Life After CareerFoundry: Updates on UX/UI Design Graduates in the Workplace

Our career-change programs teach you everything you need to know to get your first job in tech—even if you don’t have any previous experience.

CareerFoundry alumni end up with different job titles that reflect their various interests, backgrounds, and the opportunities available: some have previous experience that qualifies them for senior roles immediately, while others may start at a paid internship before securing a junior position. Whatever the situation may be, we are proud to see so many of our graduates forge careers they love.

But what exactly are CareerFoundry graduates doing in their new roles? What skills are they putting into practice, and what are they contributing to their new teams?

We got in touch with seven of our latest UX design and UI design graduates and asked their employers and colleagues to share some insights into how CareerFoundry graduates are thriving in their new careers. Keep reading to find out what they had to share, and check out this article for further glowing testimonials about our web development and data analytics graduates.

Tarah Pfeiffer, UX/UI designer at Deine Pflege

Formerly a professional contemporary dancer, an injury and drawn-out rehabilitation (as well as the global pandemic) put Tarah’s career on hold. 

Turning her attention to other fields, Tarah initially completed several short courses on computer science. Eventually, she discovered UI design and her passion grew from there.

Since graduating from the UI Design Program, she’s been working in the digital healthcare industry as a UX/UI designer at Deine Pflege. Here’s what her colleague Sahil had to say about working with Tarah:

“Tarah has been able to juggle multiple responsibilities with ease, and has quickly adapted to the many different challenges that come with her role. Her ability to handle diverse tasks and projects with efficiency and effectiveness has been impressive. She has shown great initiative and takes ownership of her work, always striving to deliver great results.

One of Tarah’s standout qualities is her unwavering drive and curiosity. She is always eager to learn and improve, consistently seeking out opportunities to enhance her skills and knowledge. Tarah’s positive attitude and strong work ethic have made her an invaluable asset to our organization. She is a team player who collaborates effectively with colleagues and integrates perfectly into the team. I believe her personality would make her a great fit for any team, to be frank.

I have high hopes for Tarah’s future career, as I believe she has the potential to achieve great things. Her dedication, skills, and determination to deliver great solutions make her a standout professional, and I am confident that under the right conditions she will continue to make significant contributions in her career journey.

Based on our experience working with Tarah, we would highly recommend hiring CareerFoundry graduates to other companies. Their training and skill development are evident, and Tarah’s work at our organization is a testament to the quality of education and preparation she received from CareerFoundry.”

Sahil Singh, Product Owner at Deine Pflege

If you’d like to see the work that Tarah created during her studies with CareerFoundry that contributed to her design portfolio, check out her portfolio project.

Alice Ruiz Pereda, UX designer at Mikata Health

While emigrating from Mexico to Canada, Alice took the opportunity to pivot her career from project management to UX design; a more in-demand career in her new home in Calgary.

She persevered through the UX Design Program and, after graduating, landed her first job in the field at digital healthcare startup, Mikata Health.

We asked Meaghan, co-founder at Mikata, to share a testimonial with us about the great work Alice is doing in her role as a UX designer, and how she’s putting her newfound skills to good use:

“Alice has made a massive impact on Mikata as a designer, and the UX design skills she gained from CareerFoundry have definitely been a factor in her success. She’s able to contribute to projects from the initial stages of research and product definition to final delivery of high-fidelity UI designs. Her work is thorough, but also bold and creative. As a result, our team is developing a better product and doing it much faster than before.”

Meaghan Nolan, Co-Founder at Mikata Health

You can read more about Alice’s career change journey in this article: From Corporate Banking to Innovative Startup: How I Pivoted My Career To Stay Relevant in a New Country

Adam James, product/UX designer at Kalido

Adam’s background is in recruitment. However, he turned his attention to a career in UX design in order to collaborate more with stakeholders, innovate and scale digital services, and ensure his work had a far-reaching social impact.

Since graduating from CareerFoundry’s UX Design Program, he’s been working at professional skill-sharing platform, Kalido, based in London. Originally hired as a junior designer, he’s recently been promoted to a mid-weight product/UX designer.

We asked his manager, Amy, to shed some light on how Adam has brought his skills, passion, and knowledge together in his role:

“Adam has been a solid addition to the team here at Kalido. From day one he has applied both his previous career experience in recruitment and the skills acquired on the CareerFoundry course with great effect. 

From the beginning Adam has been very user-focused, challenging existing designs through usability testing and interviews leading to the design and development of an entirely new feature, as well as making significant UI improvements to ready-to-ship designs, after questioning how the previous design fit in with the visual and experiential direction of the product. 

Adam has also suggested improvements to our design team processes—including the adoption of Figma and working to develop our design system—that have made collaboration from design to development much easier. He has great working relationships with our developers, and isn’t afraid to involve them to understand what is technically possible to deliver within time constraints—which is integral when you deliver as fast as the Kalido team do.”

Amy Hodgson, Head of Design at Kalido

Kylie Weber, UI designer at Syndic4you

It’s clear from speaking to UI design graduate Kylie and her colleagues that she is an asset to Syndic4you, a co-property management platform based in Brussels.

As a former hotel manager at an eco-lodge in Kenya, it was Kylie’s dedication that she put into running a new business that ultimately inspired her for a career in UX and UI design.

We were lucky enough to receive not one, but two, testimonials from Kylie’s colleagues at Syndic4you. First up, here’s what Julien had to say about working with Kylie:

How has Kylie impressed you in her role since joining Syndic4you?

“First of all, everybody loves Kylie. She provides services to the whole team next to her main product design role and she interacts with everybody in a very positive and friendly way, even when under pressure. I am impressed by every aspect of her job. Of course she has design skills and knows how to use design software, but she also constantly takes on new challenges, takes initiative when undertaking research, contacts fellow designers to debate questions with them, makes suggestions for the product as well as the company organization, challenges my views, and more. She really is the perfect sidekick.” 

What are your hopes for Kylie’s future career?

“We are planning to make Kylie evolve towards a product owner role at Syndic4you. She is already participating in discussions regarding the mid/long term product vision. She also has very positive interactions with the developers. Everything I see makes me confident that she is ready to take on more responsibilities.”

Would you recommend hiring a CareerFoundry graduate to other companies?

“Kylie was ready to contribute efficiently on day one at Syndic4you, so I should credit CareerFoundry for giving her very good training. I would definitely recommend other companies hiring CareerFoundry graduates.”

Julien Mourlon, Product Owner at Syndic4you

And the second, from CEO and co-founder Geoffroy:

“Kylie is an exceptional asset to the company. She is kind, polite, and always has a positive attitude. In addition to that, her learning curve is very impressive. She has gained a lot of skills in design very fast.

I’ve been impressed by the way she quickly gets involved in projects and challenging things we used to do. She has a strong opinion of what is right, and that is very important in an organization where we need to move forward very quickly.

My hope for Kylie’s future career is that she keeps growing at Syndic4you as long as possible. Her positive mindset, product vision, and design skills are very valuable!”

Geoffroy Uyttenhove, CEO & Co-Founder at Syndic4you

You can read more about Kylie’s career change journey in this article: From Hotel Manager to UI Designer: How My Background in Hospitality Propelled Me Into a Career in Design

Cécile Vuillermoz, UX/UI designer at Drawbotics

Sensing a parallel with her background in architecture, Cécile sought out a career in UX design where she could combine her curiosity, passion, and empathy for the user in a valuable way.

She landed her first job in the field at property startup, Drawbotics, after graduating from CareerFoundry. Since speaking to Cécile and her team at Drawbotics, she has recently moved on to a new role as a product designer at Laiye, a software development company based in Beijing.

Here’s what her colleague at Drawbotics, Ryan, had to say about working with her:

“It is clear that CareerFoundry does an excellent job skilling up its students in the field of design. Cécile has been an excellent addition to the Drawbotics team and pushed us from day one to level up both our design processes and customer research. Most notably, she has led the charge in operating consequential usability studies, and is always excellent at working out all the details of a design or interaction.”

Ryan McCutcheon, Product Owner at Drawbotics

Drew Long, senior UX researcher at ADT

UX design graduate Drew made a career change from education and academia to UX research, and credits the UX community and his career specialist at CareerFoundry, Andrea, for helping him find his vocation for a career in UX.

Now working at ADT, a home security company in Florida, Drew is flourishing in his role as senior UX researcher. We asked his colleague, Todd, a few questions to find out what it’s like working with Drew:

What is Drew doing particularly well?

“Drew is able to take on a new task and own the project completely. He follows through on his commitments, and doesn’t shy away from learning whatever skills are necessary to perform at a very high level. He is constantly reminding the greater team to put the user at the center of what we do and to understand the ‘why’ behind our product design decisions. Drew is also a great collaborator—he regularly shares work with the larger team, and provides valuable insights from his research that help us make informed decisions.” 

What are your hopes for Drew’s future career?

“I see Drew taking on more responsibility, and hopefully taking on a leadership role as he grows in his career. He has wonderful communication skills, and is a pleasure to work with. He’s well-respected on the team, and takes a proactive approach to helping others improve.”

Would you recommend hiring a CareerFoundry graduate to other companies?

“Absolutely, if Drew is any indication of the quality of a CareerFoundry student. Drew had a strong foundation on UX research before joining our team, and brought some valuable real-world experience, even though he was new to our industry and to enterprise business in general. He’s quickly ramped up to apply his skillset to our work and is making a real impact.”

Todd Adel, Senior Product Design Manager at ADT

Gaelle Monin, UX/UI designer at Pixel Fridge

UI design graduate Gaelle had worked in print publishing all her life. But, as the industry waned and the nature of her job changed, she sought something more relevant and creative. At age 40, she decided to retrain as a UX/UI designer. Now, she’s working in the field at Pixel Fridge, a digital agency in London.

We asked director of experience, Chris, some questions to find out how she’s getting on:

How has Gaelle impressed you in her role since joining?

“Gaelle has risen over and above the challenge of embarking on a new career and absolutely smashed it. Conscientious, enquiring, hard working, eager to learn. Her work is always of a high standard, thoroughly thought through, and efficiently executed. She is such a great addition to the team.”

What is she doing particularly well?

“Gaelle has been able to turn her hand to activities across the design process. Rather than being focused on a single specialism, she’s been delivering great work in terms of user research, interaction design, and also the more intricate visual elements of the design. We’ve been blown away by how quickly she’s gotten to grips with design system creation in Figma, and validating those ideas with clients.”

Would you recommend hiring a CareerFoundry graduate to other companies?

“I would absolutely recommend hiring a CareerFoundry graduate. Gaelle has absolutely blown away our expectations, and we couldn’t be happier. I’m looking forward to seeing Gaelle grow as a design leader, and championing the user-centered design process for her clients.”

Chris Myhill, Director of Experience at Pixel Fridge

You can read more about Gaelle’s career change journey in this article: From Print Publishing to Digital Design: How I Retrained To Stay Relevant in a Changing Industry

Hopefully these employer testimonials have given you an idea of what life is like for CareerFoundry alumni working in the field after graduating.

If you’re feeling inspired by these successful graduates, and want to find out if a career in tech is a good fit for you too, you can book a free call with an expert program advisor at CareerFoundry.

You can also sign up for a free, introductory short course in the field of your choice to get a taste of a career in UX or UI design, web development, data analytics, digital marketing, or product management.

Curious to learn more about life after CareerFoundry and other alumni? Check out this story about three recent graduates who worked on exciting tech projects as part of an apprenticeship program with Tech Fleet. 

You can also find out more about CareerFoundry graduates and the great work they go on to achieve on our Graduate Outcomes page.