Hi there! 👋
If you’re reading this, you might be totally new to the world of UX, currently trying to break in and find your footing, or earlier in your career. We wrote this FAQ for folks like yourself! We get a lot of questions from new UXers and from those who are looking to chat whenever we are hiring, but we don’t always have time to hop on a call and answer them. This FAQ addresses the most common questions we get from new (and less new) folks in the industry.
Is there a question missing here? Drop us a note at deardanielledave@gmail.com, and we’ll email you if we add an answer!
Can I talk to you directly instead?
We wish we had time to grab coffee (virtual or IRL) with everyone that reaches out to us, but we don’t, especially in our efforts to have a strong work/life balance. We built this document as a way to protect our time while still answering your questions.
As noted above, if a question is missing, you can submit it to us, and if we find that the best way to answer that question is by having a coffee, we’ll reach out to you accordingly!
Breaking into UX
How do I get my first role in UX?
It’s important to start out by saying that everyone’s journey into UX is different — your path won’t look exactly like ours or anyone else’s, and that’s a great thing! There is lots of room for you to forge your own unique path into this industry.
Here’s a brief history of how we got into UX:
Danielle: I got my first formal role in UX working in a tiny startup (less than 6 employees) while I was doing the Master’s of Information program at University of Toronto. I was able to get an internship as a UX Designer there which was a great learning experience. The start-up was associated with the university and I knew the founder through my courses, which helped me get my foot in the door. Before that, I also started building my portfolio via my course work, creating UX case studies out of some of my previous work experience, and volunteering* at Civic Tech Toronto. Towards the end of my Master’s degree, I got a contract role as a UX Designer at Freshbooks, which I was able to convert to a full-time role after 6 months.
Dave: I didn’t get into what many consider traditional UX until much later in my career. I started working in more traditional market research as a research analyst at AC Nielsen coming out of my MBA, then moved over to General Mills leading consumer insights work on some household name brands. Both were great learning experiences in their own right - Nielsen as a consulting agency helped me hone client management skills and gave me solid foundational quant research and analytical chops. My time at General Mills taught me how to manage a large research budget and manage research vendors. My first exposure to “true” UX is when I started working for Flipp. There I stood up the UX research team, also ended up leading PM, CX and Product Analytics for a spell towards the end of my tenure there.
*Volunteer projects does not mean working for for-profit start-ups for free; this means working with interdisciplinary teams such as at Civic Tech Toronto on projects focused on causes you believe in, where everyone is volunteering, and you can build meaningful relationships through the collaboration.
It’s really not easy to find that first role. It will take time, sometimes lots of time. We empathize with anyone looking to break in — we know it’s really difficult. Oftentimes these things come down to luck and circumstance.
Now we absolutely recognize telling someone to “bank on luck” isn’t exactly the most actionable advice. What you can do though is to maximize your luck by trying the following:
Build your network: This does not mean reaching out to people you don’t know on LinkedIn or by email; but instead trying to build meaningful relationships with people in the industry. E.g. through coursework, mentorship programs, volunteer projects*, meet-ups, etc.
Find a mentor: Finding a senior designer or UXR who has been in the industry for a number of years can go a long way. They can be a source of great advice, information and inspiration, can provide interview tips and be someone to check in with regularly when you get stuck.
Build your skills/knowledge: Learn from others, leverage resources online, read articles, take free courses, etc.! Get the foundations down so you’re set up to start applying them.
Volunteer / do pro-bono work: when you are just starting out and have little to no professional experience, volunteering your skills to do some pro-bono work for your local barber shop, restaurant or make a website for someone in your network can be a great way to hone your skills, get feedback and build your portfolio and reputation!
Build your portfolio: Start to practice your UX chops by building a portfolio based on projects from courses, previous work, volunteer projects, etc. This will help you practice and give you something to get some feedback on. It’s now easier than ever to create great looking portfolios with the help of vibe-coding tools!
A note on portfolios for UXRs: it’s less common for UXRs to have portfolios compared to designers, but it’s not unheard of and we’ve seen some great UXR portfolios. It really does help you stand out if you can put together something that’s thoughtful.
Think about places that need a new UXer, and focus on finding those roles: This may mean that your dream company isn’t the place where you start out. Places that need new UXers might be…
Really big, e.g. banks, enterprise software, government: These may be places with really large UX teams with many senior or lead level UXers keen for the opportunity to mentor new UXers as they level up their management skills.
Really small, e.g. teeny tiny startups, non-profits, small businesses with no UX: These may be places that otherwise wouldn’t be able to hire a UX person, who can give you a ton of autonomy to learn, grow and develop your own processes.
….or, transition from another role: Or, consider a role (perhaps your current role) in a company that has a UX team, or that doesn’t have one yet (until you came along!), where you can aim to transition internally. This career path happens a lot more than you think! It takes time but you will learn a ton along the way.
Weigh experience over pay*: Not every job is going to pay great. In fact, most junior roles don’t, especially in today’s market. So don’t put too much weight on the salary. Instead, weigh towards the experience you are going to gain, the type of company & team you’ll get to be on, and the type of projects you’ll get to work on. Those experiences will pay dividends down the road, and you’ll get your chance for a bigger paycheque.
*Not everyone is in a position to do this; as with everything in this list, disregard if its not right for you. There’s no single path or thing to do to get your first role.
Alongside all of the above: be patient/kind to yourself in the process: This is hard. Show yourself lots of self-care and compassion through this process! And remember you are not alone. Connect with peers, classmates or colleagues looking alongside you and learn from each other alongside supporting each other - it makes a world of difference.