Junior Designer with 5 years of experience

It has become both a trend and a meme of its own, but many companies are now looking for junior designers with YEARS of experience. Now that is just silly.
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But that doesn't mean, that as a junior designer, you're off the hook. Keep in mind that you still need to stand out to get the job and progress. UX and UI design industry is growing, but there's also too many people with similar portfolio projects and not enough ambition or drive.

You need to really like what you do and do a lot of extra stuff before applying for the job. And if you're truly committed, it shows, and the resumé experience is not going to matter as much!

If you need help with your portfolio build or general tips on how to get the job, join our free slack community and follow me on Twitter:

[dixmacabre]

Awesome advice and points here. This echoes a lot of the philosophy I've been following in my journey to landing my first full-time role in Product Design. Just keep doing work, stay sharp, put yourself out there and you will get there. I actually just finished giving a talk on a panel related to my journey just hours ago. It's so empowering to speak to others too. Just get out there and do the thing. Eventually someone will notice, and it really only takes one for that first job.

[dmytrokaraulov]

Haha nice intro. That exactly what I encountered when looked at job websites. It was a surprise for me as I am new to UX/web design. So I'd rather look into freelancing even though I hate communication with clients and negotiating, still better option for me than exprience humiliation by all that corporate stuff.
By the way, personal fake projects are fun, but they lack an experience of communicating with clients, geting all needed information from them to do right design decisions etc. To fill that gap I consider making some free but real projects, working with NGO for example. Luckily I got one like that.

[Blueeyesinthesky]

Could 1-2 yrs of experience come from education or other art forms? I have been drawing since I could pick up a pencil and then at one point taught myself social media management. I was then an EA for the CEO of an ad agency for a short time and then stopped doing that and helped them design and put together presentations. I threw together a portfolio for this company that needed extra design support randomly because of a referral of me. I was just hired as a junior designer and I’m still in college for it. I was honest about my experience in Adobe suites being still more on the basic side but I guess they liked my work and experience so far! So I’m looking for all the tips I can get to succeed 😂 illustrator I love and comes naturally I just gotta refer back to notes on how to do more complex moves but I can definitely execute what I want. Photoshop I’ve been able to execute stuff wrll I just gotta again refer to my notes for more complex stuff. Indesign I’m still newer in but I understand how it works and it’s honestly not the hardest program considering you place a lot of pre made stuff in it from photoshop and illustrator.

[garygrinkevich]

I think having a "one project portfolio" can be a great way to stand out but its the kind of move that you actually do need the "senior high level conceptual skills" to pull off so not necissarily "jr friendly" but a full identity set with all the marks, icons, fonts, thumbnails, collateral, web wireframes, tables, headers, footers, favicons, html, email and irl signage with good photographs thats can easily be a $50k package if you know what your doing but theres alot more to it than a logo and the thumbnails for it. detailing the research involved is also important basically i'm giving you a quick primer on how to add value and sell more than "jr." experience. xoxo

[Christian-qlvw]

If/When I have the job title of UX Designer it will be in huge part because of you. Thank you.

[manisky]

Oh my god. I cracked. Making coffee. It is still relevant. That is what I am dealing with a searching job on LinkedIn. I wish there was a platform where junior designers could get connected with companies to do a real project. That would made the process much easier.

[jaelagreene]

How do I find experience? What type of jobs should I look for

[CrackerJayherber]

I'm not sure what to do. In my last industry as an electric motor technician it was very easy to get a job because there are very few in the field. I've switched, or I should say tried to switch into this industry by taking a 1 year college course, meanwhile working on pretend projects as well as doing real websites for my family. After about 7, 500 hours of learning and building web content, I've had zero luck in getting a job interview, or even any freelance job on any of the popular platforms. How can I compete when there are 500 other applicants applying for the same job? And these jokers asking for 5 years experience as a junior, don't even get me started.

[regent]

That tie, haven't seen one like it in a long time. 😂

[helenchinweike]

Funny intro 😂😂😂, I am just 7 months in design . I practice everyday though I love & enjoy doing the ux but whenever I see jobs to applied requirements are too much & numbers of years Experience discourages me 😥😥... I have 2 projects on my portfolio when I actually did the case study of it. Yet is still discouraging.. what should I do???

[JaleelBeig]

This is majority of startups, internships and jobs in India

[marcelstaiger]

Where can I join your slack community? That still viable? :)

[popvulture]

Can you please link your slack community.. Thank you.

[Nailianna]

Omg, Mike, I LOL'd :D
(and it's funny because it's true)

[Justcetriyaart]

Fine they want to protect themselves. but it'd make more sense for 1-2 years experience, not 5 and if keeping to five, they should pay for all that experience. Also, would it hurt them to have 3-6 months contract to full time with junior designers?

[Mykhailo_Vasylenko]

You’ll be making apps, web sites, coffee…

[snaakie]

I am not a fan of gatekeeping but I'll say it anyway: the job market sucks because everyone is trying to become a designer.

[szeredaiakos]

I hate to burst you bubble, but you need roughly 10 to 15 years in a IT craft to call yourself senior. That with 40h/week and no vacations. You need 5 years alone for the technical mastery on a single process but you need a lot of integrated knowledge as well as refined skills to adapt to change in order to truly master your craft. the 10k hour rule of mastery is bullshit. Mastery is when you can present and explore a body of work with others. Mastery is when you can articulate why your work is better than other approaches. Mastery is when you can sell your work.

If you pull 70h a week and you really like what you are doing yeah, sure, there is a chance you can be called a senior in 5 years.

That being said, senior as a title is still nice to have, just don't let it go to your head.

[edhahaz]

Careful. Someone here might think you're joking