How can I refocus my career after working in UX for a while?

When you’ve been working in UX for a while, it’s easy to feel like you’ve reached a plateau. Many people come to us because they’ve feel a bit lost and want to define a clear path forward in the next chapter of their career.

Just like products have roadmaps, your career needs a roadmap too. Creating a Career Roadmap™ is a key part of what we do inside Career Strategy Lab. A roadmap is crucial because it helps you stay focused on your career goals, frame your experience in your portfolio and resume, and not waste time applying to roles that don’t align with your goals, values, etc.

We all know what happens when products don’t have roadmaps … a lot of re-work and wasted time and money. The same applies to your career.

How can I move into leadership and out of an independent contributor (IC) role?

When you want to move into leadership or management it’s still crucial to be able to talk about projects you’ve worked on or led. Whether or not you will need a portfolio is beyond the point. The act of creating case studies for the projects you’ve worked on will allow you to go into interviews and confidently articulate your skills and experience. 

So how do you demonstrate your leadership and management skills in a case study? For example, your case study may not focus on the nitty gritty of conducting user research. However, if you were the Director of User Researcher at a company, you might have projects that focus on operations and your team. Did you grow the team and train researchers? Did you establish a company’s research department and operationalize research? Those could both be create case studies for someone who wants to focus on leadership and management. 

I’m tired of applying to roles and not getting interviews, what I am doing wrong?

There are many variables that could contribute to why you aren’t getting interviews, so not to take it personally. We find that people who’ve already been working in UX tend to sell themselves short because their portfolio, resume, and LinkedIn often sends a first impression that doesn’t highlight the breadth and depth of their experience.

As a career climber, it’s crucial that you convey to people involved in UX hiring your thinking, expertise, and impact. As a general rule, make sure you’re always communicating not just what you did but why and how you did it and the impact of what you did. 

You may also want to check out this article we wrote about how you can apply product management principles to get more job interviews. 

How long will it take me to get hired in UX as a career climber?

On average, people who work with us inside Career Strategy Lab get hired 3.5 – 4 months after they join. These people dedicate  an average of 8 – 10 hours a week to everything that’s involved in getting hired (eg. portfolio, resume, LinkedIn, job search, preparing for interviews). 

We’ve worked with many, many UX candidates who were previously applying to roles and not getting interviews or, who applied to 200+ roles and didn’t get more than 5 interviews. However, after working with us, people get hired faster and without applying the numbers game.  

Our candidates are able to get hired faster because in their job search they prioritize people over platforms and they tailor their materials (ever so slightly) to the roles they’re applying to.