How I got my first UX Design job

I am an Australian born Chinese designer currently based in Hong Kong. A few people ask me how I made the transition from marketing and graphic design to UX. To my surprise, there are marketing and graphic designer hybrids like me out there looking to grow their careers in UX so I thought I’d document my personal journey.

My Background

After graduating from University with a business degree in 2010, I quickly realised I wasn’t creatively satisfied so I studied to become a graphic designer while I worked full-time. I worked as a hybrid marketer and graphic designer for the next 6 years. During that time I started my own e-commerce business called No More Ugly which taught me everything from starting a brand, to manufacturing, logistics and customer service and everything that it takes to run a business.

I shared an equal love for business and design but at the time, there were no jobs that explicitly encapsulated both fields. It was either: be a really good graphic designer in terms of craft and art or be a really good digital marketer. Content creation came along and I thought I found the balance. But two years spent churning out photography and graphic tiles for businesses and constantly coming up with short term tactics to win the social media game made me incredibly unsatisfied and burnt out.

I started reading more about design strategy and the increased recognition for designers with business knowledge. Finally people were writing articles with the words design and business in the same breath and I felt like I found some hope. But design strategy as a role is still not as well defined as a role like UX design so that’s when I started looking more into UX.

Why I fell in love with UX

I realised it was more than mobile app and web design. It respects the whole design process where we are taught to understand people and to design with/for people. It’s about research, it’s about good design. It’s about solving problems. It’s about strategy. It’s about asking questions.

How I Got my first UX job

I focused on education

When I realised I wanted to get into UX, I started researching courses to do and obviously General Assembly and Academy Xi were the most popular courses but since I have worked as a graphic designer for most of my career, I didn’t want to spend the money to learn things I already knew. So I self taught myself through online courses (Interaction Design Foundation have good courses) and reading.

I researched what companies I wanted to work for

I started a spreadsheet with a list of companies I wanted to work for and why, so I could refer back to this once I was ready to apply for jobs. I documented their job descriptions and requirements to make sure my learning was targeted.

I redesigned my portfolio

The best thing you can do is practice what you’ve learnt on conceptual or real projects. Leverage the network you’ve got. I reached out to clients of mine to do UX projects for free. I also pursued a conceptual project that I was really passionate about. My portfolio is far from perfect but I was happy with the case studies I published. Moving from a graphics portfolio to a UX one takes planning and time. Understand your audience and who is ultimately viewing your portfolio.

I reached out to talented designers

I spent about 4 months working on my portfolio and constantly asked for feedback and reached out to UX and visual designers I knew to get advice. I am really grateful for the time everyone has given me to help me grow in my career. If you’re reading this, thank you! This community is full of nice and generous people.

I attended meetups and design events

I went to meetups to learn more about UX and get to know the UX community. OpenIDEO Sydney events were my favourite to attend to learn about design thinking for positive social impact. I ended up volunteering with them for about a year. I learnt to use design thinking to solve problems and facilitate workshops. This enriched my knowledge immensely and I met the best people.

OpenIDEO Sydney Chapter 2019: Designing for Mental Wellbeing at Work

I contacted recruiters and applied for jobs

Once my portfolio was ready, I reached out to recruiters and applied for jobs. (Pretty straight forward).

I’ll admit, a lot of interviewers were interested in my own business which I think at the time set me apart from others so I was able to leverage my marketing and business experience.

What I found most important is a strong portfolio (one that shows thinking), good presentation/communication skills and confidence in understanding business problems and not just focusing on aesthetics of design.

As a former graphic designer, good eye for design should be a given so to stand out, we have to either be really good at UI or show what other knowledge you can bring to a UX role — Eg. is it research, data, information visualisation, problem solving skills etc.

I prepared like crazy for my interviews

An obvious next step.

That’s my journey of how I became a UX designer. To me it seems quite straight forward, but it just takes time. I hope you enjoyed reading this and I’d love to know if your journey was similar or completely different!

From Marketing to Graphic Design to UX Design