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Career Coach for UX, Product, & Tech. Founder & CEO of Career Strategy Lab. UX Researcher & Product Designer.

Did you enroll in a *paid* UX boot-camp? In hindsight, what do you think you weren't prepared for upon graduating when it came to your UX job search, interview prep, etc? Writing an article and want to try and answer some of your questions #uxjobs #ux #ux #userexperience #uxdesign

Lizz Premer

User Experience Researcher | Senior Product & Experience Designer | Combining user research and design to create innovative products and intuitive experiences with business success in mind

4y

Sarah Doody Did you finish your article?

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Sarah Doody I Graduated from Ironhacks UX/UI Design Bootcamp. I felt like I was as prepared as I could be, with amazing mentors and the placements team behind me. However, I did find myself making mistakes that only happened because I panicked in front of hiring staff, or when there were break downs in communication in my interview process. I think in hindsight I think I could've made those situations better if I had accounted for situations where things don't go as I prepared and understood that I am interviewing the company as much as they are interviewing me. 

Denise Ortiz Rios

Senior UX Research Analyst @ Verizon Value Group

4y

Hi Sarah! I graduated from the Ironhack UX/UI Design Bootcamp (in Miami, FL) in March 2017. For me, it was well worth the investment and time to take the course, as I did not have professional design experience prior. I learned the fundamentals of UX methodologies and User Interface principles, which was most useful when executing a freelance project for a client (on my own terms). However when I joined a UX team for a large company, it came as a shock. I had to be very adaptable to new design tools, technical jargon, established processes, fast pace, and collaborating/negotiating with a large variety of teams. I did not feel prepared, it was unfamiliar territory, and it did not feel like the UX I learned in bootcamp. But thankfully worked out and i am learning a lot! I hope this was helpful.

Kae Anderson, CPACC

Digital Accessibility and Inclusivity | Web Accessibility Specialist | IAAP Certified | WCAG | I help companies make their sites work well for as many people as possible

4y

I did the Springboard program online and really liked it, but I think I naively thought that people would take it seriously and want to hire me based on getting that certificate. In reality I should have looked at it as a learning experience that would give me more information about what UX was, but that wouldn't necessarily lead to employment. (I know people have gotten jobs after they've graduated from that program, so I'm not trying to say that it's never effective for that!) For me it was more of a starter program and just doing that one portfolio project (that I came up with the concept for) wasn't close enough to real world experience for most of the employers that I've talked to.

Ryan Short

Freelance UX Design Lead / Design Strategist, UX Mentor

4y

Thomas Hoy I’m sure you can provide insight?

Michael Curtis

Sr. UX Designer @1800Contacts | Previously @Indeed | Helping you design the UX of you | Top writer on Medium

4y

Hey, Sarah! This is an excellent question! I wish this article would have existed during my job search! Three things have been on my mind lately as I've been mentoring and helping other UX bootcamp graduates like myself...  First, working on the UX of yourself (how others experience you). I've written a bunch about this over on Medium, but so often we completely forget to apply our newly acquired UX skills to the way people experience us. Mariah Hay (at Pluralsight) helped me to recognize this and I've been obsessed with the concept ever since. 2nd, most new graduates, if young in their careers, don't understand business. Jared Spool articulates this well by stating that we need to align our passion to come in and solve problems for the user with the priorities of the business. If what we're so excited about aligns with increasing revenues, decreasing costs, increasing new customer business, increasing returning customer business and/or increasing shareholder value, then we'll garner the excitement of the stakeholders as well. The 3rd thing is the sometimes hard reality of the day-to-day for a UX bootcamp graduate. You have to do great work for real clients, network, got to Meetups, write, stand out. Hope those help!

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