Webinar: "How to Get an Awesome UX Job“ Ask Your Questions First!

News & Events
#1

This weekend we’ll be running a free webinar with our special guest, Patrick Neeman. The subject is all about finding a job in UX. What should you include in a UX portfolio? Do you even need a portfolio? What about a résumé? We’ll be covering all of these topics and more in this webinar.

Find out more information here.

What we’re doing right now is [B]giving you the opportunity to ask your questions ahead of time[/B]. We’ll put them to Patrick on your behalf during the session. That way you can relax and take notes during the webinar, or if you can’t make it to the session you can rest easy knowing that you can catch the answers when you watch the recording at a time that suits you better.

So if you have questions for Patrick, post them right here. Make sure you get them in before the time listed above.

#2

I guess there is a mistake in date (Sept??)

This is a very interesting webinar. I will attend for sure. Also I will not lose my chance to ask my question. It is more description of my life situation than a question.
I live in Armenia where UX is not as spreadly known as in US or UK. There is no where to study or to work as UX Specialist. Companies from other countries doesn’t want to hire people like me, because there is really big risk for them. They will pay for my job permission in their country, will pay me salary and so on. I was interviewed by foreign companies many times, but all in vaste. I also tried to work remotely, but here I found out that there are really few companies who suggest to work remotely and also I need somehow prove that I worth it. So I started to perform activities to attract UX professionals attention as UX Researcher. I started my blog on medium.com (at first time for me, than I had a success and received an invitation to write for [URL=“http://designmodo.com/author/ghazaryan/”]designmodo.com) actively took part in UX communities (also here). Till now I have had not bad success, but what else can I do for my career? How can I offer my skills and how can I sell them?

#3

Thanks Armen—the correct date is listed now. Glad you’re keen to attend; these are some great questions. See you there!

#4

Question for Patrick:

I am currently working as the only developer on a bespoke web application project. I’m finding the experience terribly lonely, isolating and becoming increasingly depressing especially as I do not have anyone to bounce ideas off and lack of understanding from fellow colleagues leads to the assumption that my work is easy or they could do better. Have you ever had a similar experience and how important do you think it is to be able to share ideas?

Thanks in advance

#5

Thanks for organizing the questions list - here’s one for Patrick: I’ve been attempting to break into a UX designer position for a few years now (have a few years of web design and front-end dev). Available positions are for mid-level or senior UX designers. If I can’t afford UX schooling and have limited UX experience, what’s the best course to breaking into this career?

Thanks much.

Cassandra

#6

Question for Patrick:

I started life in a BA role moved onto the dev side where I’ve been mostly since. But recently I did a solo job designing and building an in house system for a small business where I particularly enjoyed going back into requirements analysis, wireframing etc. I’d like to do more of this kind of work, do you know if there’s much of a market in the UXD world for back office business systems? Or does the money tend to go more to customer facing products?

Thanks
Andrew

#7

I started off as a graphic/ visual designer and slowly progressed as a UI designer and later I felt that my passion was to become a UX designer which led me to do my Masters in Service Designing. After completing my masters, I am currently in Sydney, Australia looking to get into UX but I am finding it hard to find a job as most of the job consultants are looking for candidates with some experience in UX. My question is: 1. How do I get into UX with no experience, though I have done my Masters in Service Design 2. My portfolio mostly contains print and web related graphic works and not showing much of UX design process Can you please advice on how I can get into UX and pursue my passion! Thanks Suma

#8

Question for Patrick. I’m just starting out and have no real project UX experience. I am thinking off approaching some UX companies or professional and offering myself as a sort of intern in order to gain some experience. What would be the best approach to doing this. And are there any pitfalls I should look out for. I am a graphic designer, but have completed come online course study in UX. Paddy.

#9

Questions for Patrick. I am graduating this semester with a B.S in Computer Science with focus on Human Computer Interaction. I have applied to some universities to pursue a doctoral program in HCI, However, I like to keep my options open in case that I do not get accepted to grad school, so I am also going to apply to some UX researcher jobs.

I have a strong research background, I have been conducting research on HCI in three different universities for over three years, but so far, I have been focusing more on the technical part (which is developing the idea and creating prototypes) than actually studying how the human will interact with the final product. However, the project that I am currently working on, I am fully conducting usability studies, doing interviews, focus groups, evaluating interfaces and prototyping. And I have taken some UX courses online.

MY QUESTION IS the following; most of the UX jobs that I have found required a master or a Ph. D degree. Do you think that with my research experience, I could find a UX researcher job, even if I do not have a lot of experience conducting actual UX research? if so, how much money (salary) do you think that I can expect in my first job. I live in New Jersey very close to New York.

Thank you!

#10

Question for Patrick:

I was previously a UX designer at my company but realized I could add more value as a Product Owner, so I have since transitioned my role into that direction. I’ve been a Product Owner for about 4 months now and do really enjoy it (It seems like a very natural fit for a former UX designer). I’m still very passionate about UX though. If I were to look for a UX position in the future, would my experience as a Product Owner be an advantage or disadvantage?

#11

Questions for Patrick:

Why is it that suddenly everyone want to be in UX? Is it because they want to be in technology but don’t want to learn to code? Somehow it became trendy. I assume that over time the wheat will be sorted out from the chaff? Even Art Directors are wanting to add UX designer to their skills. It seams there is a lot of fear, doubt, and skeptism about the role of the UX professional as well as the proliferation of so callered UX Designers. UX has been around for a long time but suddenly everyone is confused about its definition and role? They are more interested in theory (redefining ux) than practice. Why is this?
As well everyone seems to be at oddsin terms of skil sets. Whether it be: design psychology, AI, UI, code… To me a UXer needs to be a good detective and design thinker. What’s your opinion about all of this arm wrestling? Thanks!

#12

Yep - I don’t think UX is best achieved in isolation. I work contract and have most meetings by phone conference. I getout to heaps of UX events. I’d prefer to work in a team though. I think the experience / learning curve is faster and also the project cycle (hopefully).

#13

Question for Patrick:

I’m apprehensive to take on projects that I haven’t had experience with, but the only way to get experience is to take on the projects. This poses several issues. Legal - i.e. not delivering on time and ethical. Any words of advice? I tend to be brutally honest probably to my own detriment.

#14

Question for Patrick:

Can you please share ideas about UX folios. I have bits and pieces of projects because my involvement has been for parts of projects not from start to finished. I.e Competitive analysis for one wire frames for another, prototype…
Some work is confidential. How to pull together a cohesive portfolio from these pieces?
As an employer what do you want to see and how much?

#15

Question for Patrick:

What UX Training did you have?

#16

Question for Patrick:

Is it important to keep up with all tech trends?

#17

Question for Patrick:

I am a graduate student pursuing Masters in Computer Science. I want to break into the UX field. I am working part time as User Experience Research intern at a startup. As I will graduate in May 2014, I need to find full time jobs in the UX field. I have experience of 2-3 months only and usually all the jobs require experience in UX for minimum 2-3 years. What should be my approach to apply for these jobs? I have made a Portfolio in PDF and a Resume. Should I learn about Adobe Photoshop, InDesign or Illustrator too to get a job in UX?

#18

If you could choose one book to be your “UX Bible” what would would it be?

#19

I had a Senior UX Designer tell me that UX isn’t design? Everyone has a different opinion?

#20

Interns are only for 20 somethings!