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How do I become good enough at UX to get a job at a reputable company e.g. FAANG

I’m a recent product design graduate from Loughborough University and have been extremely passionate about entering into the UX design space. I have updated and edited my portfolio a few times trying to tailor limited content and realise I need potentially more projects to showcase. HOWEVER, now that I have left university and am struggling to get a useful internship that would help me develop, grow and learn, how do I go about finding out how to improve myself and my UX work? How do I improve my process and thinking to an extent where I could achieve a high level UX career? As just working by myself seems as though I may spend time not actually improving that much.

If anybody wants to take a quick look at my portfolio here’s the link:

https://www.feyioluwa.online

But I guess I am looking for some advice/guidance on what and how to develop my UX approach and work in an effective manor?
Feyi Oluwa
Feyi Oluwa
Digital Designer

Replies2

  • Feyi Oluwa
    Feyi Oluwa
    Digital Designer
    @Tanel S This is really helpful! Thankyou so much for taking the time out to not only provide this advice but look at my portfolio and give me some tips. I shall make those changes suggested, and will continue to focus on finding freelance work and teams i can learn and grow in as suggested.
  • Tanel S
    Tanel S
    Visual designer
    First of all I don´t know how good you need to be for FAANG. I have honestly seen some pretty average portfolios with people saying they have worked in some big-name companies.

    What you need is experience and motivation.
    Working alone can be tricky. Work with smaller clients first. Perhaps as a freelancer. Some smaller companies may have strong generalist designers who don´t have the time or habit to do any deep-dive UX work.
    I believe that practice and actual work is the one that teaches the most. In theory, you can learn one thing. Reality is sometimes quite a lot different. Most of the work is not only about UX skills and know-how but also about working with people and presenting your findings and selling what's important.

    Take as many courses as you have time. Google as UX design course that is quite popular. Not 100% sure but I think it is free.
    NNG has courses. Rather expensive however certificate you receive is valued as far as I know.
    https://www.nngroup.com/courses/

    Find more specific UX focused forums, Slack, or Discord groups. Interact with people.

    For portfolio.

    For the website, I would consider using text as open text instead of placing text on top of the images. It is clear that you are UX focused. And lets be honest terms like UX/UI and product designer are bit mixed everywhere. Same time in your portfolio you say, product designer. Case studies range from branding to deep UX work.

    Baby project case study. It is very lengthy. It may be good but sometimes recruiters don´t have a big attention span. I would think of some kind of summary at the beginning.

    Brief > Goals > Problems > Solution > Results. as very quick overview.

    Currently, your reflection part is pretty negative. Still, room to improve. You had limitations and no time. I would say that you need to focus on the wins. If it was a school project did you get a good score? Perhaps you tested the mockup with friends and got good feedback.

    Long story short. Work hard to find actual projects to contribute. If you can be part of the more experienced team learn from them. Ask ask ask. Your first job doesn´t have to be in FAANG there are a lot of smaller companies or startups who do important things.

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