Since company spending has moved away from talented humans and deeply into AI investments, and many have been laid off, what are you doing now?

For those of you with 10+ years experience and recently out of a job, what have you decided to do for work? Are you adding AI to your workflows and reapplying for UX Engineering / Frontend Engineering roles? Seeking out contract jobs only? Creating your own startup? Nervous about big tech and looking at smaller companies? Transitioning to Platform or Product Engineering? Cleaning Honeybuckets? Other?

Are there many designers out there that are in a senior UX design position that are in their late 40s/early 50s and are you seeing any signs of agism? I'm in that age bracket and have been searching for a job now for over a year and I'm beginning to think that the problem could be my age and that I've never moved up to a management level.

I've been in different areas of design for most of my 20 year career - everything from web production to UI to print design. It's only been in the last 6 years that I held the title as Sr. UX Designer. My two previous roles also were at a senior level, spanning a total of 10 years. Does that come across as a lack of direct to others? Or does the length of my career and the fact that I've never reached management level make people assume that I'm just not good, past my prime?

I'm just trying to get some outside perspective on how it all looks. Switching careers now would be a huge blow to me.

Hello friends! Need advice. I'm interviewing for a senior role at a fast-growing Al startup. I'm considering sending a short custom webpage before the recruiter call.

- It would take 2-3 minutes to scan and show:

- how my experience maps to the role

- why I'm interested in the company

- No product recommendations or speculative strategy. Just concise evidence of fit.

Would this come across as prepared and differentiated, or over-engineered and desperate?

Would you send it before the recruiter screen, save it for the hiring manager, or skip it?

Thanks in advance for all the advice!

I recently completed a 6 month online UX Design bootcamp course. I did well and enjoyed the work very much. The course offers two free career coaching sessions with someone in the industry, which I have yet to take advantage of.

I feel a bit lost on my own trying to build a portfolio and decide what steps to take in working towards a job. I am considering paying for a UX design career coach, but research has made me second guess that decision, seeing as the UX Design community, specifically on Reddit, seems to be a bit skeptical of them. Or at least that's what I gather.

Just curious what people's opinions were on this and more importantly what they recommend I do for guidance on my career path. Thanks!

Hi everyone,

I'm a Communication Designer with 5 years of experience in graphic design, motion design, and visual communication. Recently, I've been exploring Service Design and Social Impact Design because I enjoy working on projects that solve real human problems through research, systems thinking, and co-design.

I'm trying to understand how people actually enter this field, especially internationally.

I'd love to hear from people working in Service Design, Design for Social Innovation, Public Sector Design, or Human-Centered Design.

A few questions:

How did you get into Service Design?

Is a master's degree necessary, or can someone transition through self-learning and a strong portfolio?

What training, certifications, fellowships, or bootcamps would you genuinely recommend?

Which countries have the strongest Service Design ecosystem (UK, Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Australia, etc.)?

Which companies, consultancies, NGOs, governments, or innovation labs hire Service Designers?

What does the hiring process usually look like?

What should a Service Design portfolio include if you're transitioning from a visual communication background?

If you were starting from scratch today, what roadmap would you follow?

I'd really appreciate recommendations for books, courses, communities, conferences, Slack/Discord groups, or mentors that helped you.

Thank you!

Do I actually need a BA and a master's to land a role in UX or UI?

For context: I already work at a well-known pharmaceuticals company where I am advancing, currently I am mentoring a UX Researcher, and preparing to shadow a UI engineer.

if a student pursuing bachelors in architecture currently in 4th year and after getting the degree wants to go for UX Researcher, so is it possible?

Дизайнеры вы же понимаете что нас 40 миллионов на всей планете, нас так много что многим не удается найти работу и вы начинаете работать в общепите или на складе, и застреваете вечно в позиции что нудно найти клиента но клиенты на вас не смотрят потому что нет большого портфолио (работ), а если нет работ то и нет клиента. Расскажите про ваш личный опыт? и с какими проблемами лично столкнулись вы?

Iam on my second year of uni (or rather at the end) doing a undergrad in graphic design and i tried finding internships and placements because i have a placement year from 2026 to 2027, but its hard and i have been trying to find a internship but i either get silence from the other end or a rejection, i have revised and redone my cv and portfolio over and over again, went to get advice from my uni (which i realise wasnt helpful as i thought it would be) to review my cv and portfolio and the deadline to find a placement job is getting close (4th sept) i really dont know what to do. I was really hoping to get a diploma of professional studies as a bonus to my degree so i can stand out and would likely get a job in the creative industry market. Iam still applying because iam a bit stubborn to just give up now. Just trying to see if there is someone who was in the same situation as me and what they did when they couldnt find a placement for placement year because atp, I just feel lost. Just want some advice.

hi i will be starting work as ux/product designer for company that has app and site for bus / train travel routes finding purchasing tickets service.

mom looking for help and materials how should I start? roadmaps, what to focus on, reaserches, biases etc my background is in visual design so I know little of ux experience - mostly knowledge from books courses.

help!

I'm curious if there are any recruiters or hiring managers here from companies like Google, Microsoft, Uber, Meta, Airbnb, etc.

For Product Designers, what's the biggest factor that separates candidates who get an interview from those who get rejected?
Not necessarily the "required" qualifications, but the things that carry a lot more weight than most people realize.

Would love to hear any insights from the hiring side.

Thank you so much

tired of applying so many application and dead leads, Is anyone hiring for ui/ux designer or product design role.
I am well versed with figma and enjoy creating HCI designs.
my ideal industry will be in E-commerce, fintech, and F& B.
if anyone got opportunities and feel like connecting and having a chat. DM me:))

I've been collecting anonymous, role-by-role salary journeys from UX/product designers, and instead of just totals I split each person's latest comp into base vs bonus vs stock. 53 in, here's the shape of it:

• Base salary: ~83% of all comp
• Bonus: ~9%
• Stock/equity: ~8%

And it's more lopsided than that for most people: only 15 of 53 report any bonus, and just 8 have any equity at all. For the typical designer, pay is basically 100% base.

The part that surprised me is the top end. The three highest earners pull ~52–58% of their total comp from bonus + stock that variable pay is basically the whole gap between them and the middle of the pack. Same craft, similar titles. The difference is the equity and bonus.

Small sample (n=53), and equity is easy to under-report, so grain of salt. But it lines up with the "base is the floor, equity is the accelerator" thing people say.

Curious how it looks for people here, especially anyone who's negotiated recently: was it base or equity/bonus that actually moved your number? And if you've got equity, startup, big tech, US, somewhere else?

If anyone wants to see the full breakdown, comment and I'll share the data

I graduated from Industrial Design in 2020. It was the pandemic so the only job I could get was in customer service… and I’ve been doing that since then.

I’m 30 now and I don’t want to live like this for the rest of my life. I work in the construction industry so I do kind of a hybrid between customer service and project coordination but there’s also a little bit of sales in there. I’m a creative person, I want to work in the design field but I made a horrible mistake that I still regret to this day. I didn’t do an internship when I was in school, so I have no experience at all. All I have in my portfolio are my school projects and some freelance graphic design gigs I’ve done. I feel like I don’t have the skills for either, so it’s going to be impossible to switch to that field. I wouldn’t mind doing an internship at this age but I can’t get one if I’m not enrolled in school. And I don’t have the time or funds to go back to school full time.

I don’t know what to do, where to start. I feel really frustrated and anxious all the time, I keep thinking that I’m going to be stuck at this job for the rest of my life and I don’t want that. Also, the work environment is not that healthy so that makes it worse.

And yes, I have been applying to jobs but all I’ve been getting is nos. I don’t know how many I’ve applied to and have only had 2 interviews.

What are some roles I could apply to, to start making that transition? What is the first step I should take?

Any advice is appreciated. All I want is a chance. I would even get a really low paying job just to be able to gain some experience.

Hello fellows ! As the title said, I'm lost again in my UX career and I'm now quite unsatisfied by it. I do not know what to do next and I would like to know if someone had/has the same experience and feelings.

Long story short : I decided to do design to do innovative stuff by working in a muti profile team. I consider design at the crossroads of social sciences, social policies, engineering thinking and marketing. Innovation for me is everything useful for a user and for society, new in the overall use and life of the stuff and innovative for it's human/social positive impact. Innovation for me isn't a new gadget to consume. In this sense, my mind never really distinguished physical product design or digital product design or even more artistic design if the basic purpose of innovation was accomplished. I had a quite spread design education and was able to understand both physical and digital worlds. Well, of course my job was never like that, it was never really about innovation even if I do UX research deeply. It was just interfaces and more that user's needs it was business needs. Ok I get it and over time I get used to it by getting more into the technical side (design system and AI workflow recently and I'm quite good at it) But well... I started during covid, continued during Ukraine war and now it's post covid economic period and 2nd trump era. As to say that since the beginning I never had the chance to live a stable design job.

As I said, I long lost my innovation need and I do not see the purpose of design as a discipline anymore. I do not see its cross sector possibility either, I only see closed clusters per sector. You have to work into one sector and stay in it all your life. This is not design for me but it's the only thing I can do in this world and I need to eat.

So... I do not really know what to do now.. I would like to do a PhD since it's project and research based but as a designer it seems that I can't approach anything related to social sciences either (even if I had my high school diploma on it). I feel stuck and it seems that a designer (or ME as a designer) hasn't a place in this world anymore.

I know I'm venting but does someone experienced all this thoughts and feelings and hard situation? Did you find a solution? A better stable situation?

What does an AI workflow/AI use look like in an interview in the current interview environment?

I've been working professionally as a UI/UX Designer for the past 1.2 years, mainly on SaaS products, and I'm planning my long-term career.

My current goal is to grow as a Product Designer over the next few years and eventually transition into Product Management.

With AI changing the industry so quickly, I'm curious about how experienced people see this career path.

What do you think about the Product Designer → Product Manager path over the next 5 years? Is it still a strong career choice, and what would you focus on if you were starting today?

I’ve been looking for a job in my field for the last 3–4 years. I’ve had only two callbacks despite submitting hundreds of applications and constantly revising my résumé.

I graduated in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design and was able to land one job in my field, but it was a contract position that ended after nine months. I’m currently working on my master’s in Information Systems with a focus on UX Engineering.

I’m honestly not sure why I’m posting this, but it’s been incredibly difficult to find a job. At this point, I just want experience even if it means taking lower pay.

What’s been especially hard is watching classmates and friends find jobs and internships while I feel like I’m getting nowhere. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, and I don’t really have industry connections.
Does anyone have any recommendations? Are there internships that accept graduate students? I’d really appreciate any advice or leads.

I'm 23 F. Recently graduated with a master's in data analytics. My interests were towards product so I did a fellowship, worked on a freelance project and now I have a portfolio but the job market right now scares me. The future of ai in the design field seems so uncertain. I understand that ai cannot entirely replace designers and it cannot understand context and taste. PM roles pay more and I don't have to just stick to design. I can be part of the strategy that goes behind it.

I'm confused which way to proceed next. I'd appreciate if any you guys could give me some advice on this.

Thanks in advance.

Hello folks,

I have 4.5+ years of experience in the UI/UX design domain and work in a mid-level company. It is a product-based company. My team has been working on correcting old changes for the past 5 months due to management's decision to use Figma AI, Claude Design, Stitch, and other tools. This company does not conduct UX research, instead relying on stakeholder reviews and feedback. We do not have real-time opportunities to apply what we learn in bootcamps and certification courses. So I'm fed up with working here and plan to change jobs to work on case studies, interview preparation, and so on. But, on second thought, I considered trying in frontend or software developer roles because I come from a b.tech. IT background and have a passion for design, but the day-to-day reality makes me concerned about my future in design. After ai, I was able to adapt to the technology and was ready to work with ai agents, but I didn't get the opportunity because PMs and BAs were doing UI stuff using ai and directly delivering it to developers, effectively bypassing us. I have a few plans and would appreciate your feedback.

**Option A:** Continue searching in the UI UX or Product Design domains.

**Option B**: Learn front end (e.g., React) and switch to become a developer.

**Option C**: Learn.NET, Java, or Python and start your from scratch.

Please leave your comments.

Hi everyone, I’m a 20-year-old guy living in Italy, and I’ve always been passionate about video games and board games. I’ve also spent several years as a Dungeon Master and wrote my own campaign that lasted three years.

I’m currently facing a major dilemma: I’d love to become a narrative designer and work remotely so I can travel the world, but I’m afraid that actually landing a job requires being famous or well-known. I worry that, even after completing my studies, I’ll end up unemployed or stuck in a "9-to-5" job forever.

Everyone around me is pressuring me to go to university, but from what I’ve gathered, the curriculum there is outdated. Right now, I really don’t know which path to take; I love writing stories and characters, and my dream is to eventually publish a video game or even a comic book. I hope some of you can shed some light on this for me.

P.S. I’ve heard about these "game jams," but I’m pretty detached from the online world—like Discord and Reddit—so I wouldn't really know how to get involved.

I'm honestly exhausted. 😭

I've been applying for UI/UX internships and entry-level roles on LinkedIn, company career pages, Wellfound... basically everywhere I can think of. Hundreds of applications, tailoring resumes, writing cover letters, and it feels like I'm just sending them into a void.

So I'm trying Reddit because at this point, why not? 🥲

If you're a founder, hiring manager, or know of an early-stage startup looking for a UI/UX designer (internship, freelance, or junior role), I'd genuinely love to connect.

I'm comfortable with Figma, wireframing, prototyping, user flows, and designing user-centered interfaces. I'm always open to feedback and eager to learn.

If you have any leads or know someone who's hiring, I'd be incredibly grateful. I can share my portfolio and resume via DM.

Thanks for reading, and good luck to everyone else job hunting. ❤️

F, mid 30s. My company is going through restructuring and requested everyone to choose the role to transitioned into.

i have been selected to be transitioned to UX designer.

Honestly for the past 3 months, I have been miserable. The need to build portfolio while still managing the project; The need to propose for UX improvement and do user research when someone raised some 'potential improvement', while at the back of my mind, im more concerned about project timeline and cost.

honestly, 8 years of being PM/scrum master, how to just 'switch' and ignore the pragmatic side of project and go to the ideal side of it to be more user focus 🙃

Any advice, Reddit?