Preparation Tactics for a Tough UX Job Market

It’s relatively easy to bask in the glow of a sunny UX job market and its plentiful opportunities. However, coping with a challenging job market is the true test of endurance for the UX professional. This article is the first in a series for UX-job searchers; it discusses how you can prepare for a job transition in a tough market.

Tactics for Currently Employed UX Professionals

First, take stock of your current situation. If you’re still employed, your current circumstances may afford you particular resources or opportunities that you can use to prepare for future job seeking.

Clarify and Excel on High Priorities

The best way to succeed in a tough UX job market is to avoid it in the first place. That means delivering results your manager needs and appreciates, sharing stories with them so they understand your impact and can easily convey those stories to their boss, and doing your best not to be last on their list during performance-review discussions. It’s always preferable to initiate your UX-job search on your timetable rather than on your employer’s.

Do not abide by a boss who is not forthcoming with feedback or goals. You need to initiate the conversation with them and ask them the following questions:

• Do you have any feedback on my recent UX deliverables or results?
• What information could I provide to help you understand how I’m performing?
• Is there a new task or project I could help with or support?

Give a Disliked UX Job Some Time (and Achieve Something)

Even if you dislike your current UX job, you should think twice before leaving it in a market with few opportunities (excluding unusual situations involving legal, ethical, or safety concerns). Ask yourself the following questions.

Have I Been Here for at Least 1–2 Years?

In some high-complexity jobs, it could take at least a year to fully onboard to the company, learn about the products and technology, understand the users, and develop relationships with teammates. You may be marginally productive at best for far longer than you realize.

In addition, research by Alain Cohn and colleagues suggests that frequently changing jobs may be perceived by employers as a lack of collaboration skills, which is a significant problem when pursuing UX roles. The stigma over very short tenures (“job hopping”) might change as younger generations (who engage in more job hopping, according to research) assume leadership roles. Still, those changes in perception will occur slowly over decades. Give the job (and yourself) time to develop fully.

Have I Achieved Something Notable?

At a minimum, you want at least one persuasive achievement during your tenure, so you can cite it in your resume, portfolio, or future job interviews. That does not mean dutifully designing Figma prototypes or writing research reports — those are outputs. Fulfilling your basic job duties isn’t particularly distinguishing or notable. You want to convey a positive outcome: delivering measurable quantitative improvements on benchmarks (e.g., customer satisfaction or time on task) or being qualitatively recognized for your unique and valuable contributions with a promotion or award.

Am I Overemphasizing the Negatives?

We all suffer from negativity bias, and you may be focusing too much on your sources of dissatisfaction and discounting the good things about your UX job. Therefore, try this exercise with a sheet of paper.

• Make a 2-column list. In the first column, spend 5–10 minutes listing all the positives about your current UX job. Think of everything you appreciate — big or small — including work-style flexibility, an attentive boss, great teammates, interesting projects, high autonomy, generous benefits, or other perks. Challenge yourself to consider all aspects of your employment and document particularly unique benefits.
• Then, move to the second column and spend the same time listing your dislikes. Write about tasks that annoy you, poor compensation, strained relationships, or low UX maturity that makes your job harder.
• Afterwards, compare the two lists. How long is your list of positives compared to your negatives? Are the lists lopsided or balanced? Were you surprised by some of the positives you brainstormed?
• Finally, circle 1–2 items in the positive column that you greatly value and circle 1–2 items in the negative column you most loathe. Imagine you had a job offer that would address the circled negatives but would require you to forfeit the circled positives. How willing would you be to make this tradeoff to resolve your dislikes? Are some of your current positives more important than you realized?

Can I Improve This UX Job?

If you did the list exercise above, consider whether there are dislikes that you could alleviate through your actions or with support from your manager. Your manager may need to be made aware of how dissatisfying some of these factors are for you. Give them a chance to improve and retain you on their team.

Sometimes, your UX job becomes intolerable or changes dramatically from how it was positioned when you accepted it. It happens. But whenever possible, be confident that you’ve demonstrated your UX competency, made a balanced assessment of the situation, and tried adjusting your circumstances before pursuing a job search that may demand considerable time and energy.

Document Current Projects and Contributions

Have you maintained your portfolio, or is it woefully outdated? Neglecting your portfolio when you’re busy with a job is understandable. At least, diligently document what you did and gather the raw material you could use to update it in the future. While updating your portfolio at least yearly is ideal (allowing you to exploit an unexpected job opportunity on short notice), it’s the data gathering that is the hardest part. That task gets more challenging the longer you wait, due to poor documentation or simple forgetfulness.

Save 6–9 Months of Living Expenses

You will need financial resilience to conduct a job search without the gnawing anxiety of paying your bills. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current median job search takes 5 months, while the Federal Reserve estimates that only about half of US adults have 3 months of emergency savings. That is not enough savings to cover a salary shortfall, and you should not depend on a generous severance package if the unfortunate were to happen to you. Track your typical monthly expenses and save accordingly.

Tactics for UX Students and Recent Graduates

Develop Rapport with Professors

Professors of UX-relevant courses (human factors, cognitive psychology, digital design) are good ones to get to know. These professors may have contacts with savvy UX hiring managers looking for quality talent to fill openings on their teams. Visit these professors during office hours and demonstrate genuine inquisitiveness about their domain. Ask them to keep you in mind if a job opportunity or internship surfaces. Remember to study and do well in their courses, too! And, if you’ve already graduated, don’t hesitate to reach out to some of your favorite professors and ask for job-hunting help.

Attend Program-Sponsored Industry Events

Most universities offer career fairs, but some also have robust outreach programs for partner projects or talks with employers. Prioritize any events that would help you make an industry connection. These valuable opportunities could give you an edge in securing your first job in a highly competitive environment for junior talent.

Connect with University Alumni or Career Services

Your school may offer other valuable free programs not to overlook. For the recently graduated, check out alumni programs that could bolster your fledging professional network. There is also likely a career-services center that provides free workshops, mock interviews, or one-on-one career counseling to help you plan your next step.

Even if you’re still a student, consider reaching out to alumni working for employers that you value or in positions that you aspire to. Ask for advice and inquire whether they are willing to connect with you and keep you in mind for possible opportunities. People are often willing to support students from their alma mater.

Lean into Your Strength

Research suggests that hiring managers evaluate junior candidates more favorably when they build upon and emphasize their strength instead of dabbling in several areas. For example, a student with scholarships, academic awards, and outstanding grades would be evaluated more favorably compared to another student with average grades, one internship, and an affiliation with a student UX group. Consider the following student personas:

• The academic all-star, who earns top marks and awards for their educational pursuits
• The passionate UX leader, who is highly engaged in and actively contributes to UX-relevant student organizations
• The workplace veteran, who gains practical, real-world experience from past internships

Does this mean you shouldn’t pursue internships if you get good grades? No! An internship can provide excellent case study material to strengthen a weak portfolio. That said, understand what you’re best at, look for opportunities to further build upon that angle while still in school, and persuasively emphasize that aspect in your resume and portfolio.

Tactics for UX-Career Changers

Work on a Freelance UX Project

The exercises and hypothetical scenarios commonly found in UX training will not generate persuasive portfolio material. Imaginary redesigns of existing products hosted on Dribbble or Behance are nearly worthless when applying for UX roles. UX professionals must contend with technology constraints, skeptical collaborators, and the challenges of recruiting and learning from real users.

Your portfolio must demonstrate how you confront these challenges, which is a liability for many UX career changers who need to gain applied experience. To solve this problem, you may need to offer your services as a freelance UX consultant. Examine your network for friends, family, or neighbors with businesses with a digital presence that your UX skills could improve.

Reframe Your Resume

You may think that work experience, jobs, and education are irrelevant for your UX-career goal. But there is valuable material there. Truthfully reframe your job responsibilities and achievements from the perspective of what would be beneficial to a UX job. Don’t hide your past; tear up your old resume and start fresh with your new UX career as the focus.

Start Your UX pivot at Your Current Employer

It’s far easier to pivot your career where you have relationships and resources than convincing an unknown UX hiring manager who may be flooded with overqualified applicants. Attempting a UX pivot at your current non-UX job will differ depending on your situation:

• If your employer has a UX team: This is the most straightforward situation. Introduce yourself and express your UX career aspiration. Look for ways you could serve as a design or research assistant for a small percentage of your time. If you impress the UX team, you might even be considered for an internal transfer!
• If your employer has no UX team but has a design-adjacent team: Many employers with low UX maturity still have websites or apps despite the absence of official UX roles. For example, developing your connections within the marketing team could provide an opportunity to apply your UX skills to a small, low-stakes project.

• If your employer has no apparent need for UX or design: This is the most challenging situation, which might happen if you currently work in a wildly divergent field from UX. Still, design-thinking practices, workshops, or interviews can be helpful in many projects. You will need to be creative, but if your employer demonstrates indifference or confusion with your UX pitches, stop and use a freelance project instead.

Executing a UX career pivot at your current employer requires a degree of trust and good communication with your manager. It can work, but a few managers (who are short-sighted and lack a big-picture leadership perspective) will see these UX activities as threatening and will label you as an attrition risk at best or negligent at worst. That could bias their perception of your job performance and view you as a staffing problem to be dealt with. You must guarantee and demonstrate that these UX explorations are not jeopardizing your job performance. Avoid mentioning UX again if you observe any resistance or skepticism on their part.

Conclusion

While the future is difficult to predict, a tough UX job market won’t last forever. New technology, tools, and ideas will continue to reshape the UX profession. But unlike a physical ship sailing through a tumultuous storm, you can prepare, adapt, and change to your circumstances. Use these tactics to weather this disturbance and emerge more confident and capable in the calmer waters ahead.

References

Alain Cohn, Michel André Maréchal, Frédéric Schneider, and Roberto A. Weber. 2019. Frequent job changes can signal poor work attitude and reduce employability. University of Zurich, Department of Economics, Working Paper No. 210, Revised Version. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2689528 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2689528.