Career Services in Coda! [Katie Rivard]

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Career Services in Coda! [Katie Rivard]

Enhancing Your Skills

Lesson: How to Stay Relevant and Ready

5 minute read

After completing all your UX Academy coursework, it might feel like the hard part is over. In fact, the real journey is just beginning: your design career!

As your learning with Designlab nears completion, we want to make sure you’re set up to continue building new skills throughout your time in this constantly changing industry. New technologies and trends emerge every month, and the very best designers stay ahead of the curve, setting them apart in a competitive hiring market.

This means staying curious, using the new methods you learn, and practicing constantly. As well as making you a more rounded designer, doing this will also make sure your skills are as relevant as possible to employers’ needs.

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Keep Practicing

Ask any working designer, and they’ll tell you that practice has been key to advancing their careers. Even when you’re employed or on the job hunt, keep working on a range of things: simple design challenges, or personal side-projects that will keep your skills fresh.

There are many ways to keep your creativity flowing and challenge yourself. You can begin to look for freelance opportunities to work with real clients and engage in real-world problems. You can craft projects based on the problems you face personally that software can solve.

For any of these types of projects, approach them as you would any of the projects you completed during UX Academy. Start by defining the problem, conduct research, develop wireframes, and then design a stellar interface to test. Rinse and repeat.

If you are finding it tough to come up with ideas for projects, you can use sites like

DailyUI⁠

and

Designercize⁠

to generate a starting point. As you continue through Career Services, you will be tasked with doing at least two of these per week. Choosing to do more can only help!

Another approach is to take an existing product and put your own spin on it. While you may not know all of the challenges this product faces, you can conduct your own research and tests around its current interface, and develop a plan to redesign it.

Just like playing an instrument or riding a bike, the more you design, the better you will get. Practice will help you get faster with design software, find innovative ways to solve problems, and keep building new portfolio pieces to share with potential employers.

⁠

Read, Listen, and Engage

To keep up with trends in design, read a range of design blogs and follow industry leaders. You can often find out what techniques other designers are leaning, and take note of what they discovered in the process. While there are many blogs to follow (

including ours⁠

!), here are a few essentials to bookmark:

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UXmatters⁠

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UX Booth⁠

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UX Magazine⁠

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Smashing Magazine⁠

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Usabilla Blog⁠

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Inside Design by InVision⁠

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Nielsen Norman Group⁠

⁠

UX Planet⁠

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Creative Bloq⁠

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UX Collective⁠

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Listening to podcasts can also give you valuable insights into the daily work of other professionals. In particular, people often discuss issues they’ve faced in different companies and work environments. Overall, you’re likely to gain a better perspective on the industry and life after Designlab. Here are some of our favorites:

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Design Matters with Debbie Millman⁠

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99% Invisible⁠

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The Honest Designers Show⁠

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The Busy Creator Podcast⁠

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Revision Path⁠

⁠

Well Made⁠

⁠

Feasting on Design Podcast⁠

⁠

The Crazy One Podcast⁠

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You can also stay relevant by engaging in design conversations online. Look for quality threads on Twitter, join Slack workspaces dedicated to design, and check out other popular forums like

Designer News⁠

Above all, keep learning, and keep growing. Learn from others, and continue to hone your skills. Use these resources not just during Career Services, but far beyond!

Design education doesn’t end with the completion of a course: being a professional designer means learning something every single day.

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