The Easiest Way to Break Into UX

It’s better to be a pirate than to join the navy. — Steve Jobs

I did not mean to start with a cheesy or click-bate quote. It happened on its own.

Five years ago, I was sitting alone in a small conference room putting together my thoughts. I did not want to sound accusative. There was a project. There was a product. There were people. And there was I. All these things were not connected.

I was rehearsing in my head: “This is just not working. I do not know who built that, but it’s unusable.”

Shoot, that was probably too much.

“I think that the project is not what everyone’s expected. We probably should build a new thing from the ground.”

Ouch.

I did not know how to say that. I had no idea how to express that the implementation of a good idea was far from perfect.

When people ask me how I got into UX, this feeling — the feeling that I have to say that something is unusable — is gripping my throat immediately.

I did not get into UX. I was doing UX way before others pointed it out to me.

If you are luckier than me, and you need a way to break into UX, I have a couple of ideas. They will help you to stand out and to get somewhere you want to be.

I do not want to sound cheesy but each path is unique. And it has nothing to do with the quote at the very beginning. We will get back to this quote later, I promise. By “unique” path, I mean that you are free to follow any way of finding your way into UX. It can work for you. Or it might be something you are not considering at all. Yet, it’s a legitimate option and the easiest way to get into UX. Seriously.

This option is perfect if:

• You have no design or art degree.
• You are not passionate about the visuals and UI perfection (hear me out, it does not make you less of a professional);
• You do not have a portfolio exactly because of the first two bullet points;
• You’d love to get into research (since it seems like the only option available if you are not “the creative”), but most companies have expectations for at least 2–3 years experience;
• You do not want to have a day job unrelated to UX, while you are looking for the “right” place;
• You have no technical background;
• You are not passionate about coding enough to post a product per week on ProductHunt;

To sum up, it’s a legitimate option for everyone, who’s not a developer, designer, or researcher. I am probably disrupting the UX community with my disrespect here. But trust me, there’s more in the UX world than these three positions.

So, do you want to break into UX? Get ready to do so in…

1.Marketing with customer-facing responsibilities. This position is perfect if you are interested in what people think and how they react. Customer experience will be the best option to consider. However, it might be too challenging from the very beginning. Creating marketing emails, campaigns, and participation in real user communication will help you get the experience you need.

2. Customer Support. I would recommend everyone to try being a customer support agent at least once in a lifetime. This option is perfect if you are into how things work. You will need lots of empathy apart from it. Customer Support is demanding and varies in responsibilities from company to company. Some positions might require more technical skills than others. Here you have a perfect overview of the flow between development, operations, and real people who use the product.

3. Customer Success. This option is perfect for those who want to know their customer and have the user defender position. In most cases, it’s not so difficult to get a Customer Success position because it’s a standard office job, not some desirable objective as a UX Designer position. However, in Customer Success, you have more power over design decisions and feature releases than any UX Designer. Just think about it.

4. Customer Relationship Management. Perfect for everyone with intuition and a strategic approach to things. If you want to understand the business, this is your chance. Customers do not exist without business and vise versa. If you are capable of balancing organizational needs and customer desires, you are way more influential than any UX Designer.

So, if you have been applying to the UX positions and never hearing back, maybe it’s time to be the pirate, rather than join the navy of designers with shiny dribbble portfolios?