The ONE Secret to Landing a Jr/First UX Job That Senior Designers Won’t Tell You

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/a></figcaption></figure><h1 id="a50b">The psychology of it all</h1><p id="f218">When I was in sales, I was told that people will buy from you if they trust you as a person, more than if they trust your data. It can all look good on paper, but people want to know you believe in what you’re selling.</p><p id="cdb1">In this case, you’re selling yourself.</p><p id="c61b">Everything you do, from your LinkedIn profile, to your resume, to your portfolio, communicates who you think you are, and what you think you are capable of.</p><p id="1b00">Again, I’ve written on these topics, so you can refer to my articles or others like them, but common advice here is to not frame yourself as a Junior (read: <i>inexperienced newb</i>), but as a well-rounded, experienced, contributor, collaborator and leader.</p><h1 id="2151">Gain confidence the hard way</h1><p id="33e3">The best way to gain confidence is the hard way — by earning it: by hands-on school projects, by volunteering and by working.</p><h1 id="036e">Gain confidence the easy way.</h1><p id="8e15">You can also ga

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in confidence the free and easy way! You can pump yourself by keeping in mind some basic simple truths:</p><p id="6c20"><b>Senior Designers aren’t better designers than you. </b>They’ve just been doing it longer. And they may lack the fresh eyes and perspective you have. And they may lack the up-to-date industry training that you have. And you may specialize in an area that they don’t know or care that much about, but will be such a huge asset to your next employer.</p><p id="d588">For example, I came into UX with a background in journalism, so I’m awesome at user research. I’ve had mentors that could school me on my pixels, but probably couldn’t hold a conversation about contemporary research tools.</p><p id="5a51"><b>You’ll get there eventually. </b>I came into UX design as a career-transitioner with a lot of failures and successes under my belt. I wasn’t thinking “will I fail?” and I wasn’t measuring my success against others. I knew that there would be ups and downs, but as long as I kept improving, I’d get there. And so will you!</p></article></body>

The ONE Secret to Landing a Jr/First UX Job That Senior Designers Won’t Tell You

(hint: you’re probably not doing anything wrong)

Every week, I see heartbreaking Linkedin posts from new bootcamp and college grads, lamenting how they aren’t getting interviews, call backs or offers.

Now, you can read my other articles about building a better resume or portfolio. But what I want to talk about today is the secret sauce that you are missing, the advice that I have not seen dished out anywhere else (which leads me to believe that they just don’t want you to know!)

The secret is confidence.

Regardless of your confidence, don’t try this at home. Photo by Blake Weyland on Unsplash

The psychology of it all

When I was in sales, I was told that people will buy from you if they trust you as a person, more than if they trust your data. It can all look good on paper, but people want to know you believe in what you’re selling.

In this case, you’re selling yourself.

Everything you do, from your LinkedIn profile, to your resume, to your portfolio, communicates who you think you are, and what you think you are capable of.

Again, I’ve written on these topics, so you can refer to my articles or others like them, but common advice here is to not frame yourself as a Junior (read: inexperienced newb), but as a well-rounded, experienced, contributor, collaborator and leader.

Gain confidence the easy way.

You can also gain confidence the free and easy way! You can pump yourself by keeping in mind some basic simple truths:

Senior Designers aren’t better designers than you. They’ve just been doing it longer. And they may lack the fresh eyes and perspective you have. And they may lack the up-to-date industry training that you have. And you may specialize in an area that they don’t know or care that much about, but will be such a huge asset to your next employer.

For example, I came into UX with a background in journalism, so I’m awesome at user research. I’ve had mentors that could school me on my pixels, but probably couldn’t hold a conversation about contemporary research tools.

You’ll get there eventually. I came into UX design as a career-transitioner with a lot of failures and successes under my belt. I wasn’t thinking “will I fail?” and I wasn’t measuring my success against others. I knew that there would be ups and downs, but as long as I kept improving, I’d get there. And so will you!