“Your UX Bootcamp Will NOT Get You A Job”

I stumbled upon an article this week titled “Your UX Bootcamp Will NOT Get You A Job: Unless You Do These Critically Important Steps.” Having gone through a bootcamp recently, I decided to give it a read and see what the author had to say.

1. The author mentions doing work / working on projects outside of the work you were required to do in the bootcamp. They mention that you need to prove that you can work in a team, in a real scenario, which I totally agree with. Whether it be finding volunteer work or creating your own team to bring an app idea you have (or your team has had) to life to show case in your portfolio. Reading this has me encouraged, I’ve taken on two volunteer projects immediately after graduating and am working with a small team of developers, project managers etc, so BINGO! (I’m doing something right — yay!)
2. The next thing they mention is to reverse engineer the apps/websites you love. This is something I personally haven’t done but will plan on doing at least once every week or every other week.
3. Get a mentor. With COVID-19, it’s hard finding a mentor, the normal meetups that would happen in my city are not happening, a lot of people have been overwhelmed with the pandemic, amongst other events going on in the world, making it difficult for them to commit to be a mentor to someone else. Additionally, if you haven’t scored a job yet, you don’t have easy access to a Senior UX Designer to reach out to regularly that could act either as a mentor or a pseudo-mentor for the time being. That being said, the author brings up good reasons why having a mentor is important within the first few years of being a UX Designer. Something I can commit to for the new year is to find a mentor. In-person meetups aren’t happening but a lot of them are being done virtually and I can reach out to my previous instructors, etc., so hopefully I can find one with the networking I have in mind (stay tuned).

Those were the top 3 things that stood out to me. Other things mentioned were building a personal brand, working for free (volunteer work), and to never stop growing. Currently, I’m working on building a personal brand and working through how to portray this in my portfolio accordingly. Aside from that, I am currently doing some free/volunteer work for two companies and to keep growing in this transition phase of a student to working as a full-time UX Designer, I try to listen to podcasts to grow the knowledge I have about the industry, I have been reaching out to people on LinkedIn for advice, and reading things like the article I found to keep my mind open. Overall, this article was a good read, it gave me reassurance that I’m doing the right things but also gave me great advice/insight into what more I could be doing. It’s true, the bootcamp won’t get you a job but the work you put in will.

For reference, you can find the article here: https://uxdesign.cc/your-ux-bootcamp-will-not-get-you-a-job-unless-you-do-these-critically-important-steps-18d84e71dde5