How do you get your start in UX if you have no experience?

It depends. (this answer will be funny someday, I promise)

If there’s one thing I’ve been asked over and over again it’s this. The easiest way to make a transition into UX is to start where you currently work. If your company doesn’t have User Experience, identify opportunities where you can introduce UX thinking and demonstrate the value. If you work in a place with UX practitioners, make them your best friend and offer to help.

Believe it or not, it’s likely that you are already doing some UX work without the title. If you’re a project manager and you’re creating user flows and sitemaps, you’re creating UX deliverables. If you’re a writer and you’re auditing materials to understand the content you have to work with, you’re doing some content strategy.

I’ve talked to plenty of people that are already doing some of the work but either don’t realize it or lack the confidence that they can do it full time. The key is to provide value early and often. This allows you to build a body of work that showcases your ability to solve problems.

Build your personal brand

I am not a personal branding expert, I do however recognize the importance of it. There are many folks infinitely more qualified than I on this subject. People that I follow or that type of content include:

Michaela Alexis: linkedin.com/in/michaelaalexis

Gary Vaynerchuck: linkedin.com/in/garyvaynerchuk

Goldie Chan: linkedin.com/in/goldie

Other all around good people that I follow:

Jennifer Aldrich: linkedin.com/in/jenniferaldrich1

Oleg Vishnepolsky: linkedin.com/in/vishnepolsky

Bridgette Hyacinth: linkedin.com/in/brigettehyacinth

Mark Sefaradi: linkedin.com/in/msefaradi

Network, Network, Network

If you’re looking for a fresh start, you have to get out there and participate in the community. I know this might be hard for some people but it’s the only way others will know how awesome you are. We live in an amazing time where you can reach out to virtually anyone in a given field and there’s a chance they’ll respond.

Linkedin has really upped their game and is a great tool to use for networking and providing value and participating in the conversation. Instagram is another tool that is way underutilized but can help you build credibility.

Gary Vaynerchuck posted his thoughts on building a brand on Instagram that you should check out. The approach is 100% applicable on Linkedin as well and will pay dividends if you put in the effort.

https://www.garyvaynerchuk.com/1-80-instagram-strategy-grow-business-brand/

How important is Networking?

I have a friend that pivoted to UX design He landed a freelance UX gig from using an app’s contact us feature. He was in Japan for vacation and reached out to for some additional recommendations while he was there. He was one of 5 people ever to take them up on their offer for additional recommendations and turns out he was in contact with the founder of the app.

They stayed in contact over the course of a few months talking about features and how the app could evolve. At the end of last year my friend moved to NYC and got back in touch with the app creators who met up with him for coffee. They immediately hit it off and as a result, he ended up getting freelance work.

His original intent wasn't to get a gig but it goes to show that providing value and staying top of mind has a funny way of paying off in the long run.

For other ideas on how to transition to UX or for insights on what UX hiring managers are looking for, check out this related post: https://www.dhirubhai.net/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6364179507154296832

Thank you for taking the time to read, I really appreciate it. If you have any questions or feedback, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to drop me a comment.