How to make the most of our UX Boot Camp: 5 tips for a good start

First and foremost, I want to say be realistic. There is no shortcut to becoming a good UX designer (surprise surprise… it is not just about getting a certificate and expecting recruiters to chase you right away).

You might be missing a lot of background information, insight into the tech world, and knowledge to make rational design decisions. No boot camp will teach you everything you need to know if you don’t put in the energy, curiosity, and willingness to fail, learn and repeat the learning cycle. You will have to find your pathway to never-ending and continuous learning – because design, user experience and user expectations always evolve. And so should we as designers.

Tip 1: Connect with other designers

I cannot emphasise this enough. During the boot camp, you are exposed to so many inputs: deadlines, assignments, teamwork, but also a lot of people in the design field. It is a great time to seek mentorship and advice, to connect to people, and to proactively show your interest in the design field. It might be scary at first, I know, but it is the best investment of time you can make. The surprising thing is that people will be willing to help and talk. The worst that can happen is you get a NO, but one YES can lead to a great conversation, mentorship or advice that brings you further in your design career.

A few mentorship opportunities:

• ADPlist - a great community for finding a mentor.
• LinkedIn - if you still haven't shared that you are doing a boot camp - go ahead and do so!

Tip 2: Document your findings during the boot camp

Everything you will be doing during the boot camp will be relevant for your portfolio (with a bit of iteration and polishing). Many people start thinking about it at the end of the boot camp, but you should start thinking about it BEFORE you start a boot camp. Create a Medium account and publish a weekly article on what you learn. Polish your wireframes and create a mini case that represents how you approach your work. Document your key learnings in a way that is accessible to other designers and the community. It will make it easier for people who are hiring to find your work, instead of only seeing the final project you are doing. It also helps to see how you will fit in different company cultures.

Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash

Tip 3: Think about your end goal

From DAY 1 of my boot camp, I knew that I wanted to aim for the UX research path, so I really focused on nailing down and learning as much as I could about usability, creating easy to understand flows, and mastering low and mid fidelity wireframes – but at the same time being aware of what developers and product designers need from a UX designer. This meant getting an overview of UI tools, and practicing UI design was a necessity for me too. What I want to say is this - you might be a unicorn in the next 10 years, but when you start in UX design, try to think of your first MVP as UX Designer: what type of job would you like, what industry would you like to land in, and how can you align your efforts in a meaningful way. And if you don’t know yet, make sure you reflect on it early on.

Tip 4: Understand the industry and terms early on

I think one of the key mistakes of many people joining a boot camp is expecting that you will finish the boot camp and start designing the next Instagram feature. Not quite yet! You will have to start in roles that might require you to wear a few hats (a bit of research, a bit of UX design, a bit of polishing visual design and communicating it to the client or stakeholders, and finding ways to transmit your ideas to developers). And that’s why boot camps teach you a variety of skills – but the more you work in THE design industry, the more people you’ll meet - and the more you will see that product design, for example, requires a lot of experience and practice in business acumen and stakeholder management, and is acquired through a lot of practice. So I encourage you to practice a lot and understand how different roles in the design field play together.

Tip 5: Give feedback to other classmates during the boot camp

Feedback can always hurt a little bit, but it is an essential part of every designer’s everyday life. A mature designer will always accept feedback as a learning and improvement opportunity, and will also know how to accept it and be comfortable with it and how not to have an EGO about it. Start practicing it early on during the boot camp. If you practice communicating and protecting your designs, your process, and the art of communication, you will feel much more confident when talking to recruiters, colleagues and stakeholders.

And last but not least - enjoy the ride! It goes quite fast!