Getting Back on the Horse - PATH, Week 36

It's been a minute since I did one of these. I stopped only a few weeks into it because my focus at the time was split a little too much.

I was trying to get a higher paying job that would just be a stepping stone to my dream job as a designer.

At the same time, I was also learning UX design at Flatiron!

Now that I have completed my course though, I can focus wholeheartedly on finding that dream job (on top of my personal projects of course ??). A job working in the actual field I am passionate about (UX Design), hopefully in the industry that I am passionate about (XR), for a company that I am passionate about (high-tech social impact fast-growing startup or design agency).

Thus, I hope (re)starting this log here will feel more natural, and thus easier to commit to on a weekly basis.

Nonetheless, here is an update on what I've done since Week 7 of 2020:

Weeks 8 - 26: I finished Phases 3 and 4 of the Flatiron UX Design course. This was especially difficult because my class mates were severely impacted by the pandemic. I was merely temporarily unemployed so I could spend more time on the assignments, but they could not. During phase 4, we even worked with a real client: Clayton from QWELLAustin.org. You can check out the case study on my website.

Weeks 27 - 32: I finished Phase 5 of the Flatiron course. It was the final one and focused on career prep. I built the first version of my portfolio, figured out a bit of my personal brand, did some mock interviews, and figured out my personal and professional values. Unfortunately... my portfolio was pretty crap.

Weeks 33 - 36: I completely redesigned my portfolio. Honestly, I know its not as 'clean' and 'modern' as the great portfolios out there. I am simply not a visual designer. But I did my best to make it meet the needs of the two main types of 'users' who will be looking at it: hiring managers and recruiters. From the research, feedback, and very loose/unstructured interviews I did I know they needed portfolios to be:

• Scannable - Hiring managers and recruiters look at dozens of portfolios a week, they need to be able to quickly get a feel for my work in only a few minutes.
• Engaging - It needs to engage them with visuals. Hiring managers and recruiters need to be able to be drawn in to my personality and potential as a designer through interesting visuals.
• Memorable - My portfolio needs to stand out from the many others they look at. So it needs to have some branding that will stick in their mind as they review dozens of applicants.

All this is on top of being competent and showcasing my ability to think strategically as a designer, and to create solutions that solve real problems.

I feel like I accomplished this, and early feedback seems to support this. I want to do some usability testing to really see what works and what doesn't.... but on the other hand I'm not even sure if it will be worth the time. Unlike a real product, this is not something that many people will see.

I plan on using the method I started before (as outlined on Crash.co) to directly reach out to people and simply pitch them. So they may not even need to look at my portfolio in the first place. It is simply there in the off chance that somebody does want to read through my case studies. But maybe I'm mistaken! We will find out together ??.

I am excited to get out there and show my value! Hopefully these logs will help others who are or will be in my position in the future.

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I've also been documenting my design journey on YouTube, sharing my read-through of Atomic Habits on Instagram, and pivoting my podcast into a daily 'audio-journal'. Feel free to check those out!

Thanks again for reading. What do you think about my journey so far? How are you doing in your journey?