How To Find a Job in UX Design in 2023
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If you’re asking yourself “How do I find a job as a UX designer in 2023?”, then you’ve come to the right place. This year is chaotic for tech talent, to say the least. “More than 94,000 workers in U.S.-based tech companies (or tech companies with a large U.S. workforce) have been laid off in mass job cuts so far in 2023, according to a Crunchbase News tally. That number includes Cerebral‘s 285-person cut and Waymo‘s 209-person workforce cut.”
The layoffs sent shockwaves to companies, forcing employers to tighten budgets, and freeze hiring. In addition to fewer jobs on the market, some noticed that the the salaries for designers are significantly smaller compared to prior years.
But, on the optimistic side, there is a slow, careful re-awakening of the job market starting from March 2023, so it’s important to get your pieces together, ahead of the release of new roles.
📌 What do I need to get a job in UX?
You need 3 important puzzle pieces to start job searching:
Resume
Portfolio
Yourself (for interviews!)
⚡ We teach the “see-saw” method where you have a minimally viable version of your portfolio, where you feel decently satisfied with what you have created, but there is room for improvement. Once you’re comfortable with the first iteration, send it out to recruiters, jobs, and listen to their feedback. Are they asking for extra case studies, extra skills that they don’t see displayed, extra A, B, C, D- now is the time to add more to improve for your next opportunity!
See-saw method = Add a little, send out portfolio to new jobs. Get feedback from recruiters and mentors. Refine the portfolio some more.
Our main job is to get you hired as a designer or researcher. It’s not to get you hired as a portfolio designer so please limit yourself and don’t over-exhaust yourself in the pursuit of perfection.
It’s incredibly important to understand what discipline you’d like to build your career in. It might seem limiting, to “reject” jobs you’re seeing, but if you’re not telling your story effectively, recruiters will dismiss your resume.
There are many ways to find what you’d like to focus on, including:
Conduct informational interviews with professionals on LinkedIn, ADP List, and local communities. Find design and research professionals and set up informational interviews to ask about their day-to-day projects, how they got to their point in their careers, what advice they could offer on your journey, and so on. Listen carefully to hear what elements really resonate with you, as this might help determine your future career choices.
Find a job that you would love to do. What key skills are they asking for? What UX, research, UI skills are they outlining? What characteristics is the job description highlighting? Consider how your experience measures against the job description by analyzing the description or by using sites like ResyMatch.
In sum, be considerate of the direction you wish to go. Consider if you’d like to go towards:
UX Research
UX Design
UI Design
Content strategy
📌 What is user experience research?
User experience research is the process of gathering and analyzing data about users' behaviors, needs, and perceptions of a product, service, or system. The goal of user experience research is to understand the user's experience and identify opportunities for improving it.
User experience research can take many forms, including surveys, interviews, usability testing, card sorting, and other qualitative and quantitative research methods. These methods can help designers and researchers gain insight into users' motivations, goals, and pain points, which can inform the design of better products and services.
The data gathered from user experience research can also help stakeholders and decision-makers understand the user's perspective and make informed decisions about product development, marketing, and other business decisions.
User Research Basics The types of user research you can or should perform will depend on the type of site, system or app you are developing, your timeline, and your environment.
Learn UX Research Methods with GIFs For those who don’t like to read long articles, GIFs will help to understand different User research methods quickly. And those who already know these methods can just smile.
Just Enough Research Good research is about asking more and better questions, and thinking critically about the answers. Done well, it will save your team time and money by reducing unknowns and creating a solid foundation to build the right thing, in the most effective way.
UX Research Cheat Sheet. User research can be done at any point in the design cycle. This list of methods and activities can help you decide which to use when.
📌 What is UX Design?
"User experience" encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products. (NNG) . User Experience refers to how a person feels when they interact with a product, service, or system. UX design is the process of creating and designing products that are both useful and enjoyable to use, while also meeting the user's needs and expectations.
UX design involves understanding the users' behaviors, goals, and needs through research and analysis, and then creating design solutions that address these needs. This can include designing interfaces that are easy to navigate, creating visual designs that are aesthetically pleasing, and ensuring that the product meets the user's expectations.
In summary, UX design is about creating products that are intuitive, user-friendly, and enjoyable to use, in order to provide the best possible experience for the user.
The 101
The Definition of User Experience (UX). True user experience goes far beyond giving customers what they say they want, or providing checklist features.
User Experience Design Process. Overview of Stakeholders and Activities involved in each stage
“No product is an island. A product is more than the product. It is a cohesive, integrated set of experiences. Think through all of the stages of a product or service – from initial intentions through final reflections, from the first usage to help, service, and maintenance. Make them all work together seamlessly.”
— Don Norman, inventor of the term “User Experience.”
Design Thinking
An Introduction to Design Thinking PROCESS GUIDE A PDF on the design thinking process fro Stanford’s D School
The Design Sprint The sprint is a five-day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers. Developed at GV, it’s a “greatest hits” of business strategy, innovation, behavior science, design thinking, and more—packaged into a battle-tested process that any team can use.
📌 What is UI Design?
UI stands for User Interface, which refers to the visual and interactive elements of a product, service, or system that a user interacts with in order to perform tasks or access information.
UI design is the process of designing these visual and interactive elements, such as buttons, menus, icons, and typography, to make them intuitive, easy to use, and aesthetically pleasing. UI designers aim to create interfaces that are visually appealing and provide a seamless user experience.
UI design is closely related to UX design, as the two are often intertwined in the process of creating digital products. While UX design is concerned with the overall user experience, UI design is focused specifically on the visual and interactive design elements of the interface.
Design Resources
Design System Repo A frequently updated collection of Design System examples, articles, tools and talks.
Material Design Material 3 is the latest version of Google’s open-source design system. Design and build beautiful, usable products with Material 3.
📌 How to get a job in UX as a junior designer?
The process for finding a job in UX is different for every designer. The steps we suggest for you to take are:
Create a resume: Your resume should be conscience and it should weave in storytelling about each one of your roles. We advise for the resume to be the first thing you work on because it’s going to be a PDF or a Word document that you can export and submit to jobs. As you send out your resume (a static document), you can keep working on your portfolio, finetuning it with images and new case studies.
Your resume should include:
Name, phone number, title (UX Designer, Researcher, etc)
Clear job descriptions that tell a story of your work at a job.
Tell a story with your job descriptions
First line of the resume should describe the work you’ve done at a company.
Some lines should be dedicated to describing specific projects you might have done at the company
Keep your resume to 1 page (unless you have 5+ years of experience)
Keep your education at the bottom of the page (unless it’s directly relevant).
Add a little fun, a little color! Choose a nice branding that suits you (but you can also keep it all black and white!).
Borrow inspiration from well-written job postings from LinkedIn. Look at established companies like banks and Fortune 500 companies, who have HR professionals write the descriptions.
Build a portfolio: As a junior designer, it's important to showcase your skills and projects to potential employers. Build a portfolio that demonstrates your design skills, thought process, and problem-solving ability. Include a variety of projects that demonstrate your range of skills and design thinking.
Your portfolio shell could have :
A home page with a quick synopsis of who you are (1-2 sentences)
Your best projects (case studies) highlighted, with an easy-to-access entry point. We suggest having 3–5 case studies of your work that includes:
At least 1 project that shipped
At least 1 mobile and/or 1 web project
At least 1 project with user research
Projects from different industries or different end-users
Uniform, neat covers for your projects
Contact page or section.
Contact info must include phone number, LinkedIn, and email. Your city is optional, and your address is 100% not needed.
An ‘About Me’ page
Link to your resume for PDF download (optional)
Link to any relevant social media including LinkedIn, Instagram (only if it relates to design), your blog, etc. (optional)
Your case studies should have:
Project overview
Deliverables
Platforms
Your role
Your responsibilities
Your team structure
Your learnings
Any takeaways
Follow the Hourglass of Value Method to write out your case studies
Context [company/ industry wide]
Describe the industry and the challenges
Who are the competitors of the company
Describe wide challenges. Big picture, future state thinking.
Situation / Background [project info]
Tell the reader more about what the project background was.
Task / Problem
What did you decide to do? What hypotheses did you have?
Action / Process
What did you discover through the action / process that influenced your solution?
Why did you choose specific methods over other methods for your work?
What key themes have you found? How did that influence the result?
Result [project specific]
Focus on how did your findings from the process show themselves in the result.
Impact [HUGE, company/industry wide]
What did the company do with the project?
What are the next steps?
What learnings did you have?
Create a presentation version of your portfolio (when you have an interview lined up)
Use Figma community to find deck templates.
Be thoughtful in your visual design and use Figma community resources to add visual elements including:
Chrome mockup :
iPhone mockup: https://www.figma.com/community/file/1198744553952525955
UX Case Study Presentation Deck By Alexandra Benton https://www.figma.com/community/file/1114190406855018702
Network with other designers: Attend design meetups, conferences, and events. Join design communities on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Connect with other designers, UX professionals, and mentors who can provide advice, guidance, and job opportunities.
Apply for internships: Consider applying for internships or entry-level positions that can help you gain real-world experience and build your portfolio. Go to LinkedIn to locate internships with specific companies, especially during Winter and Spring months.
Apply for junior UX designer roles: Look for junior UX designer roles at companies that you are interested in working for. Make sure your portfolio and resume are up-to-date and tailored to the position you are applying for. Be prepared to showcase your design skills and talk about your design process during the interview process.
In summary, to get a job in UX as a junior designer, focus on developing your skills and knowledge, building a portfolio, networking with other designers, applying for internships, and applying for junior UX designer roles. With hard work and persistence, you can land your first UX design job.
The skinny on the job market
Is it hard to get a job in UX? Is it hard to get a job in UX? The short answer? Yes, it is. However, it is not impossible. With the proper guidance, tips, and tricks, you can smoothly get your way into the UX industry. But how would you do that?
8 Reasons Why You Still Don’t Have a UX Job There are a lot of reasons why you may not have a UX job, but here are some reasons why you can’t get a job in the UX industry. Sometimes there are things you could be doing better and sometimes it isn’t your fault.
📌 How hard is it to get a job in UX design?
Getting a job in UX design can be challenging, but it's possible with the right skills, experience, and approach. The level of difficulty in landing a job in UX design can vary depending on a number of factors, including your level of experience, the demand for UX designers in your area, and the overall state of the job market.
One of the key factors that can affect the difficulty of getting a job in UX design is the level of competition for available positions. As UX design continues to grow in importance and popularity, there is an increasing number of professionals entering the field, which can make it more challenging for job seekers to stand out.
Another factor that can influence the level of difficulty in landing a UX design job is your level of experience. Junior UX designers, for example, may find it more challenging to secure a job as they are still building their skills and developing their portfolio.
Additionally, the demand for UX designers can vary depending on the industry and location. Certain industries, such as technology, finance, and healthcare, may have a higher demand for UX designers, while other industries may have fewer opportunities available.
Despite these challenges, there are steps you can take to increase your chances of landing a job in UX design. These include developing a strong understanding of UX design principles and methodologies, building a portfolio that showcases your design skills and process, gaining real-world experience through internships, freelance work, or personal projects, networking with other designers and industry professionals, and staying up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies in UX design.