Any advice for someone attempting a career pivot to UX research?
Formerly I worked in medical research (mostly non-lab positions involving subject recruitment, data collection, etc.) and pharma (administrative roles in regulatory affairs). My undergraduate degree is in anthropology (major) and biology (minor). I am trying to reenter the workforce after a hiatus during which I was a full-time caregiver. Finances are an issue. I have limited money to invest in education. Also, I am afraid of what salary levels I might expect for entry level positions. Thank you!
Anonymous
04/05/21 at 9:12PM UTC
have you ever done any sort of UX work before?
Anonymous
04/05/21 at 10:08PM UTC
No, I have not done salaried UX work. What a potential employer might find interesting is that I have been inquisitive about consumer behavior and attitudes and product innovation and improvement to the extent that I have shared my viewpoints and purchasing habits with market researchers and survey companies. I have been a focus group member for multiple entities. Also, I am a panelist of market research groups for a variety of organizations, including a major ISP, a respected healthcare insurance organization and one of the largest retailers in the US. I have reviewed products for a well-known retailer. I do online surveys for survey aggregators. I transmit weekly household purchases for a market research panel. I realize that all of the above does not make me a UX researcher! I can add that some of my former jobs required performing basic data analyses, building and maintaining relational databases, interviewing study subjects, writing (SOPs, business correspondence, e.g.) and updating websites.
Anonymous
04/06/21 at 4:07PM UTC
got it - that's definitely all good information to use in your interview and will help show why you're interested in UX as a career. as far as the technical skills go - are there any free courses you can start taking to learn the hard skills? since you mentioned finances are an issue it may not be possible for you to take on an internship right now, but i'm sure there are a ton of free courses or videos on youtube where you can start learning the skills in your free time
Anonymous
04/06/21 at 4:54PM UTC
Are you working in UX research? I am trying to sort out what are essential skills and knowledge to get a start in the field. I have been looking at job descriptions, online forums, educational institutions' programs, etc. Part of the difficulty of deciding where to focus for skill building is that there is so much information out there, that it is a multifaceted discipline and that this is a fairly newly defined career that draws people from different educational and work backgrounds. If you or anyone else can point me toward core competencies, I would appreciate it. I see that one local, respected university offers a certificate program that requires taking condensed courses. Although I could maybe swing one course, paying the tuition to complete the certificate requirements would not be possible now. I was thinking of asking the program director for guidance about critical technical knowledge, etc. and then investigating if I might acquire what I need on my own. The experience piece will be more difficult to attain without employment. Are there commonly used job titles for entry-level UX research positions or roles that might not be fully entrenched in UX research but would have a UX research component? Even this sort of tip would be helpful for filtering searches of job openings. Thank you for your responses!
