We want you to be part of our team, and that means we need to know what makes you tick.
So…
p.s. If you’re not happy with your username, you can change it here.
The UX story is not necessarily too big of an ask, to be fair I haven’t noticed that thread exists at all. 
But since I’m new, I’ll kick it off with the questions!
Hey @AnjaM – welcome! The UX stories thread used to be linked to from all our welcome/onboarding emails, but I changed that yesterday to this thread. I figure we’ll see how it goes. Thanks for kicking things off!
Great story. 
What role are you currently in (assuming it’s not the UX researcher one)?
What is most challenging about establishing the role? Are you getting buy in from other parts of the business?
I just joined today and can’t wait to dive into all this information!
Welcome @csteller – I love your enthusiasm.
I was a stay at home mum too (I have 7 year olds) and have slowly phased the work in over the years. I’m now full time but still work from home and don’t have to put the kids in care. It means some early starts and late finishes, but I love the flexibility that a digital career affords us.
You’ve come to the right place to learn. This crowdsourced article by our very own community is a great starting point. Have a read and feel free to start as many new threads as you need to in order to progress.
Since I don’t think I ever posted a UX story, I think I’d better make a contribution here!
It’s a UX Researcher role. My company is very supportive, since they hired me into this role despite knowing I’ve never done it before, and instead letting me learn on the job. Of course, I did have extensive theoretical knowledge from my studies, I was only lacking the UX specifics (such as knowing about personas, user journeys etc.) and practical experience.
The company I work for has a very long history and is well established; the most challenging part of the new role is basically to show why it is important to have UX experts (since the company managed to get through without one for so long).
Hi fellow UXers,
Hi, My name is Chris and I live in Los Angeles, CA. I’m coming from broadcast production, mostly editing for television and I’m excited to be moving into UX. I feel that my skills working with giants in the entertainment industry have prepared me pretty well to focus on Users, their needs, AND balance it with client desires. What I love most is that I’m hoping to wear a variety of different hats, sometimes doing research, sometimes creative, lots of collaboration, and working with people… Dogs…
Super Idea Hawk.
Where in the world are you?
Galway, Ireland. Beautiful medieval city on edge of Europe, great arts scene. Growing startup/tech sector. Very large
Medical Device Tech sector also. Christopher Columbus visited here before finding America. (Checking the weather I believe).
What stage of your career are you at?
Been working in Graphic Design and Publishing for ages. Sent the past few years learning and studying as much UX related stuff. (Currently doing a BSc in Design & Digital Technology). and building up a portfolio of work. (which needs to be updated a bit http://paddyux.webflow.io/) Haven’t looked to move jobs yet, probably moving to Australia in next year or so (My wife is Australian).
What are you current challenges?
Studying mostly, finding time. Getting real work experience is always a challenge in UX. Convincing people to ask and trust what user are saying.
What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
Done some live user testing which was great. Seeing user find problems you missed is real bonus.
Cats or dogs?
Dogs are people too.
Paddy
Hi all,
I live near Paris, France,
I’m a baby boomer, and I’ve done a variety of things in my life
My current challenge is that my company having been merged into a larger one, my job has become much less interesting
I’m passionate about making interfaces and products simple and useful for users
Cats I guess
For more about me, check out my portfolio: http://fvila.fr/portfolio_responsive
I’m in the greater Boston area, MA, USA.
Just starting to try to get into UX. Working on a friend’s design project to try to get something into a portfolio eventually, since it seems like every UX job - internship or not - wants a portfolio.
Current challenges seems to be focus, really. There’s SO MUCH, and it’s actually really difficult to get a general overview of what to do during a design project. So far, I’ve figured out overarching goals for my theoretical users and for the business, some flow/journey thoughts, and done some initial mockups in balsamiq. I’m trying to figure out who to ask to be my sample users for user testing (probably friends and family, to start, preferably not people who are already in UX). I asked a bunch of questions when my friend initially explained his idea, just to get a better idea of what he was thinking so that I could figure out who the users might be.
I want to know All The Things! More seriously, it feels like an excellent combination of software testing (which I did for 10 years) and psychology research - which I have a masters in and just left a PhD program due to insufficient support on the CS side of an interdisciplinary program. I also really like writing documentation for things, because otherwise I forget things or I don’t understand them, so a good reason to need to explain things and write them is lovely. I don’t know if there’s anything I’m not at least curious about. But I’m early enough that it’s hard to say that there is anything specific that I’m passionate about. That said, I’m really interested in diving into accessibility, once I finish getting my foundation stuff in UX done.
I have cats, I like both, and actually I like darned near all animals (not cockroaches because of how they move, mosquitoes because they carry nasty things and their bites itch, and ticks because of the aforementioned nasty things).
Where in the world are you?
Christchurch, New Zealand. Moved here after the huge earthquakes to complete my masters (everyone thought I was crazy).
What stage of your career are you at?
I’ve gone and done all the studying I ever want to do now (other than courses and workshops for growth), and the last thing I finished up with was a Masters in Human Interface Technology. I’ve been working in UX for 3 years solidly now . I work for a company who produce software that helps solve crime and ingest and analyse large amounts of data to find patterns and connect the dots.
What are your current challenges?
With an expanding team across different timezones and locations, keeping up with everything and making sure that we are communicating and helping out where we can is becoming quite important. We are also fighting the never ending battle to try get access to our users (we have a bit of red tape because of the area we are in) in order to help make our designs more data driven than based around interviews, personas and SMEs.
Another challenge currently is figuring out specific target markets and what problems we are actually trying to solve, rather than just porting across old functionality into our web solution.
What aspect/s of UX are you passionate about?
Really all of them, mine’s less based around the process and more the fact that the things we help design and problems we can help solve make a difference in the world. We can do our part bit by bit . I’m also really into sketching and ideation with copic markers.
Cats or dogs?
I love both, but we recently got an 8 month staffie bull terrier x and she’s stolen my heart .
Where in the world are you?
I am currently studying at 2 universities simultaneously. One of them is located in Saint-Petersburg, Russia and another one in Lappeenranta, Finland.
What stage of your career are you at?
I guess I am at the beginning of my career. Almost done with studying, will get master’s degree soon. I have experience with helping to create front-end parts of a couple of websites.
What are you current challenges?
To complete my thesis sucessfully and find a decent job that I will love.
What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
As it is shown in my research (survey that I publicated) I am interested in the UX design methods and when they can be used.
Cats or dogs?
Both!:o
Where in the world are you?
Canberra, Australia
What stage of your career are you at?
I just passed the 5 year mark
What are you current challenges?
Building a greater depth to my technical expertise and figuring out ‘where to from here?’
What aspect/s of UX are passionate about?
User research and usability testing. I love it! I’m also quite passionate about mentoring and UX leadership stuff.
Cats or dogs?"
I’m a crazy cat lady- I have a black cat named Wednesday
Hello people! Nice to see this growing community and such a cozy place. Hope to see a lot of nice discussions here. Nice to meet you, my name is Eduardo.
1. Where in the world are you?
I’m from Recife, Brazil, but currently on my first year in the MFA program in Interaction Design at Umeå University, Sweden.
2. What stage of your career are you at?
As UX and UI designer I’ve been on the market since 2012, matching web front-ending, design and interaction design. I started my “official” studies on IxD last year, with my move to Umeå.
3. What are you current challenges?
Screens! And objective-thinking mindset of people.
4. What aspects of UX are passionate about?
Research and Prototyping. Concept development will always be great, but without a good research it will be inconsistent. Prototyping is great because you validate concepts and discover new things… and have fun!
5. Cats or dogs?
Dogs, preferably the ones with lot of energy to play
Welcome @Roxius – glad you found us! Wow, I bet Brazil --> Sweden was a pretty big culture shift!
Definitely! The weather is a great concern – I moved from 28-38ºC to 24 - (-24)ºC – but the culture is what marks, even though Umeå is full of international people… and the food. I miss Brazilian meat so bad! Hahahaha