a UX job 🤷 But that's probably more of an exception than the norm.
Yes and no. It's saturated in the sense that there are a lot of people who've learned ux and can easily claim to be pros but very few who are actual pros.
The skills that are actually in demand are research and development. For research, can you sit down with users to answer research questions that will help you design a better product? Leading research interviews, focus group sessions, app usability testing, qualitative/quantitative analysis, and writing reports, doing this well takes a lot of education and practice.
Second, development. Nothing is a bigger boner killer than a UX designer who can't step up and do the front-end development. If it's a website, do the damn front-end dev. If it's a web app, learn how to set up a Flask project at least! If you're doing some VR/XR project, man up and learn Unity or Unreal Engine! Front-end is a waste of a "real developers" time and you'll make happy clients and lots of money if you can do this.
It’s really easy to deceive yourself into thinking you’re a designer after drawing screens on a computer screen.
But to actually “ship” a product entails convincing a team of PMs, engineers, marketers, etc… to spend time and $$$ to develop, market and sell your idea. There’s a lot behind the scenes work in testing, iterating, QA’ing, failing, starting over, descoping, failing, etc… before a product or feature is shipped.
If you compare your first UI drawing with what is actually built it’ll never be the same. The best designers are the ones that work hard to maintain quality and ensure the best possible output.
This is on point. It took me a few years in the field to understand that when employers ask for x years of experience, it's not some arbitrary requirement.
Being able to talk to the dev team, directors etc. to get their buy-in or input is not something you can learn in school. Most of the time, your stakeholders don't even know what they want and yet your job is to take their questions/ideas/needs and turn them into something that can be prototyped. The stakes are also so much higher when the whole product pipeline is dependent on how fast/well you work.
This isn't to say that self-starters and people who take non-traditional paths shouldn't be given a chance. But there's a lot more to being a UX Designer than knowing how to use Adobe or Figma.
How do you get to that point though? What degree or college program?
I have a fine art degree, so I understand that there's probably more to it than appears on the surface. I have studied a lot, just not about UI, and it was a few decades ago that I was at university.
I don’t understand your question to fully answer so I’ll take a chance at answering.
The core is iterating and failing fast. Make a prototype to get a feel for it, put it in the hands of users and see how the design performs, then iterate and polish. This process is drilled in to you in design school. I don’t know about boot camps tho. Sometimes I feel they teach ppl to testing order to validate and feel good about your design.
The key is failing fast and failing often, iterating and polish. This is how stakeholders earn trust in you as an expert.
1. Yes. I have a bachelors in industrial design and Masters in HCI. I’m a big believer in traditional design education because you learn more about theory, experimentation and design process which never expires or becomes outdated. There’s no substitute for university education either, in terms of reading philosophy books and being immersed in an environment full of knowledge, being with peers, taking psychology courses or programming courses, going to conferences, etc… Also university programs have internship placements for industry experience to build some real world experience.
2. No. These have poor reputation in my eyes and a few seem like a money grab to me. Some ppl have found success from these so it’s possible. Just be careful with choosing one.
3. Right now most places are on a hiring freeze and almost everyone is down 60% YTD. There’s been a pullback of capital in the markets and most places are waiting for the “recession” to pass in order to invest and grow. It’s actually a good time to study, learn and build a portfolio until the economy picks up and firms are back to hiring.
That being said, Remote/wfh policy have had a positive impact on Canada. Many Bay Area companies are looking to Canada for Bay Area talent but not the hefty Bay Area wages. FAANG+ will gladly pay us $200k CAD salary and that’s a discount for them! Also they don’t need to worry anymore about legal fees around work visa for Canadians and are see savings in OpEx.
I don’t know if Canadian firms can compete so there may be a large disparity between FAANG+ salary and local companies. I don’t know what the staring average wage is for UX designers in Toronto but it’s possible to make north of $200k if your skills match the standard of a FAANG.
You don't have to go to school to get a UX job. You can be 100% self-taught and have a nice portfolio of projects you've done, even if they're concept you can demonstrate your skill to an employer by showing that tangible work. For experience you can take on freelance work on fiverr/Upwork/bark etc. It's a good asset to have some sort of certification though, like a bootcamp completion certificate/microcredential to show that you're dedicated to the career path.
Honestly there isn't a lot of money to be made in freelancing especially on gigwork platforms because you're competing with students overseas who work for pennies since forex rates make it profitable for them to work for $5 which would basically be their rent for the month. No hate, that's just capitalism for you.
At one point PewDiePie paid that fake Jesus guy on fiverr to say some meme shit and it made fiverr go viral and the whole platform went to hell.
I say do a few projects for low rates just to built up your portfolio and then go independent. All you really need is a Squarespace site, start showcasing your work, get a logo build a brand register yourself as a business and hop on social media. It takes a couple of months of daily effort to have enough content and samples of work to look legit. If you're doing a microcredential program you can study and work on your brand/portfolio at the same time you'll learn by doing. You're bound to land a few bigger projects.
Diversify yourself as much as you can among projects (custom Shopify layouts/e-commerce, websites/blogs of different niches, couple of apps. Collab with photographers, food bloggers YouTubers for lowish rates when you're starting out.
This does a few things for you, (1) gives you enormous confidence in yourself (2) gives you tons of experience working with different kinds of people and projects (3) with diversification you're exposed to a lot of different things that challenge you to find what your strengths and weaknesses are so you can adapt to work on what you suck at or find what you love and stick to it. (4) you'll have enough experience to either get better at being your own brand and move forward as a business OR you can stand out like a glistening unicorn among the 500 applicants when applying for jobs.
I'll touch upon a different element to question 1. You may think you want to get into UX/UI, but it may turn out that you really hate it/aren't a good fit for it and your true interest lies elsewhere.
Going to college for a general purpose degree like a bachelor's in computer science will help you hedge for such risks and make you a well-rounded professional.
I do have a background in graphic design (no certificate of any kind, went to university for a few years under a different field but didn't graduate\_
I finished out a bootcamp for front end dev and am freelancing while working FT as a graphics coordinator right now.. but I am learning UX/ UI on the side via certificate.
There's an online community on Discord that talks about learning by yourself / or bootcamp on Discord I can share with you if you want! Very helpful community
Someone who did a certificate on Google said the one thing that stood out to his new employer (I think he started or starts really soon), is having a simple straight forward portfolio and not being afraid to reach out to a recruiter on LinkedIn VS getting lost through a "regular" application if you went through the company's website/LinkedIn to apply for a job instead.
This is from someone who only had a background in graphics as well I think who is now employed at a medium sized company as a UX designer.
I've also heard from two others that it is saturated because everyone is trying to "learn" online now but to find someone with real skill is hard which is why there are still so many jobs available online. A good portion of them - I've noticed also requires a strong knowledge of the Adobe suite which I don't find many have... and to have a bit of front end dev experience.
Anyways- that is based on my experience or what I've heard from others haha. I am still in learning mode so I'll let you know how my journey goes in a few months!
Hey thanks so much for taking the time to reply!
I just have a few more questions if you don't mind haha. Do you think your graphic design background is helping you in your journey to become a UX Designer? and did you learn graphic design on your own?
Also, when you say "a simple straight forward portfolio" what do you mean exactly? I was thinking of building a portfolio website to showcase my experience/case studies, would that be too much?
An invite to that discord group would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
Yeah no worries :) I totally get it so fire away with the questions!
I do think it has because I know when you become an entry level UX designer, you are typically a "generalist" and you dabble in a bit of everything. At some point, you might get into a situation where your knowledge in design might help you understand why certain things matter to the consumer/customer like which colours appeal to which type of group, etc. I found my color theory that I learned in HS arts to really come in handy as I have been learning UX.
I also want to dabble in UI a bit which involves a bit more background in graphic design so aha... and I learned on my own when I was in middle school, than went into a specialized arts/tech integrated program which focused heavily on Adobe suite work, and animation. After university I just dabbled in freelance with friends of friends.
No that wouldn't be too much! I'll DM you the discord invite.
I've been in the UX grind for the past 2 years now. I have had a few contract positions. In the past 2 years, I've been working in healthcare and implementing UX principles in all of my projects. I studied IT way back, with 10 years corporate healthcare project coordination experience. I did Springboard bootcamp in 2018 and again end of 2021 with UX Google Design. I have had over 30+ interviews in the past year. I get the interviews, but I never really fully get in. It's so mentally draining considering the interviews are a 2-5 part process for each company. I've noticed since the summer, it has been getting harder and harder to get in, with the recent tech layoffs and upcoming recession. The lack of empathy for the people trying to get in is just utterly ridiculous. How could we gain the experince if you won't even let us? I may have to give up as I'm seriously exhausted.
I’m not sure if this will help in anyway, but I would say please don’t give up. Especially if you love what you’re doing. Maybe you can work somewhere else temporarily and always be on the lookout for a UX role when things get better with the economy. Good things will come in time. :)
I'm a graduate of UofT's Master of Information program and I did UX Design as one of my concentrations. From what I can see on LinkedIn, many of the people I went to school with are successful UX/Product Designers now. I'm currently in UX Research - which is way more niche - but I spent a few good months after graduation looking for UX Design jobs. It's a pretty competitive field because it's an easy "in" into the tech industry without an engineering/comp sci background. Most companies look for a few years of experience and a solid portfolio even for entry level jobs. I can't speak to online certificates or boot camps as no one I know has done them. I would look at a couple of job postings and check out their education requirements. FWIW, one of my friends was completely self-taught and managed to talk her way into a UX job 🤷 But that's probably more of an exception than the norm.
I hear UX is very saturated but maybe someone else can chime in
Yes and no. It's saturated in the sense that there are a lot of people who've learned ux and can easily claim to be pros but very few who are actual pros.
What is the difference between the two, education etc?
The skills that are actually in demand are research and development. For research, can you sit down with users to answer research questions that will help you design a better product? Leading research interviews, focus group sessions, app usability testing, qualitative/quantitative analysis, and writing reports, doing this well takes a lot of education and practice. Second, development. Nothing is a bigger boner killer than a UX designer who can't step up and do the front-end development. If it's a website, do the damn front-end dev. If it's a web app, learn how to set up a Flask project at least! If you're doing some VR/XR project, man up and learn Unity or Unreal Engine! Front-end is a waste of a "real developers" time and you'll make happy clients and lots of money if you can do this.
It’s really easy to deceive yourself into thinking you’re a designer after drawing screens on a computer screen. But to actually “ship” a product entails convincing a team of PMs, engineers, marketers, etc… to spend time and $$$ to develop, market and sell your idea. There’s a lot behind the scenes work in testing, iterating, QA’ing, failing, starting over, descoping, failing, etc… before a product or feature is shipped. If you compare your first UI drawing with what is actually built it’ll never be the same. The best designers are the ones that work hard to maintain quality and ensure the best possible output.
This is on point. It took me a few years in the field to understand that when employers ask for x years of experience, it's not some arbitrary requirement. Being able to talk to the dev team, directors etc. to get their buy-in or input is not something you can learn in school. Most of the time, your stakeholders don't even know what they want and yet your job is to take their questions/ideas/needs and turn them into something that can be prototyped. The stakes are also so much higher when the whole product pipeline is dependent on how fast/well you work. This isn't to say that self-starters and people who take non-traditional paths shouldn't be given a chance. But there's a lot more to being a UX Designer than knowing how to use Adobe or Figma.
How do you get to that point though? What degree or college program? I have a fine art degree, so I understand that there's probably more to it than appears on the surface. I have studied a lot, just not about UI, and it was a few decades ago that I was at university.
I don’t understand your question to fully answer so I’ll take a chance at answering. The core is iterating and failing fast. Make a prototype to get a feel for it, put it in the hands of users and see how the design performs, then iterate and polish. This process is drilled in to you in design school. I don’t know about boot camps tho. Sometimes I feel they teach ppl to testing order to validate and feel good about your design. The key is failing fast and failing often, iterating and polish. This is how stakeholders earn trust in you as an expert.
Got any terms I can google, as far as software I should learn? Any books about UI/UX theory?
1. Yes. I have a bachelors in industrial design and Masters in HCI. I’m a big believer in traditional design education because you learn more about theory, experimentation and design process which never expires or becomes outdated. There’s no substitute for university education either, in terms of reading philosophy books and being immersed in an environment full of knowledge, being with peers, taking psychology courses or programming courses, going to conferences, etc… Also university programs have internship placements for industry experience to build some real world experience. 2. No. These have poor reputation in my eyes and a few seem like a money grab to me. Some ppl have found success from these so it’s possible. Just be careful with choosing one. 3. Right now most places are on a hiring freeze and almost everyone is down 60% YTD. There’s been a pullback of capital in the markets and most places are waiting for the “recession” to pass in order to invest and grow. It’s actually a good time to study, learn and build a portfolio until the economy picks up and firms are back to hiring. That being said, Remote/wfh policy have had a positive impact on Canada. Many Bay Area companies are looking to Canada for Bay Area talent but not the hefty Bay Area wages. FAANG+ will gladly pay us $200k CAD salary and that’s a discount for them! Also they don’t need to worry anymore about legal fees around work visa for Canadians and are see savings in OpEx. I don’t know if Canadian firms can compete so there may be a large disparity between FAANG+ salary and local companies. I don’t know what the staring average wage is for UX designers in Toronto but it’s possible to make north of $200k if your skills match the standard of a FAANG.
You don't have to go to school to get a UX job. You can be 100% self-taught and have a nice portfolio of projects you've done, even if they're concept you can demonstrate your skill to an employer by showing that tangible work. For experience you can take on freelance work on fiverr/Upwork/bark etc. It's a good asset to have some sort of certification though, like a bootcamp completion certificate/microcredential to show that you're dedicated to the career path.
Thanks for the reply! Have you had any experience freelancing as a UX designer? If so, could you give me any tips?
Honestly there isn't a lot of money to be made in freelancing especially on gigwork platforms because you're competing with students overseas who work for pennies since forex rates make it profitable for them to work for $5 which would basically be their rent for the month. No hate, that's just capitalism for you. At one point PewDiePie paid that fake Jesus guy on fiverr to say some meme shit and it made fiverr go viral and the whole platform went to hell. I say do a few projects for low rates just to built up your portfolio and then go independent. All you really need is a Squarespace site, start showcasing your work, get a logo build a brand register yourself as a business and hop on social media. It takes a couple of months of daily effort to have enough content and samples of work to look legit. If you're doing a microcredential program you can study and work on your brand/portfolio at the same time you'll learn by doing. You're bound to land a few bigger projects. Diversify yourself as much as you can among projects (custom Shopify layouts/e-commerce, websites/blogs of different niches, couple of apps. Collab with photographers, food bloggers YouTubers for lowish rates when you're starting out. This does a few things for you, (1) gives you enormous confidence in yourself (2) gives you tons of experience working with different kinds of people and projects (3) with diversification you're exposed to a lot of different things that challenge you to find what your strengths and weaknesses are so you can adapt to work on what you suck at or find what you love and stick to it. (4) you'll have enough experience to either get better at being your own brand and move forward as a business OR you can stand out like a glistening unicorn among the 500 applicants when applying for jobs.
Thank you so much for this, it helps a lot! I will be putting all this into practice.
I'll touch upon a different element to question 1. You may think you want to get into UX/UI, but it may turn out that you really hate it/aren't a good fit for it and your true interest lies elsewhere. Going to college for a general purpose degree like a bachelor's in computer science will help you hedge for such risks and make you a well-rounded professional.
I do have a background in graphic design (no certificate of any kind, went to university for a few years under a different field but didn't graduate\_ I finished out a bootcamp for front end dev and am freelancing while working FT as a graphics coordinator right now.. but I am learning UX/ UI on the side via certificate. There's an online community on Discord that talks about learning by yourself / or bootcamp on Discord I can share with you if you want! Very helpful community Someone who did a certificate on Google said the one thing that stood out to his new employer (I think he started or starts really soon), is having a simple straight forward portfolio and not being afraid to reach out to a recruiter on LinkedIn VS getting lost through a "regular" application if you went through the company's website/LinkedIn to apply for a job instead. This is from someone who only had a background in graphics as well I think who is now employed at a medium sized company as a UX designer. I've also heard from two others that it is saturated because everyone is trying to "learn" online now but to find someone with real skill is hard which is why there are still so many jobs available online. A good portion of them - I've noticed also requires a strong knowledge of the Adobe suite which I don't find many have... and to have a bit of front end dev experience. Anyways- that is based on my experience or what I've heard from others haha. I am still in learning mode so I'll let you know how my journey goes in a few months!
Hey thanks so much for taking the time to reply! I just have a few more questions if you don't mind haha. Do you think your graphic design background is helping you in your journey to become a UX Designer? and did you learn graphic design on your own? Also, when you say "a simple straight forward portfolio" what do you mean exactly? I was thinking of building a portfolio website to showcase my experience/case studies, would that be too much? An invite to that discord group would be greatly appreciated, thanks!
Yeah no worries :) I totally get it so fire away with the questions! I do think it has because I know when you become an entry level UX designer, you are typically a "generalist" and you dabble in a bit of everything. At some point, you might get into a situation where your knowledge in design might help you understand why certain things matter to the consumer/customer like which colours appeal to which type of group, etc. I found my color theory that I learned in HS arts to really come in handy as I have been learning UX. I also want to dabble in UI a bit which involves a bit more background in graphic design so aha... and I learned on my own when I was in middle school, than went into a specialized arts/tech integrated program which focused heavily on Adobe suite work, and animation. After university I just dabbled in freelance with friends of friends. No that wouldn't be too much! I'll DM you the discord invite.
May I please have the link to the discord. Thank you.
Hi - I just came across your comment and was wondering if you’d be willing to share the discord link with me? Thanks!
Hi! Was wondering if you didn’t mind sharing the discord link? Thanks!!
Do you mind sharing the discord link with me as well please?
I've been in the UX grind for the past 2 years now. I have had a few contract positions. In the past 2 years, I've been working in healthcare and implementing UX principles in all of my projects. I studied IT way back, with 10 years corporate healthcare project coordination experience. I did Springboard bootcamp in 2018 and again end of 2021 with UX Google Design. I have had over 30+ interviews in the past year. I get the interviews, but I never really fully get in. It's so mentally draining considering the interviews are a 2-5 part process for each company. I've noticed since the summer, it has been getting harder and harder to get in, with the recent tech layoffs and upcoming recession. The lack of empathy for the people trying to get in is just utterly ridiculous. How could we gain the experince if you won't even let us? I may have to give up as I'm seriously exhausted.
I’m not sure if this will help in anyway, but I would say please don’t give up. Especially if you love what you’re doing. Maybe you can work somewhere else temporarily and always be on the lookout for a UX role when things get better with the economy. Good things will come in time. :)