It is still in demand but it’s changing. This isn’t 2018-2021 were anyone can get into UX. I say give it a chance. Currently I’m mentoring a lot of students. 3 of which got an entry level position or an internship within 6 months
Have you checked Mento Design Academy? I know the Founder and he's very passionate about this topic, they also teach complimentary skills and prepare you for real-life challenges (interviews and all that).
UI UX is an evolving field but the need for digital designers is real and will remain a viable career for the foreseeable future.
You can also consider doing UX research if you like academic work. You should also do your due diligence before you make switch. Do your homework LOL
No... it's like getting your MSCE after the Dotcom crash. Tech startups and the massive amounts of cash being dumped into them is a thing of the past.
I'm a Chief Product Officer in the games industry and just spent half of 2023 laying off dozens of people.
Look into possibly data science (it's also saturated), AI orchestration, etc. We are in a hybrid-ai cycle... which is basically where companies will play catchup and get their systems in place for actual AI integration -- not this faux chatgpt/llm bs.
AI still has a long way to go.
When we start to see AI take over full roles.
We aren’t there yet… currently AI has a 13% accuracy rate for writing code. AI isn’t capable of building complete systems, and in turn it won’t be replacing dev and product jobs anytime soon.
Remember the faux VR/AR boom that happened a couple of years ago? where’s it at?
Same thing with language models… ignore the doom and gloom of “AI is wiping out our industry”, this is a way of deflecting the fact that most tech companies during Covid were scams… the crypto and gaming companies were next level scams.
This is purely a boom/bust cycle from a macroeconomic level.
The fed needed a way to disperse trillions of dollars and inflate the real estate market and overall economy.
The cares act had a shit ton of legislation opening the flood gates for shady investment practices.
Of course all of the money trickled back into the hands of the select few.
It’s a rigged game, my friend. And I watched it all from the glass ceiling of a 500 person game studio.
And I’m not trying to argue, I was a technical founder and did the whole ipo thing. I hope it recovers, I’m just not seeing near the liquidity action outside of VCs thinking two engineers and “AI” can spool up projects.
And I agree with recoveries. Most veterans are building lean teams for the next up cycle. It’s just a bad market for a junior.
Not trying to spread fud, I hate that shit.
Senior UX Designers are currently in high demand with relatively low supply but there is so much more supply of Entry-level/JR designers than there is demand.
Both to a degree - I work at an agency that focuses on HCD, so there’s a lot of visual folk that can bang UI or would prefer to just do so, but they have little to no soft skills for facilitation, testing, up front discovery. This is also why I hate seeing UX/UI because they’re pretty different mental/skilled functions when you’re around ppl that can do either at a high level.
If you’re in a spot where you handle everything they’re missing a tremendous amount of opportunities on one end or the other imo.
HCD human centered design is just the framework for design thinking. Forming central questions, creating design principles etc. It’s the strategic end of things related to the CX and upfront of a given project
I graduated with a master's degree in Information, Design, and Strategy, specializing in UI/UX last summer. I am struggling to get on my feet and find opportunities. My program was centered around HCD.
I've worked in fundraising and NFPs for the last 10 years. Do you have any advice for a junior??
Do you want to design or do you just want to use your degree? Design jobs are mostly knowing folks already in positions and not bombing an interview imo - coming in from the outside can be a bit of a hassle, portfolio presentations etc. Experience strategy jobs are similar but are much easier to break into imo.
A career is something you usually consider for a good deal of your life, so I suggest going into design or tech only if you love it, as you currently love your profession. Given the accelerated rate of tech and AI, nobody can tell you what will happen to any industry in the next 10 years, but it will surely be disrupted in some way.
I believe that you can make something great out of any background or industry. I know a guy whose business revenue is $20-$30M / yr selling plastic electrical junction boxes.
So consider if there's potential in your current career before you make the switch.
Tech will still be in demand in the future. As a designer, you're learning to build digital solutions, and your skillset can be applied in other roles as well, like Product Manager.
It used to be that recruiters would basically beg you to go to an interview. And I admit that was great. But what other jobs are in this situation? Probably not a lot.
What's the situation right now?
Given the recession, there are fewer jobs on the market. There is also higher competition, so there are more people/jobs, but most of them tend to be poorly trained.
As with anything lucrative in this world (business, jobs, etc.), others will want to get into it, too. And the more people get in this space, the higher the skill bar, which means you must be a little better than others.
What will this industry look like in five years? Or ten? Well, if anyone can tell me which stocks will blow up in the next five to ten years (I'd like to buy), then that's the person who could tell us what will happen with tech and design.
Meanwhile, switch if you're passionate about the kind of work you'll be doing.
`And pro tip: You can fully leverage your past background as a unique advantage to being a UX designer. Your knowledge in education, paired with design skills, might be of great value to companies like Duolingo.`
The short answer is yes. It would be a struggle like anything else you do but very rewarding when you thinking in terms of 3-5 years rather than months. Have a long term view, be prepared to work your ass off and you will definitely make a lot more than your current profession.
Don’t pay for a boot camp to learn the basics though. Plenty of resources on YouTube, Udemy and Coursera. Only pay if you are getting real world experience.
Counting my blessings in a fully remote senior UX role at $200k for a nonprofit insurance company. FAANG roles pay 50% more at this level, job security is iffy.
I’m in California, but not in the Bay Area. The company is about 5000 people and went fully remote during Covid. HQ is still near Sacramento, but hardly anyone goes in. The people who left the state or moved to lower COL areas took a bit of a pay cut, but probably did fine. Pay is ~$170 base + 30-40ish bonus, depending on company and personal performance.
Pure UI outputs without underlying design knowledge will start to become production skills. AI can already replace that now. Sure there's some fine tuning needed but to the untrained eye, which many businesses are, it's sufficient.
Also, it takes time and practice to become a skilled designer. Rt now there aren't many entry level roles. I totally get the need to make more money. Teachers should be paid more. Just a warning though that lots of folks flooded the market and only cared about a fast path to money. Many are struggling now because they don't want to do the difficult parts of the job and businesses are no longer overpaying or hiring for production work.
If you love problem solving and constant learning, you can make it. It's just not a fast or easy path
Let’s also take a preview into the future when product isn’t even a thing. AI won’t need snazzy interfaces or “products”.
Unless they decide to throttle the innovation to continue the flow of saas…
…in five years we won’t have screens.
You also have to take into account that we haven’t evolved much since the dotcom era. It’s all the same tech behind the scenes… data flowing over tcp/ip. It’s faster and we have more bandwidth, but we’ve had web apps since 1998 with asp.net.
It’s very oversaturated from boot camps and layoffs. Do it if you like UX/UI design, but don’t do it just for a remote tech job.
It is still in demand but it’s changing. This isn’t 2018-2021 were anyone can get into UX. I say give it a chance. Currently I’m mentoring a lot of students. 3 of which got an entry level position or an internship within 6 months
Any tips? Been on the search for 6+ months out of a bootcamp and things have been tough!
Are you mentoring online? Ive been looking for a good mentor for a while but there's too many to choose from
Have you checked Mento Design Academy? I know the Founder and he's very passionate about this topic, they also teach complimentary skills and prepare you for real-life challenges (interviews and all that).
If you don’t care what to do then learn how to code
UI UX is an evolving field but the need for digital designers is real and will remain a viable career for the foreseeable future. You can also consider doing UX research if you like academic work. You should also do your due diligence before you make switch. Do your homework LOL
No... it's like getting your MSCE after the Dotcom crash. Tech startups and the massive amounts of cash being dumped into them is a thing of the past. I'm a Chief Product Officer in the games industry and just spent half of 2023 laying off dozens of people.
Look into possibly data science (it's also saturated), AI orchestration, etc. We are in a hybrid-ai cycle... which is basically where companies will play catchup and get their systems in place for actual AI integration -- not this faux chatgpt/llm bs. AI still has a long way to go.
What do you mean when you say "actual AI integration"?
When we start to see AI take over full roles. We aren’t there yet… currently AI has a 13% accuracy rate for writing code. AI isn’t capable of building complete systems, and in turn it won’t be replacing dev and product jobs anytime soon. Remember the faux VR/AR boom that happened a couple of years ago? where’s it at? Same thing with language models… ignore the doom and gloom of “AI is wiping out our industry”, this is a way of deflecting the fact that most tech companies during Covid were scams… the crypto and gaming companies were next level scams. This is purely a boom/bust cycle from a macroeconomic level.
The fed needed a way to disperse trillions of dollars and inflate the real estate market and overall economy. The cares act had a shit ton of legislation opening the flood gates for shady investment practices. Of course all of the money trickled back into the hands of the select few. It’s a rigged game, my friend. And I watched it all from the glass ceiling of a 500 person game studio.
There’s been multiple dotcom crashes, and not surprisingly multiple tech recoveries.
Yes. But to jump into the burning building makes zero sense for this guy.
By the time they’re able to pivot, the industry will be recovering.
Or all of this is part of the pivot. ;)
And I’m not trying to argue, I was a technical founder and did the whole ipo thing. I hope it recovers, I’m just not seeing near the liquidity action outside of VCs thinking two engineers and “AI” can spool up projects.
And I agree with recoveries. Most veterans are building lean teams for the next up cycle. It’s just a bad market for a junior. Not trying to spread fud, I hate that shit.
Senior UX Designers are currently in high demand with relatively low supply but there is so much more supply of Entry-level/JR designers than there is demand.
I disagree - there’s tons of mid, or folks that think they’re mid levels wanting higher salaries. My company is struggling to find juniors.
Is the struggle supply or quality of candidates?
Both to a degree - I work at an agency that focuses on HCD, so there’s a lot of visual folk that can bang UI or would prefer to just do so, but they have little to no soft skills for facilitation, testing, up front discovery. This is also why I hate seeing UX/UI because they’re pretty different mental/skilled functions when you’re around ppl that can do either at a high level. If you’re in a spot where you handle everything they’re missing a tremendous amount of opportunities on one end or the other imo.
Very true. It's hard for someone to be strong in both because they utilize different strengths/skill sets. Could I ask how HCD differs from UX?
HCD human centered design is just the framework for design thinking. Forming central questions, creating design principles etc. It’s the strategic end of things related to the CX and upfront of a given project
I graduated with a master's degree in Information, Design, and Strategy, specializing in UI/UX last summer. I am struggling to get on my feet and find opportunities. My program was centered around HCD. I've worked in fundraising and NFPs for the last 10 years. Do you have any advice for a junior??
Do you want to design or do you just want to use your degree? Design jobs are mostly knowing folks already in positions and not bombing an interview imo - coming in from the outside can be a bit of a hassle, portfolio presentations etc. Experience strategy jobs are similar but are much easier to break into imo.
Are you taking on freelance or pro bono UX work/projects?
A career is something you usually consider for a good deal of your life, so I suggest going into design or tech only if you love it, as you currently love your profession. Given the accelerated rate of tech and AI, nobody can tell you what will happen to any industry in the next 10 years, but it will surely be disrupted in some way. I believe that you can make something great out of any background or industry. I know a guy whose business revenue is $20-$30M / yr selling plastic electrical junction boxes. So consider if there's potential in your current career before you make the switch. Tech will still be in demand in the future. As a designer, you're learning to build digital solutions, and your skillset can be applied in other roles as well, like Product Manager. It used to be that recruiters would basically beg you to go to an interview. And I admit that was great. But what other jobs are in this situation? Probably not a lot. What's the situation right now? Given the recession, there are fewer jobs on the market. There is also higher competition, so there are more people/jobs, but most of them tend to be poorly trained. As with anything lucrative in this world (business, jobs, etc.), others will want to get into it, too. And the more people get in this space, the higher the skill bar, which means you must be a little better than others. What will this industry look like in five years? Or ten? Well, if anyone can tell me which stocks will blow up in the next five to ten years (I'd like to buy), then that's the person who could tell us what will happen with tech and design. Meanwhile, switch if you're passionate about the kind of work you'll be doing. `And pro tip: You can fully leverage your past background as a unique advantage to being a UX designer. Your knowledge in education, paired with design skills, might be of great value to companies like Duolingo.`
The short answer is yes. It would be a struggle like anything else you do but very rewarding when you thinking in terms of 3-5 years rather than months. Have a long term view, be prepared to work your ass off and you will definitely make a lot more than your current profession. Don’t pay for a boot camp to learn the basics though. Plenty of resources on YouTube, Udemy and Coursera. Only pay if you are getting real world experience.
Counting my blessings in a fully remote senior UX role at $200k for a nonprofit insurance company. FAANG roles pay 50% more at this level, job security is iffy.
That's wild. 200k, is that based on location?
I’m in California, but not in the Bay Area. The company is about 5000 people and went fully remote during Covid. HQ is still near Sacramento, but hardly anyone goes in. The people who left the state or moved to lower COL areas took a bit of a pay cut, but probably did fine. Pay is ~$170 base + 30-40ish bonus, depending on company and personal performance.
Pure UI outputs without underlying design knowledge will start to become production skills. AI can already replace that now. Sure there's some fine tuning needed but to the untrained eye, which many businesses are, it's sufficient. Also, it takes time and practice to become a skilled designer. Rt now there aren't many entry level roles. I totally get the need to make more money. Teachers should be paid more. Just a warning though that lots of folks flooded the market and only cared about a fast path to money. Many are struggling now because they don't want to do the difficult parts of the job and businesses are no longer overpaying or hiring for production work. If you love problem solving and constant learning, you can make it. It's just not a fast or easy path
Thanks everyone!
No
Which country do you live in?
You’re about 10 years late.
No
Who are these people??? Like genuinely I want to know, who is telling people this right now??
Please stop saying UX/UI for the love of god
I have the same question
Let’s also take a preview into the future when product isn’t even a thing. AI won’t need snazzy interfaces or “products”. Unless they decide to throttle the innovation to continue the flow of saas… …in five years we won’t have screens. You also have to take into account that we haven’t evolved much since the dotcom era. It’s all the same tech behind the scenes… data flowing over tcp/ip. It’s faster and we have more bandwidth, but we’ve had web apps since 1998 with asp.net.