Choosing a New Career in UX Design

Being happy in your career is not something every person is able to obtain. For many years I assumed career satisfaction meant stable hours and good pay. I never took into consideration other factors such as, do I like what I’m doing? Do I feel like I am reaching my full potential in this career choice? Am I looking forward to each day? If I had taken the time and really thought about those questions, my journey to get to where I am would have looked a lot different.

I have always been a creative, artistic person. As a child, I much preferred staying indoors and drawing/coloring than going outside to play, much to my parents chagrin. I tried all of the after school activities: ballet, karate, gymnastics, and the only one that stuck was art. In school I would get yelled at for doodling on my notebooks, or sketching my teachers, and in my last year I spent most of my days in the art room working on my AP art projects than anywhere else. As soon as I started college, however, I was encouraged to pursue a more “practical” career. Putting aside my innate artistic talents and passion for creativity, I majored in psychology and decided to go to law school. Being a 21 year-old almost college graduate and the daughter of a lawyer, this seemed to be the mature decision.

As a young law student, I became caught up in the intense, competitive environment that was law school. Where people studied to their max capacity in order to be the very best. I had internships and externships, was involved in clubs and clinics and journals, and took on as much as I could possibly take without having the time to consider, am I happy? Am I, an artistic and creative person, really going to be able to sustain this level of intensity throughout my career, without feeling any passion for what I’m doing? These were questions I didn’t ask myself.

After finishing law school, I worked for a small law firm for a year. Realizing this environment didn’t feel right, I moved on to a compliance role at a large finance company. I learned there what it was like to work in a toxic work environment, and was grateful to have to opportunity to switch roles to a different finance company in a similar position. For the first few months, I was so happy and grateful to working where I was with good coworkers and a pleasant environment that I didn’t stop to consider if I actually liked what I was doing and felt good about the work I was producing. I was happy to not feel miserable every day, and for some time that was enough for me. As time went on, I began to dread the working days again, but for a different reason. While I had a comfortable, stable situation, I had no passion for the actual job I was performing. Over time I realized that I just could not see myself doing this work and advancing in this career, knowing that there could possibly be a career that would bring all of the stability I wanted in addition to an interest and passion in the field. I wanted to feel good about the work I was producing and have working day hours fly by.

It was then, with the encouragement of my husband, that I decided to look into different career options. The timing was right, as we were about to make a fresh start moving from NYC to Atlanta. While I considered different career options, my purpose was to find the intersection between creativity and innovation, while incorporating skills I have obtained through my previous experiences, and tapping into my artistic talents that was hugely lacking in my past roles. With the help of my husband, it didn’t take long to find UX Design. With consideration to the current market and how valuable UX design has become to companies, small and large, I found UX to be intriguing due to my background in psychology, experience in legal research as well as data analyzation, and my passion for creative thinking and design. Challenging the status quo with a team to create an amazing product, and being able to have pride in that product, is something that I want in my career. With the move to Atlanta, it seemed like not only the right time, but the only time to take this chance and huge pivot in my career.

And so, I decided to enroll in Flatiron’s full time UX/UI Design program. I took a huge leap of faith, and devoted myself to the 6 month bootcamp, working as hard as I could and enjoying it in a way I had never experienced. While I am at the very beginning of my new career in UX Design, I feel a passion for this work that motivates me to continue learning and growing in this field, and for the first time I’m excited for what is ahead of me in my career.