Things not to worry about in your UX career
A letter to a Junior UXer
I read a research study about how young’uns can’t imagine ageing, changing and evolving, and looking back on their younger selves. This is why they are generally bad at listening to and acting on advice from us oldies.
And yet I hear a lot of fears and concerns from juniors which are the same as I had 15 years ago, only back then it was without mentorship or the medium of Medium for support.
So today’s exercise — possibly in futility — is to try and share some truths I have uncovered in my UX career that I wish I had known 15 years ago, but which I probably would not have listened to then anyway…
Fear #1: I’ve not come through the same career route as everyone else
Reality: There is no “correct route” into UX
I came into the industry at the time of small specialist agencies stuffed full of people with Masters degrees and PhDs. There was a big barrier up if you didn’t have the right academic qualifications and it almost drove me out.
I learned a lot from these guys, but today I can see a lot of people at my career stage who also don’t have these degrees, but are doing just fine and in some cases, are doing the job a hell of a lot better day-to-day because of the kinds of skills you don’t learn at University.
Fear #2: I’m not as good as the people with degrees
Reality: People with degrees are not better than you, they just had a jump start
Again, it is not compulsory to have a degree in a UX-related subject. If you are lucky, fortunate, rich, or other conditions were met by which you ended up having a UX-relevant degree then well done. But it doesn’t make you better at your job than everyone else.
I have worked with many UX people with impressive degrees; some of them were awesome, but also some of them designed badly, were riddled with biases and assumptions, mishandled client situations or just didn’t care as much as they should.
You might not need the degree, but you do need the knowledge
However — a knowledge of human psychology, design theory, research methods — yes you do need this. You cannot skip this and start wireframing. Well, you can, but you’ll be a crap UXer.
It is possible to gain an education without a university degree, it does require effort (sorry, hard things are hard) but if you care enough and can apply yourself to a large reading list and maybe find a couple of mentors to answer questions, then you will gain a strong theoretical basis to start applying to your day to day work.
Fear #3: I can’t teach myself what I need to know
Reality: Self-motivated study is your foundation and salvation
How does knowledge enter brain if not via a university course? Well via books and academic papers, and by the discussion of same with whoever you can find to talk to who knows more than you.
I’ve always been a massive reader and consumer of UX books and academic research. Inserting knowledge into my brain persistently, and then looking for opportunities to test it on the job, or discuss it with others has been the foundation of my career.
The bad news is that self-study is by definition self-motivated. As always, hard things are hard. If you need a little help on this, I can’t motivate you but I have provided an epic reading list and a methodology for filling your brain.
Fear #4: I’m never going to be good at everything
Reality: You don’t need to be good at everything
There is so much pressure out there to learn and do everything in what is a massive field. This is partly because there’s lots involved in the wider skill set, the people who tend to do UX work tend to get excited about learning and doing New Things.
But also there is a tendency to arrogance, especially on social media, around the need to also be a UI designer, also be a coder, also be a data analyst, a product strategist, or whatever.
It’s nonsense. You need to be competent at the things you claim you can do; useful to a team, a client or a company (so that they pay you), and you need to be interesting to your own self. That’s it.
Fear #5: All the skills I’ve learned in non-UX jobs were a waste of time
Reality: Some of the most useful skills you have are legacy skills
If you’ve switched career or even if you’ve just got some interesting life experience, things you dismiss now because they are “not UX skills” will become incredibly useful later in life.
If you’ve had a past life in sales, recruitment, project management, data entry or manual labour — all of these will manifest surprisingly on the day job, making you uniquely qualified to solve some unexpected UX problem. Never dismiss the value of your legacy skills.
Fear #6: I’m going to get caught out
Reality: Everyone has imposter syndrome (if they say they don’t, they probably should have it)
I’ve written about this before, but there’s nothing wrong with having imposter syndrome so long as you use it to stay humble and not to torture yourself and others. In fact, if you meet someone who claims not to have imposter syndrome, they are either lying, or they need to develop some.
Fear #7: Other peoples’ designs are prettier than mine
Reality: How you handle the client’s problem is more important than the fidelity of the design
In every scenario I can think of, if you’re doing UX work in exchange for cash then you have a client. Therefore the most important thing you can do is solve a user-based problem for that client. Brace yourself for controversy — the execution of the design solution is secondary.
The execution of the design solution is secondary to the successful solving of the problem
It is much harder to solve the design problem than to produce the shiny output at the end. Some of the best design brains I’ve worked with have been UX architects — and their solutions when put into design production have been incredibly effective, without the need for them to sit there and push pixels themselves.
Solving a problem is more exciting than designing a thing
There is a whole area of the UX/UI design world that appears to be about sharing “things” on social media. Most of these things (apart from using rage-inducing inaccessible colour contrasts) are absolutely nothing to do with any user problem. They are at best ‘practice’ and at worst ‘vanity UI’.
Truly understanding user needs, client problems, the space between them, and leveraging all your brain power to solve the overall design challenge is much more satisfying than colouring in something a certain way because you like it.
Note: this is personal advice-to-past-self. Some people prefer to sit behind a screen all day pushing UI pixels, and we thank you for your service.
Complex problems do not need complex software
Yes, if you want to be a UI designer, making assets for build, then you need to use All The Software. However, if you want to be a solver of design problems, in many cases, you need a brain and a pen. If possible, several of each.
Fear #8: I’m going to have to do this on my own
Reality: There are great mentors out there, you just need to find them
I mention above that I have benefited massively from more senior UXers who have patiently answered my questions on theory and methodologies. However if I could go back in time I would have tried to find myself an actual mentor who agreed to help me with my development as a UXer, rather than fighting my way through the industry alone.
My recommendation would be to find one person and invest everything you can into that relationship, to ensure you get the most out of it. It doesn’t have to be someone you work with, and it definitely doesn’t have to be your boss.
Over time, as your skill set grows and expands, I would try to find other mentors to complement that. It wasn’t until I was already a Head of Department that I found my first mentor(s) and although it wasn’t in the field of UX, it was critical to my professional development and my sanity.
Fear #9: My peers are so far ahead of me
Reality: Listen to your mentors, not your peers
Your peers are awesome, and they are your future network. I’m not saying don’t engage with them. But they do tend to be a little focused on the right now, the trends, the cool stuff and on being a bit competitive over who has the coolest project/job title/pile of cash. Whereas your mentors will have the macro view and see where your career is heading, especially at those moments where you are making career and job decisions.
Be patient, but invest effort
It takes time to learn things, to then practice them, to then become proficient. It takes time to get that promotion, that pay rise. It takes time to develop your professional network. It takes time to understand a user problem and find the right solution.
Things happen much more slowly at the beginning of your career, but unfortunately this is where you are much more full of desperate enthusiasm. Channel that enthusiasm into the pursuit of your own (self) education, not into bemoaning your lack of immediate reward.
Breathe.
The opportunities and the answers will come to you when you are ready.
Fear #10: I’m going to make the wrong career choices
Reality: Every boss and every job is an experience
A wise man once told me to always “choose my boss” (not the company, not the project, not the role). And I’ve tried to do that. But to be honest, I’ve still ended up with a series of hit-or-miss situations. From people who weren’t what they seemed or said at the interview, to people who left shortly after I started a job, to people who inherited me or my team and didn’t care. But also people who were amazing, from whom I learned masses in a short space of time.
However, the one consistent thing was the learning from those experiences. And what I learned mostly was how NOT to be a boss, and what things UX people value the most about good bosses. All of this has been experience I have integrated (hopefully) into the type of boss and mentor I try to be today.
Choose your projects
The type of work you do forms your portfolio and your wider skillset. It positions you as an app designer, or a CX consultant, or an Information Architect, or a pixel-perfect UI Designer. Although it may not feel like it, even as a permie you can choose the type of work you do and the type of UXer you become.
a) You can ask for certain types of projects
b) You can introduce new skills and approaches to existing projects
c) You can ask your bosses to go after a different type or work
d) If you can’t make a-c happen, you can leave your current job once you learn more about what you’d rather be doing
Fear #11: I‘m going to burn out before I “make it”
Reality: You need to find balance to be in it for the long haul
Get ready for this one.. the UX industry is not the only thing in the entire world that deserves your attention. It needs dedication when you’re working in exchange for money, and dedication when you’re learning. Being the best you can be and having professional and intellectual self-respect is the basis of the craft. The rest of the time, give yourself a break.
Get a side hustle
It is important to parallel-track your UX career with some other interest. This is for two main reasons:
- Even (or especially) if you immerse your brain in UX-related learning, there are still things you can learn from far outside the industry which will add unique and unexpected value to your day to day work.
- No matter how passionately you care about UX right now, in 15 years time it will to some extent have become “a job”, so you will need something that you love to do that can’t be dismissed because of clients, budgets or politics.
Invest in brain health
We are expert users, as an excellent friend of mine says, of wetware.
wetware: n. The brain.
As you have seen above, a lot of my advice-to junior UXers is about investing in education, study, self-awareness, relationships with others. All of this requires mental effort. And so the human brain also requires support and maintenance.
If I could go back in time, my advice to my former UX self is — do some exercise (sorry mate), eat better (particularly protein and if possible, oily fish), look after your mental health (take a break from things or people that upset you) and let anything that is total non-UX bullsh1t wash over you. By this I mean — do not let silliness, ignorance, laziness or the wilful disregard of user needs exhibited by others infiltrate the standards you set for your own craft.
Learn to vent
Things do not always go well in UX world. People do not always do what is right — on a project, for users or with a design. Sometimes clients don’t do what is right for the user, they will dismiss your research, they will ask you to make shit up because of Reasons.
What starts out as a young, idealistic, user-obsessed designer will over time become a cynical old fart. To prevent your impotent rage at the stupidity of others boiling over and making you hate everything that is UX, you need to have an outlet.
For me, it is humour and sarcasm. For others it is meet ups-and-whingeing, sports or side hustle (see above). Just get it out or you will start hating the industry when actually it’s just that people are nuts. Which is, after all, why we have a job.
And whatever you do, keep going. You’ve got this.
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