Ben Levin’s Post

📌 Has the job market changed, or is it just me? I've been in the job market for a while, actively looking for UX/UI roles, but recently I've noticed something peculiar. Whenever I see a job posting—whether it's been up for just a few hours or a day—there are already more than 100 applicants! 😲 Even when I apply specific filters, like targeting smaller cities where competition should theoretically be lower, the numbers are still staggering. This is a trend I haven't seen before, and it has left me wondering: What’s driving this sudden surge in applications? Is it the broader accessibility of remote work, allowing more people to apply from anywhere? Are we seeing a shift in the job market where more professionals are entering fields like UX/UI? Or is it something else entirely? It’s both fascinating and challenging to navigate this landscape, and I’d love to hear from others who are experiencing the same. How are you adapting to this influx of competition? #UXUI #JobSearch #RecruiterTips #JobMarket #UXDesign #UI #HiringTrends #RemoteWork #JobHunt #CareerGrowth

🚨 Caution: "Full Stack UX Engineer" Job Postings! 🚨 I recently saw a "Full Stack UX Engineer" job posting, which is a red flag. Combining full designer and researcher roles is overwhelming and impractical. Furthermore, this title indicates the organization is likely low on the UX maturity scale, and may also lack funds to support a full UX team. 💡 Advice for UX Pros: Ask about role expectations and UX understanding in interviews. Advocate for specialized UX roles to ensure quality and avoid burnout. Raise awareness and encourage organizations to value specialized UX roles for better user experiences. #UXDesign #UXResearch #UserExperience #UX #CareerAdvice #UXMaturity #LinkedIn #Monday

You´re a UX Researcher struggling with your job search ? 🥵 With the layoffs in design, some of the most impacted people are UX Researchers as many orgs are shifting the UXR tasks to their product designers. The consequence is that we don´t see many job offers in UXR currently. How to tackle this ? ☑️ learn new languages to be able to be hired (remotely) for other markets ☑️ up-skill in UX Design ☑️ up-skill in UI Design In the mid-term if you´ll up-skill in both UX & UI Design you´ll become an end to end product designer with strong UX Research background which should increase your chances of getting hired. If you´re not into design, it´s fine but be aware your job search will be hard. -> In this case, search which large design teams don´t have a UXR person in their org. and try to get in touch with their Head of UX or Head of Product Design to ask if they´re planning to hire someone in the field. With love ❤️ Mathieu 🎩 thanks Freepik for the image 🙏

Researchers are the most underestimated job in your company, unless you're practicing "eat your own dog food". Suppose you're building something for the Fortune 500 while you're in one of the Fortune 5,000,000 companies (means: very small). You are making decisions for an area far outside your own. If you are not even "eating your own dog food", then your gut is not well trained to make good decisions. Researchers are like trainers and coaches for gut decisions. If you're not building for people like you, you need researchers to help you inform your decisions. To my fellow UX Researchers, try to target those companies that are building something outside of their own bubble and not for themselves. These are your customers, who definitely need an informed decision driven by you.

Since starting my #ux career in 2018, a #careerchange trend I've noticed was that much of my progression felt...reactive❗ I'd move from #tech 💻 role to role if a contract expired, without a clear view 👓 of where I wanted to go next. It was about the experience and building knowledge 📚 versus learning where I fit in. The last 3.5 years have been pretty great — I've flexed my #research muscles in public health 🩺 design and SaaS product design📱— but I want 2024 to be the year where I define my career 💼 #values ⭐ and match them to organizations that practice them. For example, I value both working remotely and creating with a collaborative team 🧑💻👩💻 where design has a seat (and impact) at the business 🤝 table. This is just a hi-level view. I'm doing the work to define this values story 📓 for myself, as I know this UX skillset is transferable to customer-centric organizations, too. That being said, how do you all find 🔍 organizations or opportunities that align with your working values? I'd love to know!

My recent analysis of UX research job descriptions uncovered some interesting findings about work location, including: 1) About 50% of UXR job postings are remote. 2) There were some hiring hotspots in areas you might not expect, like IL, TX, and MO. It will be interesting to see how these findings change over time. Each of these points is a snapshot in time, capturing hiring from late 2023-> early 2024. The full article contains detailed findings: https://lnkd.in/efiTZPDZ

Hi network, I need your help! 🗣 ❗ I need to connect with someone who works CX/UX in the federal space (ideally someone who has made hiring decisions) to ask a few questions about my current situation. A little context: I've been researching professionally for 6 years and actively looking for UX roles. I'm also currently employed by a federal agency as an archaeologist. I have a year's worth of direct UXR experience working on pro bono projects, to gain that tech and agile experience, and will likely continue to work on these types of projects while I make my transition. I have some UX interviews lined up in the private sector, but I'm already a federal employee and it would be ideal for me to continue my federal service, but as a UX/CX researcher instead. ❗ BUT! I need to know if my volunteer experience is enough to land those federal UX roles, or if I should seriously consider leaving for the private sector to become more competitive for government UX roles in the future. ❗ I would love to speak with someone experienced in this area to go over the specifics of my situation, experience, etc., and help me weigh the pros and cons of staying or leaving. (Obligatory I know no one can guarantee me any certainty, but I need to get a better sense of the federal UX landscape. I'm ready for some hard truths!) Many thanks to those who can share this or provide clarity! 🙏 #uxresearch #uxdesign #ux #cx #federal #customerexperience #hiring #federalux #govtech #civictech

In 2016 I wrote an article with Dan Maccarone about how The UX of Hiring for UX is Broken ... it was part of a 3-part series about the state of UX hiring and education. I'll link all 3 articles it in the comments. Here's the one about UX hiring: https://lnkd.in/gU_3DYWZ But ... 8 years later, UX hiring is still broken. Many people ask me why I don't work on fixing UX hiring. My answer is that if I tried to fix UX hiring, it would distract me from helping UX people get hired, and honestly, that's a lot more fun (right now). See, to fix UX hiring, you have to fix both sides of the spectrum: candidates and companies. And, after doing some research into fixing the company side of things, it's obvious to me that (right now) my team and I can have a bigger impact by focusing on helping candidates get hired. I'm so proud of my team at Career Strategy Lab and people who trust us to help them navigate landing their next role – such as Craig from Seattle, who recently got hired for a senior position at a large healthcare company. . #uxdesigner #productdesigner #ux #productdesign #uxresearch

🗳 Democratisation in UX Research and product companies   As we continue discussing this trend in our field, I'd like to share my perspective on it. Democratisation empowers other people who do research (PWDR) to increase the overall amount of research that can be done and enriches the user-centered culture within a company. But it also raises a crucial question: In an era where everyone can conduct research, what becomes of specialised UX researchers?   👐 The Paradox of a Job Well Done: In my humble opinion a successful enabling UX research team might appear to make itself redundant. By effectively upskilling PWDR they enable widespread, competent research execution across product teams. As more roles like product managers and designers take on research responsibilities, becoming more T-shaped in their skill sets, the unique role of the UX researcher seems to be in jeopardy. However, this scenario shouldn't be misinterpreted as an invitation to layoffs. Instead, it presents an opportunity for UX researchers to venture into untapped areas of innovation and discovery.   🔮 Diving into Discovery and Fostering Disruptive Innovation: By stepping away more and more from evaluative routine tasks, UX researchers can delve into areas leading to more disruptive innovation. Democratisation invites us to redefine our roles, focusing on discovery, strategic research, and innovative contributions. This allows us to uncover insights that expand current product paradigms. Furthermore, we can address complex research challenges and delve into areas that PWDR might lack the expertise, interest or capacity to tackle, yet are eager to see explored.   I recognise that the topic of democratisation in UX research might be a discussion that might be considered repetitive by now. But given the ongoing discussions, especially with the buzz around potential layoffs in the field, I still wanted to share my perspective. Not tired of the conversation? What are your thoughts on the democratisation of UX research? #UXCommunity #UXResearch #DisruptiveInnovation #productdevelopment #innovation

“The UX researcher fallacy: ‘My job is to learn about users.’  Truth: ‘My job is to help my team learn about users.’” - Caroline Jarrett Happy New Year 2024 everyone! This is my first post after being absent from LinkedIn for a while due to personal matter, and I’m excited to be back 🙂 As 2024 starts, there are still layoffs everywhere, specifically in the technology sector. This reignites doubts among professionals regarding the future of UX research, not to mention that usually, there are often fewer researchers than there are product managers and designers, and far fewer than there are engineers in a company. Based on that, I would like to share my take on the articles from Nick Stiles(2024), Dave Hora (2024), and Meltem Naz Kaso Coskun (2023) regarding the standing of UX Research and how one might improve its value to stay relevant with the workforce demand. It will consist of: A.Research & the Larger System B. Strategies for Staying Relevant in the System I believe that there are many opinions regarding the future of UX researchers. If you have any thoughts regarding how UX Researchers need to strategize to stay relevant, let’s discuss in the comment! #ux #uxresearch #userexperience #userresearch #research #uxstrategy #researcher #layoff #jobupskilling #upskilling #jobreskilling #reskilling #productdevelopment #product