Vol. 025 - You can find a UX job with 0 design experience

Hi designers,

Welcome to Vol. 025 of the UX Jetpack Newsletter, where I share job searching tips weekly. This week we are talking about:

1. You can find a UX job with 0 design experience
2. Stop writing your resume as if it’s written by ChatGPT.
3. Your first job is probably not going to be good.
4. Free Design Stuff - A collection of free design resources.
   

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You can find a UX job with 0 design experience

Leverage your transferrable skills from past jobs

It doesn’t matter which industry you worked in;

there are many common skills you can utilize in UX.

1. Active listening and communicationCrucial for understanding users’ needs and communicating with stakeholders.
2. Project managementDesigners often work within tight deadlines, so the ability to juggle different projects and accommodate timelines is important.
3. Collaboration and teamworkDesigners never work in silos; collaboration with different team functions is key to successful design.
4. Business thinkingUnderstanding how business operates can make you stand out much more.
5. Marketing and salesEverything is sales. A good design doesn’t necessarily sell well. Learning how to market your design is as important as the design itself.
6. Facilitation skillsRunning workshops and meetings can increase your impact on your team. It's a must when you grow in seniority.

So how do you present them in your resume?

Never just say you have the skills

Highlight the actions you took

Tie them to outcomes

Here are examples

“Facilitated quarterly workshops for a group of 12 team members, promoting cross-team collaboration, strategic ideation, and continuous learning.”

“Led the company-wide adoption of a new project management system, which streamlined workflows and reduced repetitive tasks by 20%.”

Stop writing your resume as if it’s written by ChatGPT.

Be specific about the purpose of your work and the outcomes.

Don’t write: (straight from ChatGPT)

“Conduct user research and usability testing to inform design decisions, ensuring a user-centric approach in product development.”

“Create wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs using industry-standard tools.”

“Work closely with developers to ensure the successful implementation of designs while maintaining a consistent user interface.”

If you cover up your name, this could be anyone’s resume.

Do write:

"Conducted user interviews to discover missed opportunities in the home-buying market and influenced the product strategy to find market fit."

"Created functional prototypes to significantly reduce the back-and-forth between engineers and product, while setting the right expectations for clients."

"Facilitated weekly sync meetings and regular workshops to align design decisions with PMs and engineers, highly regarded as the voice of the design team."

To take it one step further,

add any metrics to prove your impact.

Write about the unique experiences that no one else has.

Your first job is probably not going to be good.

That doesn’t mean you can’t make the best of it.

My first job was at a marketing agency.

I wanted to join a big team, but we only had four.

I wanted to work on products, but we only did branding and websites.

I wanted to interview clients about their problems, but I only got requests from my boss.

So, I left after three months.

I still learned quite a lot.

I learned how an agency works.

I tapped into the world of online marketing.

I got to design a few websites that can be used in my portfolio.

I experienced what it’s like to work with others who are not designers.

So if your first opportunity is not what you want,

Just remember it’s a good learning experience.

You’ve got yourself in the door.

Free Design Stuff - A collection of free design resources.

Curated top quality design resources free for personal and commercial use.

Made by Ben Sterne
https://freedesignstuff.com/

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Ryan Yao

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