The UX design job market now, frankly

Telling you the truth because anyone saying otherwise is sponsored. Ever since UX/product design was coined in the tech industry, there has never been a time like this.

Timestamps
0:00-0:35 Sharing from my interview with NYPost
0:35-1:00 Drastic drop in openings
1:00-1:15 Underleveling
1:15-1:40 Outsourced or contract positions
1:40-2:00 Ghosting is standard
2:00-2:22 Job postings not what they seem
2:22-3:12 Encouragement

✩ About me ✩
I’m Lily, a product designer (UX) in San Francisco. With no connections, I hustled and broke into Silicon Valley after arts school. I've been featured at Apple News and Business Insider. Subscribe to get my career + interview advice on how to do the same!

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✉️ Professional Inquiries

[StevenCodeCraft]

It's rough for software developers too. Unless you have a strong network, it's tough to even get a technical interview. So I'm just building my own products while I ride out this storm of darkness

[dandansoysauce]

Industries I’ve noticed that have taken a hit: entertainment, business, tech, software development, computer science, design, and probably much more that I haven’t named. Anyone applying: you’re not the problem

[charlieb]

Glad someone is saying it. Some of these predatory programs are really selling pipe dreams. Feeling beyond grateful to have a UX role rn as a junior.

[camilaoliveiras]

Product Designer here, +6y of experience. had interviews with 26 different companies from January/24 to end of April, some I got to the final stage. No job offers.

Some reopened the position and are still looking for the 'perfect' one for more than 3 months. They seem not to want to hire, just to play.

[kavinandrei]

It is truly a nightmare; I've been trying to land a UI/UX designer job for over a year now and have barely received any responses. The rejections are hilarious. The entry-level job requirements state 1-2 years of experience, HTML, CSS, JavaScript... and I keep seeing those job posts over and over again because they won't hire until the right 'Optimus Prime' individual appears. However, I received my very first positive response this week, for a product illustration internship and I don't even know how to react as I got my first interview ever. At this point I'm afraid that if this won't work then I will have to search and wait for months and months again. I wish everyone best of luck with finding a job!

[JonathanUXD]

It's been the toughest market these days. I have seen many recent international graduates end up coming back to their home country even after graduating from top UX degree programs. It doesn't work no matter how they are experienced or skilled.

[cruzergo]

We, the unemployed Software Developers/Engineers must have a big meetup and share our experiences and show our strength together. We can plan on creating new open source applications or even cloud platforms to be used in a new economy.

[kmmunicatr]

Totally relatable... 2023 was my worse season of my 12 years of career as a digital product designer.

[stacey.adrianne]

I got a job in 2021 with a bootcamp cert and 6 months of freelance experience. I was just fired from my job last month due to "performance issues" but it turned out that they were making budget cuts and were trying to avoid paying unemployment. I had been applying for jobs for months prior to this and couldn't even land an interview even though I have nearly 3 years of experience. It's definitely tough out here and I don't know what to do...

[mbarker]

Thank you so much! Thank you for sharing publicly, both this video and all your amazing videos! So it's not just me, the market is tough!

[ohhancil]

Wow, you saved me so much time and pain. I was heading back to school for Ux designer and was worried that I couldn't find a job after I finish... now it looks like the med field unfortunately

[alexcook]

UI/UX roles are the 1st to go when budgets get tight.

[thunder]

Software Engineer here, we're in the same boat ! A lot of people say it's startup season and I believe it's true. With the booming of AI we might see more 1-5 people teams do wonders with saas and micro-saas. Good luck to everyone !

[jeromebrown]

As. a Senior UI UX designer with 10 years in the game, I agree that this is the worst the market has been.

Some tips I've heard from recruiters and other designers:
- If a job has 100 applicants, apply anyway but try to connect with the hiring manager and reach out to the team on their website. Try to speak to an actual person
- Make sure your portfolio spells out, who you are and what you can do - forget flashy animations and crazy interactions for now
- Make your Resume, is one page, very clear, show recent experience and list your skills.

[VickyMei]

i love this video! thanks for sharing your insight! thats how i feel about this industry!

[Alisha.]

It’s been hard for juniors. We are competing with everyone. I wanted to move to an in house company but I have to stay put for now 😩 I hope the industry picks up because I can’t change careers again 😂

[Mr.Persistent]

With over five years in UX, I had to apply for a position well below my level, competing with entry-level candidates due to the industry's steep decline and unrealistic job market expectations. I got that but was it realistic? NO. Was it worth it? NO. But we gotta survive. IN that case how would the someone new compete with more experienced people. The current state of UX, marked by excessive competition and low pay, makes it a less viable career path.
Thank you lily for being honest. At least someone in the industry is not giving false hopes to new candidates and is atleast sharing the truth about what's going on. What used to be such a desirable fun field is now a hedache. The job hunting process is also more draining than ever like you said in the video.

[mikemathis]

Thank you for vocalizing your challenges. It's a useful reminder that I am not alone.

[GoodToCU]

I think it's the worst for UX Designers. My team has around 70 people with only 1 UX designer. And if you are curious, we have 2 front end engineers, 45 backend engineers, 10 business/data scientists, and the rest are PMs/engineer managers.

[daniellelee]

Thank you for speaking on this, when no one else is willing to! With the rise of AI, “leaner” teams, demotion of levels to lower the pay rates, shorter contracts and now having to apply for roles that are much lower than I applied to with less experience, this has been the toughest market I’ve seen since getting into tech 5 years ago. We need to have some form of union representation for tech workers, with all these terrible employee treatment, so they can manipulate a workforce in their favor.