If you’re looking for a UX design course to kickstart your career change, CareerFoundry’s UX Design Program could be just the thing.
UX design has evolved from an emerging niche to one of the hottest, most in-demand career paths on the tech scene. At the time of this writing, a quick search for UX design jobs on Glassdoor reveals over 7,000 open positions in the United States alone. We truly are living in a golden age for UX design, and the industry is showing no signs of slowing down.
In the exciting, ever-changing field of UX, the next generation of UX designers need practical training that’s in sync with the industry—and not just for what the industry needs to today, but for what it will need in the future.
So if you’re wondering whether you’ll need a design degree to land a job in UX, it’s important to know that traditional educational establishments usually struggle to keep up with the rapid evolution of the field. And this is where UX design courses and bootcamps come in.
Back in 2014, CareerFoundry set out with one very ambitious goal: to create an innovative, flexibly-paced online bootcamp that would transform even the most tender-footed of UX hopefuls into job-ready UX designers in 5-10 months. Fast-forward to today and well over 2,000 students across five continents have worked with CareerFoundry to re-train for new careers in UX design. So, what makes this program so effective?
From the wisdom of expert mentors to the guidance of seasoned career coaches, let’s take a look at how CareerFoundry has perfected an educational model that guarantees you a job in the field of UX design. Here’s what we’ll cover:
- UX design course content and curriculum
- CareerFoundry’s mentors and tutors
- UX course specializations
- Personalized career services
- Networking and community
- Wrap up
If you’re brand new to the world of UX bootcamps, here’s a quick video introduction to what bootcamps are and whether or not you should enroll in one:
1. UX design course content and curriculum
Not all UX design courses are created equal—and one clear distinction between a good UX bootcamp and a great one is the quality of the curriculum. CareerFoundry’s curriculum is produced exclusively in-house by subject matter experts and is regularly updated to reflect current industry trends.
The UX Design Program is broken into three courses which take you from designing your very first app to whipping up a killer UX portfolio: Intro to UX, UX Immersion, and a specialization course of your choosing (more on this in a moment).
Each course is packed with learning materials that are created in-house by expert curriculum designers and seasoned UX designers who are working actively in the field.
Along the way, students get to grips with user-centered design, the design thinking process, foundational design, usability testing, and just about everything in between.
Student feedback and in-depth research are also used to continually optimize the course content. The result? A highly personalized learning experience that will see you thrive in your career as a UX designer.
All with the benefit of flexible, self-paced learning—meaning that no matter whether you’re a parent, full-time worker or you’re simply looking to get qualified but don’t have the time or the capital to go back to university, you can study in your own time, and in your own way.
You’ll complete hands-on exercises that will put your new knowledge to immediate and practical use. And you receive individualized feedback and guidance from not one, but two industry pros. Read more about how it all works here: How CareerFoundry Works.
2. CareerFoundry’s mentors and tutors
Between managing your timetable, navigating a new job market, and figuring out your personal brand, even the most motivated career-changers need guidance. Enter: mentors and tutors!
While other UX design courses may provide you with a mentor, we team you up with two experts: a senior UX designer with at least eight years of experience in the field, and a course expert who has at least two years experience in the field.
Mentorship is core to CareerFoundry’s educational model. As such, mentors at CareerFoundry are no ordinary mentors: they’re your window into the design world. As subject matter experts with years of experience in the field, your mentors act as your teachers, cheerleaders, and confidants throughout every step of your UX journey. They’ve walked the path before you, navigated the same pitfalls you’re facing, and can coach you one-to-one every step of the way. Through regular skype calls, your mentor will offer you reviews of your portfolio, a fresh pair of eyes on your projects, and some much-needed encouragement when faced with a challenging task.
A tutor, on the other hand, is a course expert who is there to answer your everyday questions and provide actionable feedback on your tasks within a speedy 24 hours. By adopting this ‘dual’ approach of having both a mentor and a tutor working in tandem to help you succeed, we banish the common concern about loneliness and isolation that surrounds online learning.
Read more about this mentorship model here:
3. UX design course specializations
What’s more in-demand than UX designers? UX designers who are also competent in user interface design, voice user interface design, or frontend development. To meet this demand, CareerFoundry has introduced specializations; add-on courses that provide opportunities for graduates to expand their skill set.
Graduates can level up their coding skills with a frontend development specialization, flex their creative skills with a UI specialization, or stay ahead of the trends by mastering tech’s “next big thing” with a voice user interface design specialization.
But why take just one specialization, when you could take two? In the face of an evolving tech landscape, roles are constantly merging and expanding to encompass skills and responsibilities in a range of UX-related disciplines.
Having two specializations under your belt won’t just give you a competitive edge in the job market, it will also make you something of a UX-unicorn—which will most likely result in a higher pay-packet. Win-win!
“When I job search, I see that most positions either prefer or require competency in multiple areas beyond just UX. It can only help to have a background in other specializations in such a competitive market!” Stephanie, UX design graduate qualified in both frontend development and UI design
The cherry on top? These additional skills be acquired within just two months! Check out this awesome frontend development portfolio from UX graduate Virginia Yu.
4. Personalized career services
Some UX design courses or bootcamps offer their students a career specialist or a tutor who will hold your hand throughout the job-hunting process. At CareerFoundry, we’ve got an entire team—and a dedicated course—there to ensure that you land the job of your dreams.
CareerFoundry’s job preparation course is an optional, free course designed to assist you with all aspects of finding a new job as a UX designer. Students who opt into the job preparation course are assigned their own career specialist. Your Career Specialist will help you to define your personal brand, teach you how to network like a pro, create a job search strategy, get your interviewing skills up to scratch, and help you tidy up your LinkedIn profile.
CareerFoundry also offers a job guarantee: Land a job within 6 months of graduation, or get your money back.
But even better? Your career specialist won’t dump you once you land a role. Many CareerFoundry graduates keep in touch with their career specialists years into their career, and reach out regularly for advice about anything from professional development to salary negotiation.
5. Networking and community
Thinking that studying with an online UX design course means you’ll miss out on vital opportunities to network with potential employers? Think again! Upon finishing the course, CareerFoundry graduates automatically become part of an active alumni network. Highlights include a weekly-updated alumni job board featuring job opportunities exclusively from the CareerFoundry community, and alumni Slack channels that are organized by location, making it super easy to connect with other alumni, ask about local job opportunities, and swap job-hunting tips and tricks.
Beyond this, CareerFoundry hosts a Smörgåsbord of community events that facilitate learning and networking—whether you’re a CareerFoundry student or not! Local student-organized meetups also take place regularly in cities all over the globe—from Munich to Chicago. If you can’t find a meetup near you, don’t worry! Our career specialists will work with you to kick-start your own.
6. Wrap up
The rise in demand for talented UX designers has brought with it the rise in UX design courses and bootcamps—all of which offer their own, unique learning experiences. But few UX courses combine comprehensive curriculum, personalized mentorship and student-focused learning quite like CareerFoundry.
Want to learn more about starting a career in UX design?