LAND YOUR FIRST UX DESIGN JOB

Tim Caynes reveals the secrets to securing your first graduate user experience role

- Tim Caynes

Landing your first role as a designer can be challenging but in this article I’ll give you the best advice I can about how to kick-start your experience design career. Whether you’re wondering where you go after walking out of the union building for the last time or you have a couple of years of design experience, I’ve made a list of five essential areas that are invaluable to propelling your career forwards.

GET OUT THERE

If you take nothing else away from this article, don’t ignore this: you need to be the first name on someone’s brain list when an opportunity explodes. And there are specific ways to worm your way into people’s brains.

First things first, get on board with the User Experience Professionals Association (UXPA) and Interaction Design Association (IxDA). They’ve got countless resources, reading materials and up-to-date job listings on their sites.

They also hold regular careers events, which you need to be at. I’ve employed people directly from those events. There are countless events like this throughout the year, so make sure you identify them. Try Eventbrite and Meetup.

Studiously trawl job listings. Also invest in researching company, brand and business websites – make notes and take names. Having an order of preference is also useful – think about who you’d like to work for and why.