How I got my first job in UX Design with no experience, portfolio, or interview
10 tips and strategies to make yourself “stand out”
The first time I attended a career fair, I had no idea what I was doing. I was pursuing a degree in Computer Science, and I really enjoyed this new concept I’d discovered called “UX Design”, but I had nothing to show.
My resume was like a bag of chips. You know those nice-looking bags of Lays that are all big and puffy? And then you open one and inside there’s only one chip? Yeah. That was me. As demonstrated in this 14-second video:
So instead of distributing my empty bag of chips, I went from booth to booth asking every company, “What do you look for in a candidate?” After talking with recruiters from Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe, and 20+ other companies, the most evaluated factor became clear:
“What makes you stand out? What have you done to go above and beyond?”
Since then, I’ve applied the following 10 tips and strategies to make myself “stand out” and ultimately land my first job as a UX designer.
1. Put Yourself Out There 🚀
During my senior year of college, I became the President of the UX Design Club at my university. How? I simply showed up to every club event. Others noticed how reliable and consistent I was, and as a result, I was nominated as the next president.
That opportunity later became one of the strongest selling points on my resume, but I never would have been given that opportunity if I hadn’t been putting myself out there. So take action! Get out of your comfort zone, and put yourself out there.
“A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.” -Francis Bacon
2. Don’t Have Experience? Create Your Own! 💡
I hear this all the time. That entry-level UX position requires 1-2 years of experience, but you can’t get experience without having experience.
Here’s the secret: Create your own experience!
Ideas for “creating” your own experience:
- Volunteer your skills at a non-profit organization or small local business
- Team up with a friend, co-worker, or family member to create something
- Do freelance work, or start your own business
- Volunteer at your school’s UX club or a local design meetup
- Start your own UX club or local design meetup
- Participate in a hackathon or app competition
- Attend a boot camp, or earn a UX certificate
- Start a blog, podcast, or YouTube channel about UX
- Find a problem in the real world and solve it
While I didn’t have any previous professional design work experience, I ended up creating my own comparable experience that made my resume stand out. This helped me build the confidence and skill set I needed to become a UX Designer.
3. Share Your Work 👩💻
While I didn’t have a formal design portfolio with written case studies, I still worked on side projects. One project I felt passionate about was building an app for my community. By applying the full product design process, I ended up publishing an app that ranked #2 in its Google Play store category.
Whatever you create, don’t let it sit in a folder on your desktop or leave it as an unfinished draft you’ll “get back to later”. Start getting feedback now. The first release doesn’t have to be perfect. You can always improve it later.
Pro tip: Just because I didn’t have a design portfolio doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have one. I still believe it is one of the most reliable methods for junior designers to get their first job in UX.
4. Quantify Your Achievements 🏆
My whole life I’ve always had a funny knack for counting things. For example, while living in Mexico for 2 years, I started keeping track of how many tortillas I ate — a grand total of 3,412 tortillas! (Yes, that’s a lot of tacos.)
While the number of tortillas you eat may not impress an employer, relevant quantifiable achievements will. Most people, especially designers, seem to struggle with this. And yet, measuring success is a design skill you will need.
For example, which of these two achievements sound more impressive?
- A) Redesigned a landing page
- B) Redesigned a landing page that increased user conversion rates by 47%
Every resume in the world can say option A, but if you want yours to stand out, then upgrade it to option B.
Interlude
Quantified achievements along with the first 3 tips made my resume stand out and landed me my first job as an Android Developer Intern at a small company. It wasn’t a glamorous, design-led company like Apple or AirBnb, but it was an intimate group of smart, determined people. While I had my foot in the door to the tech world, there was still much more for me to do to become a UX Designer.
5. Find Mentors 👩🏽🏫
The design community is amazing. There are so many people out there willing to share their advice or volunteer their time. The small tech company I started at had one UX designer, and she became one of my most influential mentors. I also found mentors through professors at my university, people I met at local design events, and designers I followed online.
Pro tip: Don’t just settle for one mentor — find multiple mentors! Each mentor will offer unique perspectives that will help you grow.
6. Keep Learning 📖
The internet is in your pocket. Use it! At no other time in history has the human race had such abundant access to information…and most of it is free.
There are countless books, articles, videos, podcasts, tutorials, and courses out there. Read. Listen. Watch. Consume. Learn. Grow. Repeat daily. The fact that you’re still reading this article already shows your desire to learn.
Pro tip: For every new concept you learn, try finding a source with an opposing point of view. Challenge assumptions, and study with an open mind.
7. Network 👋
As someone who is naturally introverted, this takes a lot of effort for me, but I push myself to do it anyway. Why? Because it’s effective, and it’s another skill you will need in your career.
Simply put, networking is building meaningful relationships with others. This can include your friends, family, co-workers, mentors, users, people you look up to, strangers you meet at a local event, your dentist or car mechanic, etc…
Pro tip: Focus less on what you gain from others and rather what you can offer them.
8. Identify Career Transition Strategies 🚩
There are four common transition strategies I’ve observed for how most junior designers get their first job:
1) Blind Application
This is exactly as it sounds. Blindly apply at as many companies as possible with open positions.
- Pros: It’s very easy to do.
- Cons: It’s not very effective and quickly becomes demoralizing when you don’t hear back from companies.
2) Networking
Remember that tip on networking? In 2016, 70% of people were hired at a company where they had a connection.
- Pros: It’s super effective.
- Cons: It takes time to build a network of meaningful relationships.
3) Freelance / Start a Business
Want to be your own boss? Then hire yourself! Congratulations. You are now a UX Designer.
- Pros: You can start doing this today.
- Cons: This requires a strong entrepreneurial mindset and involves a lot of risk. You’ll also miss out on mentorship from senior designer co-workers.
4) Internal Transition
Do you want to bypass the entire process of applying including resumes, portfolios, and interviews? Then try becoming a UX Designer where you’re currently at! If there are already UX designers at your company, start talking to them. Offer to help out with user research. Ask if you can join some of their workshops. Build an alliance between your departments.
What if there are no UX designers at your company? Great! That means there’s probably a large UX gap at your company that you can fill. Regardless of your role, start applying the human-centered design process in your work.
- Pros: You’re already hired, and you can bypass the entire process of applying.
- Cons: This strategy requires the right kind of company environment and a supportive manager who’s willing to help you with your career goals.
“Internal Transition” was the career strategy I used to become a UX Designer.
9. Don’t Wait To Be Asked 🏃🏾♂️
As my small company quickly grew from 17 employees to 120, the UX efforts became a bit uncoordinated. So I proposed we start a “UX Guild” that met weekly. Everyone agreed that sounded like a great idea — but who would lead and coordinate the efforts? Because of my initiative to start the UX Guild, I was later asked to become the leader.
I didn’t wait for someone to ask me to start the guild though. I simply saw a need, validated it with others, and took initiative.
Pro tip: Instead of waiting for your manager to ask you to do something, identify their concerns and the challenges they are facing. Make their life easier by proactively helping solve their problems.
10. Dare To Ask 🙋🏽♀️
While I was originally hired as an Android Developer Intern, I summoned the courage to ask my CTO if I could be involved in some of the user research efforts at my company. He didn’t see a problem with that as long as I was getting my coding work done. This required me to be diligent. After several months, others were seeing the benefits of having a developer act as a bridge between design and code. Before I knew it, I was spending more time doing design and user research than coding.
At the end of my internship, my CTO offered me a full-time developer position. This moment required the courage to ask. I countered the offer and asked for a full-time position as a UX Designer instead.
The worst answer I could receive was “no”. The answer I did receive was “yes”.
Conclusion
We’ve all probably felt like that empty bag of potato chips at one point or another. But there are actionable steps you can take today to fill your bag to the top with delicious, salty chips. Rebrand the packaging if needed, but make sure the inside is a tasty, enticing delight when someone opens it up.
Realize that your path will be unique.
Just as no two potato chips look the same, every designer will have their own unique path and story. While I can’t guarantee these tips will land you your first job in UX Design, I am completely confident the underlying concepts will help you get there.
Thank you for reading
Do you know someone else that could benefit from these tips? Share this article with them! What additional tips do you have? Share in the comments below! 🙌
Sincerely,
Mitch Clements
A Message Of Concern
I recognize not everyone has the same privileges or access to the same opportunities or resources as I have had in my life. This has led me to volunteering my time and expertise to help other designers progress in their careers. If you have questions, please email me at mitchclements.design@gmail.com.
