Is UX Design a Good Career? The Harsh Truth (3 Reasons)
If you have the attention span of a goldfish because you spend too much time on Instagram reels and TikTok, the following bullets explain the main point of this article and answer the question “is UX design a good career?”:
- UX Design as a career is over saturated, hard to get into, and has a ton of competition but UX Design as a skill is valuable
- Do Not Fear – If you already have experience/education in UX – it is ok – your knowledge and skills are transferrable to other careers that are less saturated
- I recommend looking into the different areas of Digital Marketing, choosing an area you like, focusing on learning it and pivoting your career towards that
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Reason #1: Getting Into the Industry Is Very Difficult
- Reason #2: People Still Don’t Understand What UX Is Or Why It Is Valuable
- Reason #3: The Industry Is Oversaturated
- The Good News
- Conclusion
Introduction
You may have heard the following about UX Design as a career:
- UX Designers are in high demand
- UX Designers are paid well
- UX has a low barrier to entry
- UX offers meaningful work
- There are lots of growth opportunities
But is UX Design a good career? Let’s discuss some of the harsh realities in 2024.
Reason #1: Getting Into the Industry Is Very Difficult
Embarking on a career in UX design can be an exciting journey, but it involves navigating several key challenges. Mizko breaks down some of the realities of the industry in the video above.
Getting into the industry can be extremely tough for a number of reasons including building a portfolio and navigating the highly competitive landscape.
Portfolio Difficulties
Creating a strong portfolio is essential for any UX designer. The challenge lies in showcasing a variety of works that reflect both your design process and the successful outcomes. It should effectively demonstrate your problem-solving abilities and how you apply UX principles to real-world scenarios.
There are two main ways to acquire content to put in your portfolio:
- Get real world experience doing UX for a company as an intern and build a case study around what you accomplished
- Choose a problem with an existing website, product, or service and redesign it on your own
But there are a few challenges UX designers face with each of these methods.
1. Getting Real World Experience is Hard Even With An Internship
Gaining real-world experience is crucial, as it shows that you’re able to apply UX concepts outside of a classroom or theoretical environment. Internships or freelance projects can be great ways to accumulate practical experience and show potential employers that you can handle the demands of a UX design role.
The Challenge with Getting Real World Experience
The problem is that there is a high number of applicants competing for a small number of internships. And if you do not get an internship with a company, you are stuck trying to offer your UX skills to someone free of charge.
If you are one of the lucky few who do land one of these internships, you most likely will work on one small part of the design process (designing components in Figma for example).
This makes building out a complete piece for your portfolio difficult, because the hiring managers usually want to see what the business outcome was for your work. And since you most likely only worked on one small aspect of the overall design process, you’re going to have a hard time showing how your work impacted the overall outcomes for the business.
2. Hypothetical Case Studies
While real-world projects are preferred, incorporating hypothetical case studies into your portfolio can be an option. This demonstrates your creative thinking and your ability to proactively tackle UX challenges.
The Challenge with Hypothetical Case Studies
Although you are able to get creative and redesign a product or service that you have a personal connection with, you are going to run into one common problem.
When presenting this type of case study on a portfolio, often times the hiring managers will say that they are hoping to see what the real world impact of your design was.
Even if you are going the extra mile by doing user research and user testing to get feedback in the form of hard data, the hiring managers are still going to wonder how your solution impacted business goals and metrics.
Competition in UX and Design Communities
The field of UX design is competitive with many talented professionals vying for positions. To stand out, you must stay updated with the latest UX trends and continue to refine your skills.
But in order to stand out you need to do something different. So a common solution is as follows. You think to yourself:
“I’ll join a design community so I can network and standout from the crowd”
But here is the reality of design communities:
You may think that by joining a design community on Slack or Discord a hiring manager will magically pluck you out of the sea of designer doppelgängers.
But the truth is design communities are full of other entry level designers all trying to network with the hopes of impressing someone that will hire them.
The problem with this is that the hiring managers for design positions aren’t participating in design communities. And this makes logical sense.
Imagine if you were a hiring manager for a design position – would you want to be in a group where you get bombarded with desperate job seekers constantly? I bet not.
These communities are just an echo chamber of job seekers trying to out-seek each other without actually getting the attention of hiring managers.
It would be like a bunch of ticket scalpers trying to sell concert tickets to each other in a room filled with only ticket scalpers. It is a futile endeavour.
Reason #2: People Still Don’t Understand What UX Is Or Why It Is Valuable
Andres The Designer on YouTube
UX is still largely misunderstood outside of the tech industry. Is it graphic design? Website design? Digital marketing? No one seems to know.
And even if you get hired at a startup company within the tech industry, they sometimes have different ideas about what a UX designer should be doing.
You will have to spend a lot of your time educating your managers or the owners of the company on the value that for example UX research can have and convince them that it is worth your time and effort.
This makes it difficult to try and land a job in an industry that is outside of tech.
And with all of the tech layoffs happening, this leaves UX designers in a bit of a tight spot in terms of transitioning to another industry using the same skillset.
Reason #3: The Industry Is Oversaturated
In considering a career in UX design, you should be aware of current market trends and employment outlooks. Let’s explore a significant aspect that could affect your decision.
Oversaturated Market
The UX design market has experienced a rapid influx of professionals drawn by the highly competitive salaries and the role’s regular appearances in “highest-paying entry-level jobs” lists. This surge is a result of increased awareness of UX design’s importance and the broadening appeal of a career that combines technology, psychology, and design.
However, with the rise in the number of UX practitioners, concerns about the market becoming oversaturated have emerged. As industries have embraced the value of UX, the supply of skilled UX designers has expanded, with educational programs and bootcamps producing new UX designers at an accelerated pace. This has resulted in a more competitive job landscape, where standing out requires not only skill but also a specialization or niche expertise.
It is essential for prospective UX designers to acknowledge this trend and strategize accordingly. Building a strong portfolio, gaining relevant experience, and focusing on continuous learning and specialization can help you navigate an increasingly crowded field.
Your success in UX design could very well hinge on how effectively you differentiate yourself and keep your skills relevant in a dynamic and evolving market.
The Good News
The good news is that having a UX skillset is transferrable to many other career paths, but I recommend following the Digital Marketing path.
What is Digital Marketing And What Does It Have To Do With UX?
A good user experience is important for many areas of digital marketing, especially SEO, Content Marketing, and Email Marketing.
There are many different areas of Digital Marketing as you can see in the following list:
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO): SEO involves optimizing your website and online content to improve its visibility in search engine results pages (SERPs). This includes keyword research, on-page optimization, link building, and technical SEO to increase organic (unpaid) traffic to your site.
- Content Marketing: Content marketing focuses on creating and distributing valuable, relevant content to attract and engage a target audience. This content can take various forms, such as blog posts, articles, videos, infographics, ebooks, and more. Content marketing aims to build brand awareness, establish thought leadership, and drive customer engagement.
- Social Media Marketing: Social media marketing involves using social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and others to connect with your audience, build relationships, and promote your products or services.
- Email Marketing: Email marketing involves sending targeted and personalized emails to prospects and customers to nurture relationships, promote products or services, and drive conversions.
- Pay-Per-Click Advertising (PPC): PPC advertising allows businesses to display ads on search engines (e.g., Google Ads) or social media platforms (e.g., Facebook Ads) and pay only when users click on their ads.
- Affiliate Marketing: Affiliate marketing involves partnering with third-party affiliates who promote your products or services in exchange for a commission for each sale or lead generated.
- Influencer Marketing: Influencer marketing involves collaborating with individuals or content creators who have a significant following and influence within your target audience.
- Digital Analytics and Tracking: Analytics play a crucial role in digital marketing, allowing marketers to measure the performance of their campaigns, track user behavior, and make data-driven decisions.
- Mobile Marketing: With the increasing use of smartphones and mobile devices, mobile marketing involves optimizing digital marketing strategies for mobile platforms.
- Marketing Automation: Marketing automation involves using software platforms to automate repetitive tasks, streamline marketing workflows, and deliver personalized experiences to leads and customers.
Because you are using a digital communication medium like a blog or website, UX plays a big role in making sure your audience can easily find what they are looking for in an efficient way.
Conclusion
So is UX design a good career? It’s good but not great.
But as you can see, there are many different areas of Digital Marketing to choose from. Personally I recommend Content Marketing and SEO.
Content Marketing and SEO are industries that are going to continue to grow and will also allow you to flex your UX muscles.
Search engines are not going away anytime soon, and content is the fuel that allows information to be found within them.
The best thing about SEO and Content Marketing is you do not need to rely on getting an internship to learn – just create your own wordpress site and starting making content.
And as for a portfolio? Your website is your portfolio. You don’t need to recreate all of your work in case studies and then figure out how to best present the information in the hopes that the hiring manager happens to think you have the right case studies for their liking.
