I applied to almost 200 jobs before I got hired. I understand how applying for that first UX role can be fraught with discouragement and frustration, especially if you’ve been at it for a long time.

I’m here to tell you: you can do it.
I’m also here to tell you: there are some hard truths that you must understand and address head on if you want to get hired.

Below is a list of reasons why you haven’t gotten hired, starting with the collective, industry-wide reasons and working toward more personal issues that might be keeping you from traction in your UX job search.

If you are going to be a UX designer, innovating ways to solve problems will be your literal job function, so your employment search is good practice.

The following may be hard pills to swallow, but knowing your obstacles is good medicine for getting around them.

1. The hiring process, in general, is broken.

You already know this but I list it first to ease you into the larger context of job searching. There are issues like:

• Role inflation — job descriptions that call for a front-end developer, designer, and researcher all in one role, at a very low rate.
• Experience inflation — entry-level or intern roles asking for 3–5 years experience.
• Applicant Tracking Systems — better make sure those keywords match so you don’t get an auto-rejection.
• Mundane, problematic requests — roles that require 6 years of Figma even though Figma has only existed since 2016
• Full-blown unethical requests — unpaid, labor intensive re-designs of a new feature just to get a chance at a first- or second-round interview.

Workaround: Be strategic about your job search.

Notice the red flags; if it is too good to be true, it probably is. Proceed with caution. Diversify how and where you find job listings. Look on the job boards, but most importantly network and build real relationships with people in the field.

Strategize about how you will sustain a job search that may take many months. Strategize about how you will use your time, how you will continue to learn, how you will rest.

2. Many companies do not understand what UX actually is nor how to support design teams

While the human-computer interaction has been a field of study for many years, user experience has only recently hit the collective consciousness in any kind of meaningful way. Many of the field’s elder practitioners started off as graphic designers or communications specialists. UX grew up around them and because of them.

My lead designer and I have a joke when someone wants an inexplicable miracle from design, that ignores the reality of our constraints. We imagine that person waving their hands at us and saying, “Can you just go UX something already?”

Here are some real-life examples that I faced within the first 8 months of my UX career in projects for corporate, startup, and freelance:

• An external, corporate marketing team hands down a branding guide for an app that looks like an 80s eyeshadow palette. The colors are fun and trendy, but not accessible. Not a single color in the brand kit has high enough contrast to be used on a white background within the app for any buttons or links. The lead designer must suggest and fight for a darker, higher-contrast readable color.
• A CEO is a writer and insists on writing her own copy for her new website, with no tone or voice standards. Her calls to action are scattered and the descriptions sound like different characters trying and failing to be funny. It takes the entire creative team (a UX designer, the head of marketing, and the creative director) weeks to talk her down and allow the use of uniform and understandable microcopy on buttons and product descriptions.
• An outdated legacy software must be recreated to a more modern user interface. Upon further understanding of the complicated software, the UX team discovers there is no uniformity in the overall information architecture. Every feature is a user suggestion that has been globbed on to the existing software as a standalone functionality. When the design team suggests the issue is deeper than the UI, it is suggested by a business development person that a user’s motive have nothing to do with design and the UX designers should stick to making recommendations about the colors and layout.

I don’t tell you these stories to discourage you, but before I got hired for any jobs — freelance or corporate — I had a very optimistic (and unrealistic) outlook on the receptivity to design within many business contexts.

I thought everyone would simply value design the way I do. The truth is they don’t. And that is okay.

The bad news is that sometimes UX is not understood on a basic, functional level inside companies and that often translates to a dire misconception on who and how to hire.

The good news is that there is a lot of opportunity. In companies that are still trying to figure it out, high impact can be made in a short amount of time from a fresh set of eyes.

Workaround: Reframe everything as an opportunity.

Reframe the challenges of an emerging industry as an opportunity to learn and to differentiate yourself. When everything is an opportunity, our sense of possibility flowers. Even a conversation that is not design- or job-related can help you gain insights as a designer.

Reframing is also a helpful tool for maintaining your sanity during the job hunt. Reframe rejection as protection from a job that isn’t right for you. Reframe failed interviews as learning opportunities. Reframe the things you think aren’t possible as things you are open to exploring.

3. Design teams lack UX maturity and cannot support junior roles

There are many articles on Medium about why companies should hire juniors; the good ones illuminate the obstacles so you can get around them. The annoying ones list the frustrations of hiring while ignoring the business context that most UX teams actually exist within.

Design is never separate from a budget.

Unless you work at a design-forward company, UX designers are often asked to work with too few resources and not enough support.

When a designer or design team is understaffed and overworked, and some boss finally approves funding for another supporting UX role, you actually do need someone who can “hit the ground running,” and that isn’t always a junior.

Hiring a junior designer is a higher financial risk (and potentially a higher reward, in my opinion). But often, teams are so strapped for help they can’t stomach that kind of risk.

• Junior teammates often require more initial time investment upfront.
• Most hires should have been made yesterday (see #1) but are blocked by other competing interests within the company.
• Someone with more design experience actually can onboard more quickly than someone with little to no design experience. To assume you are ready for a senior role without that level of thinking degrades the field.

Workaround: Leverage everything you have, especially your existing skills.

I finally got offers for two roles that had one thing in common: each role needed someone with a little bit of research experience. My research experience was brief, academic in nature, and done many years ago.

Nevertheless, I lead with that experience. I put it at the top of my resume because I knew it would help me stand out. I knew it was the one thing many other entry-level designers didn’t have.

What do you have that stands out? Does it apply to a certain type of role or industry? When applying to specific companies, do your research and try to imagine the types of issues the team and hiring managers might face. How do your strengths align with what they need?

You are not just a new designer, you are also a person with other applicable experiences. Figure out how to frame those experiences as a unique strength.

Don’t disqualify yourself! Apply to jobs you are mostly qualified for; pay attention to how many of your skills match and less time to amount of years doing something specific.

4. Bootcamps / degrees / courses alone do not make you job-ready.

Bootcamps (and colleges) make a lot of promises about what will happen when you graduate. Or they at least infer a lot of promises based on other people’s outcomes.

Your actual outcome is unique to you and your experiences. I was hired five months after bootcamp for a mid-level position. Much of this timeline had to do with my other applicable skills, previous experiences and education, my personal sense of confidence in my ability to land and perform at a new job, the time in which I was applying (pre-COVID) and the support I received from my family during my job hunt.

But there is a gap between the end of your design program and your first job offer. How you handle that gap makes all the difference.

Hold onto your butts, I might hurt your feelings. It is possible that:

• You are job-ready but your application and portfolio do not demonstrate your job-readiness.
• You are not job-ready but no one has told you.

Workaround: Bask in the discomfort of the ask.

Get used to the discomfort of asking. Stretch yourself outside of your comfort zone, and ask for help and for feedback. Asking boldly was the most useful muscle I strengthened during my job search.

I boldly asked for:

• ruthless, constructive feedback from instructors and working designers.
• coffee chats with designers I didn’t know via LinkedIn, especially those who had just gotten hired within the last year.
• explanations from developers about tech I did not understand.
• hard numbers about designers’ salary ranges, so I could be prepared to negotiate.
• recommendations from my existing network.
• the chance at real-world design experience from startups that needed design help on a tiny or non-existent budget.
• encouragement and emotional support from my family and friends. “I’m feeling so down about my job search today; will you remind me why a hiring manager should give me a chance?
• 10% more than the original salary offer.

Each one of these asks was deeply uncomfortable, like trying to the do splits when you can barely touch your toes. But as I surrendered to the inherent discomfort and humility of asking, I began to build strength and resiliency. I began to receive the beautiful and dreaded “yes.”

After I received an answer or insight from each ask, I iterated my approach based on what I learned.

Some parting encouragement:

• Your dreams are important and worthwhile.
• Take time to rest and restore. Step away from the computer and notice all things that come easily to you. Notice all the beauty already available to you. Notice all the things you have.
• Don’t compare your timeline to others’.
• Spend time alone reflecting on how you are growing through the process.
• Reach out if you need help. The universe conspires in your favor, even if you cannot see it right now.