Information that will change our lives!

I love this addition to your intro. Nice. Glad you’re here! We can certainly help with those things.

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Hi community!

Where in the world are you?
I’m from Granada, Spain

What stage of your career are you at?
I’m keeping searching for inner peace. I’m joking, Currently I’m working as UX/UI Designer and learning more from that wonderful world.

What are you current challenges?
Getting the top of the mountain in my company

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
Well, everyday there are new challenges so… maybe know what users need and later think about how to solve their lives designing the interface. And of course, testing it with Dev. Team and watch the result to get feedback. But the best is the big beer when we get success.

Cats or dogs?
Animals but I have a cat.

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Always.

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Hi friends!

Where in the world are you?
The suburb of Ivanhoe in Melbourne, Australia

What stage of your career are you at?
I’ve been a senior level UI Engineer for over 10 years. I’ve only recently moved into the UX space in the past year or so.

What are you current challenges?
Trying to sell the concept of great user experience to others in my organisation. I work with people in a myriad of roles in a finance firm. Fitting in UX with compliance and other governance issues, is a major challenge.

In addition to this, I’m dealing with challenges in making co-workers understand the value in design thinking. How activities such as journey mapping and doing exploration work before defining problems can be beneficial.

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
I’m passionate about creating UX culture within a team and organisation. Whilst learning about UX for myself is great, I love being able to share my experiences and inform others of how UX can benefit the organisation.

Cats or dogs?
Dogs. Samoyeds to be specific.

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Where in the world are you?
Orange County, CA, USA
What stage of your career are you at?
Working in design and technology, looking to pivot into a UX Design role
What are your current challenges?
Looking for a place to get experience and build my technical skills for UX design
What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
Love blending together needs of people and business while highlighting the exciting capabilities of technology. Translating human needs to computers and the creative power of design.
Cats or dogs?
Dogs

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Love this. Welcome Andrew.

Welcome Hailey. Have you tried some online courses. We have a good list here.

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I have responded to recruiters. It’s frustrating because a lot of them don’t understand what a UX designer is: the header says UX designer, but the job is clearly for a front-end developer. The other problem is that most recruiters haven’t taken the time to read my resume. The job description will ask for many skills that I don’t have on my skill list. I’m developing relationships with the recruiters who “get it,” but I’m also interested in finding the companies that don’t use them and I’m not sure how to start.

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Hello All! :slight_smile:

About me:

Where in the world are you?
Sydney Australia

What stage of your career are you at?
I’m a Business Analyst and at a career transition phase - thinking of shifting to a hybrid role of Business Analyst/UX Design. I’m doing a UX Design course (working on 3-4 live projects). After the course, I am hoping to find a role that encompasses strategy, analysis and design.

What are you current challenges?

  1. I’m a big picture thinker who is also detail oriented and passionate about the human experience and psychology. I’m an end-to-end Business Analyst and I love being a BA. I use Product Development, Service Design, Customer Experience, Change Management and Business Process Analysis principles as a BA. I’m also passionate about the user’s experience (both from end-customer/user perspective as well as business employees who will be (i) supporting the customer, and (ii) using the tools and systems that would enable them to support the customer. I am also technical. I’m wondering if there is a role that straddles these areas? I don’t want to be pigeon holed into one specialist role, eg. BA or UX Designer, etc. I looked at the Product Designer vs UX Designer role- Would there be other types of roles that cover what I’m looking for?

  2. Although I have done many elements of UX Design as a BA and in my previous role as Web Designer/Admin/Developer, I haven’t borne an official title of “UX Designer”. I’ve also just been recently formally educated in design. (The “formal” education just made me realize that I’m already doing those skills and techniques being taught. The only difference is the labels/naming conventions used and the applications used). The recruiter I spoke with said that due to this I’m considered as a “Junior Designer”. I’m a Senior BA and I’m wondering how I can portray a BA/Designer resume that portrays these hybrid skillsets even if I haven’t specialized in a pure UX Design role…?

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
I’m passionate about human centered design thinking - the psychology of the user and being able to create an experience for the user that is simple, efficient, and a joy to use.

Cats or dogs?
I like the big wild cats - the panther and lion. To keep at home I prefer domesticated dogs.

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Welcome Nina. @simon_lash may have some advice around how you pitch yourself to potential employers.

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Thank you Sarah, I’ve checked out @simon_lash threads and saw one that gave useful advice. Thanks again.

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Apologies for the delay! I have been “up north” as we say in Ontario and I try to disconnect as best I can.

This problem you are facing is not limited to recruiters but hiring managers as well. There are threads here about “unicorns” where the lines between UI/UX/Front End are all blurred and UXers are expected to be everything all at once. Keep building your relationships with the knowledgeable recruiters.

I agree. Get out into some friendly spaces to get some in person conversations going. Check out some meetups in your area but don’t limit yourself to UX specific ones. Often initiative based communities are ripe with great contacts. Groups who focus on Civic Tech, Women in Tech, Environmental Tech or whatever initiative you have an interest in are often awesome places to network without having to explicitly “network.”

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I wouldn’t consider you a junior designer by any means. I imagine that BA experience would be complimentary to UX, as you can define a problem or opportunity/requirements and then communicate a solution. Ie having big picture perspective where you can identify what a system is meant to do and then make sure its navigable to ensure adoption. Plus the ability to communicate UX considerations to stakeholders as well as skill overlap: data driven, process oriented etc.

Off the top, I would imagine this type of hybrid role lends itself to project based roles, management or Start up companies where roles are less siloed. I am going to talk to someone here with more BA knowledge who can give better insight than I can. Will report back!

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Where in the world are you? Germany but I´m from Colombia.
What stage of your career are you at? I am actually a fashion designer, master degree in marketing management and interested in fashion marketing, I came to love and need UX design.
What are you current challenges? to find a job in Germany. :slight_smile:
What aspect/s of UX are passionate about? I find passionating the process of create all the interaction with the customer and build long term solutions/relationships for him/her.
Cats or dogs? Two beautiful Colombian kittens support me in my adventures♥

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Cute!

Welcome. :slight_smile:

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Thanks Simon! A few people in my previous job did say I would be great in a startup. I’m curious to see what your contact with the BA knowledge thinks about this hybrid role.

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Where in the world are you?
I am from Punjab, India

What stage of your career are you at?
I am associate team lead in designing having 7+years of visual designing. In this period, I have worked on several designing stuffs like sketching, wire framing, prototyping, mobile and web app designing, banner designing, email template designing.

What are you current challenges?
I am solo UX designer, trying to get my feet wet in UX industry.

What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
The design thinking and the approach of making things that makes people life easy.

Cats or dogs?
Dogs

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Ah yes, you’ll find yourself in good company. A lot of us are solo UXers.
Welcome.

I visited India (Jodphur) last year and I loved it. Beautiful.

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Where in the world are you? Chicago USA
What stage of your career are you at? Senior Product Designer, Junior Visual Designer, Junior Developer
What are you current challenges? Should I focus on Craft or Empathy Ambassadorship/Management (or both?)
What aspect/s of UX are passionate about? Empathy and craft - also I have a love/hate relationship with complex systems thinking.
Cats or dogs? I choose both!! ( but and I have 2 dogs)

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Interesting question. Can you elaborate on them?

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In my most recent ux gig (big corporation), the core design team was grown out (doubled in size) not because of our impact on the outcome of projects (though we did usually help in material ways) but because we brought empathy to the business units we worked with. Being a teacher of collaborative teamwork / ‘design thinking’ … valuing empathy above all other skills we could bring to a project as its UX contingency… was, I am told, supposed to be our real goal in each new team / on each new project. We were almost there to spread the gospel of empathetic communication… and sometimes were not even expected to deliver a ton of actual design material or hard improvement right away.

Though parts of this were frustrating, it was usually a positive way for me to work. I found that my insights as a designer were usually better when I allowed the collaborative/creative process to truly affect/effect my course of action.

If this type of creative facilitation IS the craft, perhaps I have my answer.

When I am gameplanning a new project, however, the academic facets of formal UX practice/ the Hard Skills feel very imperative to my approach. Research, documentation, systems architecture, coding, visual design, etc… all still feel like hard skills that are improvable and valuable… Like being a lawyer is a hard skill - or being a mathematician is a hard skill.

This is probably is the issue I am struggling with. On the one hand, a skilled interdisciplinary team can use empathy and very earnest collaborative ethos to bridge academic/practical gaps. On the other, folks who hone the hard skills of Digital Interaction/Information/UX … Design…(planning for digital projects, helping with technical decisions that will effect UX, learning platforms, getting really great at research, etc…) can really make a great impact as divide-bridgers, decision-makers and (on the occasions when truly needed) one-human-bands. Finding balance seems tough sometimes.

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