UX Bootcamps: Buyer Beware

Tech bootcamps of all varieties have grown in popularity over the years. The promise of an intensive learning environment, senior mentorship, high earning potential, and cultivating an in-demand skill set in an exciting field is a very enticing proposal for many looking to break into tech. With more and more in-person and online UX bootcamps and accelerators emerging, the choices are virtually endless. But if you’re looking to start a career in user experience design or user research, there are some questions that need answering before spending your time and hard-earned money.

I’m looking into UX bootcamps at the moment. How can this article help me?

Over the years I’ve observed a few really interesting trends when it comes to bootcamps and I’ve heard many of the same questions being asked on message boards, Slack groups, and UX meetups when it comes to people thinking of enrolling in a UX bootcamp. Questions mainly revolve around having quality portfolio artifacts to showcase to potential employers, securing meaningful employment afterward, receiving mentorship, salary expectations, quality of education, as well as the actual value of a bootcamp certificate.

There have been horror stories from industry seniors and former boot-campers regarding the alarmingly questionable quality of instructors at some institutions, inflated job placements and salary statistics, buyer’s remorse, as well as some UX bootcamps using downright unethical marketing strategies to attract people to sign up.

I’ve also heard success stories of UX bootcamps being the primary factor in helping folks find meaningful, well-compensated employment at top companies, as well as opening doors for receiving senior mentorship. I have even worked with a few bootcamp grads during my career that kick ass at what they do.

If you are contemplating enrolling in a UX bootcamp you want to be sure you’re making the most of your time and monetary investment. I’ve compiled a list of questions you need to be asking before making your choice. You’re doing yourself a disservice if you are not carrying out proper due diligence prior to making your decision. The goal of this article is to give you a strategy to follow so you can be sure you’re armed with the information you need to make the best choice in regards to your educational journey.

Questions you need to be asking:

Will I be taught by someone legitimate?

UX as a field fundamentally does not have any regulatory oversight, nor is there any benchmark or criteria one formally has to meet in order to call themselves a ‘UX designer’ or ‘user researcher’. Because of this, in some cases, those instructing classes may not actually have any domain legitimacy in the very subject they are teaching. This is an area of investigation you need to be looking into before committing to a decision.

The caliber and character of your instructor, whether it be in a bootcamp setting, online course, or university class, is by far the biggest component of the quality of education you’ll be receiving. You want to be sure you’re being taught by a person who knows their stuff and is passionate about teaching.

I’ve heard various cases of people paying very good money for a UX bootcamp or continuing education certificate course at an established university, only to be instructed by someone who has, at best, dabbled in web design or digital marketing. In some extreme cases, there have even been instances of cohort instructors (not just teaching assistants) who were bootcamp students just months prior to teaching.

Some alarming insights over Twitter from a senior designer regarding the caliber of teaching at a UX design grad class at a notable university in the States.

Questions you should be asking include:

• Will the instructor of your cohort be a genuine domain expert? Do they have a track record of legitimate industry experience that has lead to a senior/leadership UX or UR position? Or are they claiming instant seniority and expertise without a previous track record?
• Does this person have a sound, verifiable applied background in the subject matter they will be teaching?
• What is their teaching style like and is their motivation for instructing founded in a genuine passion for teaching?

A good strategy to get a feel for your instructor’s legitimacy is to go on LinkedIn after you get the information from the bootcamp(s) you are looking into and view their track record. Some positive signals include industry experience at recognizable entities and a track record of career progression within user experience design or user research.

I know people giving workshops and bootcamps with less than a year of professional experience. As well as people with a decade of “experience” who have never even done usability testing before, because their experience is 10 years of making web models, with zero UX knowledge. Very sad.(Source)

Some other positive signals include instructors having scholarly peer-reviewed publications and higher-level education in a design or user research-related discipline.

Most bootcamps have office hours and open days during which you can get familiar with teachers and the learning environment. Go and talk to your potential instructor and get a feel for who they are as a person. The majority of people working in UX are very approachable and friendly (at least from my experience) and great teachers want their students to succeed.

Red-flags you should be watching out for include:

• Bootcamp not disclosing teaching information prior to the course.
• The instructor has a career progression in domains outside of the one that is being taught (e.g. digital marketing, print design, advertising, growth hacking)
• Instructors that are claiming instant seniority without a track record of career progression in the field they are teaching.
• Recent graduates of a bootcamp being the only instructor of your potential cohort.
• Disgruntled former instructors that were not given appropriate resources or structure from the employing bootcamp.

Have I carried out informational interviews with seniors and hiring managers in my area?

Starting with the end in mind is a winning mindset for almost any endeavor. Most of the time if someone is taking a bootcamp, the end goal is to obtain knowledge and skills so they can be competent in their chosen domain and secure industry employment. Carrying out an informational interview is one of the most useful things anyone can do when it comes to gaining information in regards to what hiring managers look for in a junior hire. Informational interviews with seniors and hiring managers are a great way to gain useful connections as well as acquire candid insights when it comes to finding out if you’ll be industry-ready upon coming out of an accelerated bootcamp. Some areas of investigation you should be looking into include:

• Does the educational institution you’re looking into hold enough legitimacy and credibility as to not be viewed as a negative signal in the eyes of an employer?
• Will the bootcamp you are looking into give you the skillset you need in order to be competitive when applying to entry-level roles in your area?
• Have hiring decision-makers from companies you respect turned down recent graduates of bootcamps you’re looking into? If so, why?
• Are there any red-flags you need to be aware of that a senior or hiring manager might know about?
• Do they have any information regarding good bootcamps that have yielded well-rounded junior graduates that have had success? And if so, can they connect you with the graduates so you can get more information?
• If bootcamps in your area are not viewed as credible, do they have any advice regarding alternative learning options?

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” — Alexander Graham Bell

Have I reached out to former bootcampers for unfiltered insight?

Carrying out research and talking to people who have bought something you are thinking of buying might seem like a no-brainer, but many people skip this step when it comes to big purchases. One of your primary points of contact should be those who have recently gone through a bootcamp course you are looking into. There is no better source of direct, straightforward feedback than recent graduates of an educational program you are thinking of enrolling in. Search on LinkedIn, UX Slack communities, and go to meetups to track down people who have recently graduated from the bootcamp(s) you’re looking into. You should kindly and respectfully be looking into areas of feedback such as:

• Has this person gained stable industry employment at a great firm? If not, why?
• What was this person’s background before taking the bootcamp? Does their background play a part in their career trajectory so far?
• Did their educational experience contrast with what the bootcamp promotional material is outlining? If so, how did their experience differ?
• Can they connect you with others from their cohort so you can gain more insights?
• Is there a verifiable track history of success amongst graduates?
• What is the quality like in terms of instructors and educational resources?
• What material is being taught? Will you be learning the underlying theory of the field, or is it more focused on aesthetic presentation such as making wireframes and learning visual design tools?
• Were classmates motivated and driven with a passion for the profession? Or were they just going through the motions?

Are the employment stats legitimate?

It would be irresponsible if this article made no mention of the ugly side of the student placement rate percentage some bootcamps use in their marketing material to entice people to sign up. Some bootcamps claim to place over 90% of their graduates, which sounds great but the reality paints a different picture. Some bootcamps use a vague umbrella in terms of what constitutes ‘post-graduation placement’. Don’t blindly trust bootcamp testimonials or employment statistics.

I’ve heard feedback from bootcamps grads and people familiar with misleading marketing content tactics that some bootcamps use, such as:

• Any student that was previously employed and stays at their current job for lack of better prospects is considered a placement.
• Short term temporary contact work or even internships are considered placements even if the duration only lasts for a few weeks or a handful of months. These placements, however, are usually not counted in the salary report.
• Some schools will hire their graduates part-time at low pay to boost their placement rates.

When people hear a school claim that over 90% of their graduates find jobs they rightfully expect to land a decent number of interviews without great effort. What they find out in some cases, is that even getting an interview is extremely difficult.

This isn’t unique to just some bad actors in the UX bootcamp space. Some development and data science bootcamps have also been found out to be using misleading tactics. Quincy Larson, the founder of FreeCodeCamp, published a Bootcamp Handbook which touches on questionable tactics some tech bootcamps use to inflate employment and success data. As he outlines; online reviews can be gamed. Job placement statistics are also ruthlessly gamed by some bad institutions. Inflated employment statistics are not unique to only bootcamps either, some universities have even been exposed getting creative with definitions of ‘employment’ statistics for alumni.

Jon Marcus, a higher-education editor points out, some institutions seem to choose statistics that put the best spin on things. It doesn’t show how that data was ascertained. It could be that they did a survey and that’s what came back. It doesn’t say whether these are meaningful jobs worth the incredible amount of debt you’re about to take out.

If you come away just one piece of insight from this article, let it be this: do not solely rely on content published from bootcamps when making your decision. At the end of the day, bootcamps are a business. Like any business, creating marketing content to keep their product visible is paramount for the success of the business model. Bootcamps, like any educational product, rely heavily on creating a marketing funnel that showcases the brand offering in the best light. This includes keyword-heavy blog posts, buying up paid search ads, creating slickly produced video content (that “put some of those pesky doubts to bed”), glossy brochures, and even digital marketing employees and founders posting branded content on Q&A message boards such as Quora and Reddit. One of the best things you can do to ensure you are making the best choice for your future is to carry out some investigation to see if the bootcamp you are looking into is making legitimate claims of success. Ask questions regarding what constitutes ‘employment’ and success criteria for alumni. Dig into the hard data of post-graduate outcomes so you can be sure you’re making an evidence-based decision for your future instead of just solely basing your decision on what an educational institution is claiming to be true.

In most cases, educational institutions need to submit a transparency report to an educational oversight bureau or independent regulator if they are going to be citing claims of job placements and salaries. Get your hands on these reports and dive into the data and put the surveying methods under scrutiny, as any half-decent researcher would.

Will a bootcamp complement my existing skillset and knowledge?

The unfortunate reality is that the junior job market is unbelievably competitive when it comes to UX design and user research roles. The sheer volume of people looking to break into UX and UR has become more than companies can absorb on an entry-level at the moment in most areas. Recent bootcamp grads are competing against newly minted masters students with brand name internship experience coming from fields like human-computer interaction, human factors, interaction design, anthropology, psychology, ethnography, as well as motivated and hungry self-taught folks, and waves of other bootcamp grads storming the market. Not to mention people branding themselves “UX” in search of a higher payday.

Hopefully, you’re in this for the right reasons and not just the paper.

From my anecdotal experience over the years as a user researcher that has worked longterm in 4 different countries, as well as the feedback I’ve heard from industry seniors and observed online, the people who usually have the most success with bootcamps are almost always those from related backgrounds that use a UX bootcamp as a complementary learning vehicle to fill in missing gaps in their existing knowledge. I’ve also seen this sentiment shared by other industry professionals online:

A discussion from users on Reddit regarding success outcome at UX bootcamps

In most large cities and tech hubs, the influx of people looking to make the transition from bootcamp to working professionally has raised the bar in terms of hiring expectations when it comes to candidate qualification and real-world experience. In the early 2010s, it was wasn’t unrealistic to make a somewhat smooth transition from a short term bootcamp to finding meaningful industry employment. Now, it seems as though making the transition is significantly more difficult in most areas. A Toronto based hiring manager on Reddit had this to say in regards to the current entry-level hiring climate:

I’m in Toronto; and as someone who has hired UXDs, it is saturated. My colleagues tell me the same, too; UX positions get 1000+ applicants who cite “bootcamps” or “Code School” as experience. The problem is that a lot of people (even these “UX Designers”) don’t have a good grasp on what UX is. It isn’t graphic design. The UX Lead on our team is not who you’d ask about fonts, or color schemes (aside, e.g., which colours would create a more positive experience for a user with visual impairments). That’s what our UI team is for. The applicants that I look for have: A) Master’s Degrees (in HCI, ID, etc.) if they’re new; or B) tons of actual on-the-job experience (i.e. not a Photoshop mock-up of a redesign of Twitter).

If you are starting fresh with no related foundational background, you need to be realistic and carry out proper investigation to see if the bootcamp you are looking into will give you the foundation of knowledge you need to stand out, be competitive, and be successful in your chosen discipline. If not, it might be worth looking into an alternative path. This comes back to the point of being proactive and carrying out informational interviews. Reach out to hiring managers and others who have been working in the field professionally in your area to see what is expected of a junior hire and hear what the competition is like from someone on the hiring side of the table. They will most likely have nuggets of useful information that can be helpful when it comes to making an informed choice. Once you gain more insights, compare and contrast the bootcamp curriculum to your existing knowledge and be rigorous in examining if the material covered can complement your current skill set and help fill any gaps in your understanding of the field.

Hopfully, you are in this for the right reasons and not just the paper.

Could I be learning and gaining experience more efficiently and affordably if I didn’t go to a bootcamp?

The structured class environment of in-person bootcamps or a continuing education course is usually best suited for people who learn best in a physical setting with others, have thousands to fund their studies, and have flexibility when it comes to a time commitment.

With that said, online learning might be more beneficial for you if you’re not in a location that offers a bootcamp and/or you don’t have thousands of dollars to spend on your educational journey. For some, it might not be realistic to attend an in-person bootcamp if there is a full-time job that needs to be attended to or if tuition is prohibitively expensive.

Online learning is flexible and self-paced, in which you can choose your own study hours that fit around your schedule. Online learning environments tend to be far cheaper than in-person bootcamps and sometimes offer an added benefit of a global student community. If you are in a city that offers an in-person bootcamp and enjoy the disciplined environment of fixed timelines and in-person instructors, it might be more beneficial for you depending on your background and situation.

If an in-person option isn’t best suited for you, there are many high-quality online courses from world-leading universities available online either for free or for a fraction of the price of in-person brand name bootcamps, with the added benefit of offering a verified credential from a prestigious university, rather than an unaccredited certificate many bootcamps yield.

These brands offer some outstanding content when it comes to UX learning material

Platforms like EdX, Coursera, MIT OpenCourseWare, and Udacity have made high-production-value material taught by world-leading experts available to anyone who is willing to put in the work. Some people find these types of online courses to be a good middle ground between attending a bootcamp and enrolling in a university degree because online courses offer flexibility and intensive study while still maintaining a high level of academic rigor in terms of material being taught. I’ve touched on many of the great quality UX, Interaction Design, and HCI options available in an article titled Inclusive UX Education: Designing a Free Online Learning Curriculum, but it is worth outlining online options in this article so you can get a feel for courses that might be best suited for you. Many of these courses also include capstone projects which you can put in your online portfolio as legitimate artifacts to showcase to potential employers.

Here are some high-quality online courses (note: some links may contain affiliates) I regularly see people have very high levels of success with for free, or at a fraction of the price of a traditional intensive bootcamp:

University of Michigan User Experience Research and Design Specialization (Coursera)

In this User Experience Research and Design Specialization on Cousera (previously offered on EdX) students will be taught how to integrate UX Research and UX Design to create great products through understanding user needs, rapidly generating prototypes, and evaluating design concepts. Learners will gain hands-on experience with taking a product from initial concept, through user research, ideation and refinement, formal analysis, prototyping, and user testing, applying perspectives and methods to ensure a great user experience at every step.

This program consists of 9 courses:

· Introduction to User Experience

· Principles for Designing for Humans

· Evaluating Designs for Humans

· UX Design from Concept to wireframe

· UX Design: From Wireframe to Prototype

· Understanding User Needs

· UX Research Surveys

· UX Research at Scale: analytics and online experiments

· UX (user experience) Capstone project

Now offered on Coursera

Similar to the UCSD Interaction Design Specialization, this course yields a legitimate credential from one of the most respected higher education institutions in America and culminates with a capstone project which you’ll be able to use as a portfolio piece.

The production quality and depth of the material offered in this program are very impressive, to say the least. The frequent quizzes and assignments go a long way in helping learners reinforce material discussed. I have no doubt this program will continue to gain popularity thanks to its incredibly polished content and brand name institution credibility.

More info can be found here:

User Experience Research and Design

Interaction Design Specialization from the University of California San Diego (Coursera)

I originally took this class during my undergrad studies in 2010 when it was offered as a Stanford HCI online course and I enjoyed it immensely. This course has evolved in terms of production value and community and is now offered on Coursera as an Interaction Design Specialization from the University of California.

This specialization offers an engaging and immersive 8-course module consisting of:

· An introduction to Human-Centred Design

· Introduction to design principles

· Social computing

· Input and interaction

· User experience: research & prototyping

· Information design

· Designing, running and analyzing experiments

· Design capstone project

Although the approximated time to complete is cited at 11 months, the course is self-paced, so there is no reason a diligent, motivated person wouldn’t be able to finish it in 3–5 months (my friend finished it in 3.5 months over one Summer)

Professor Scott Klemmer eloquently and passionately weaves the theory and application of interaction design, cognitive psychology, user interface design and human-computer interaction seamlessly throughout all 8 courses, setting a foundation of knowledge for any aspiring user experience designer or UX research professional.

Gif from Lecture 3.1 Storyboards, Paper Prototypes, and Mockups

Participants will learn about need-finding and observation techniques, how to carry out rapid prototyping, principles for effective interface design, and strategies for evaluating interfaces. A mixture of quizzes and peer-reviewed assignments help reinforce learning as well as introduces learners to hands-on practice.

If you’re just getting started or looking to up-skill and seeking a CV boost in the form of a legitimate UX credential as well as a capstone project you can showcase to potential employers via a portfolio case study, I highly recommend this specialization.

More info can be found here:

Interaction Design

UX/UI Design Specialization From CalArts

This UX/UI Design Specialization from California Institute of the Arts will give learners the foundation they need if they are looking to launch a more visual design-focused role within the field of user experience.

Although I am firmly against using UX and UI interchangeably, this program offers a design-centric approach to user interface and experience design and offers practical, skill-based instruction centered around a visual communications perspective, rather than on one focused on marketing or programming alone. In this sequence of four courses, you will summarise and demonstrate all stages of the UI & UX development process, from user research to defining a project’s strategy, scope, and information architecture, to developing sitemaps and wireframes.

Students will learn current best practices and conventions in UX design and apply them to create effective and compelling screen-based experiences for websites or apps. Skills and knowledge you will learn in this Specialization are applicable to a wide variety of careers, from marketing to web design to human-computer interaction.

Learners enrolled in this UI/UX Design Specialization are also eligible for an extended free trial (1 month) of a full product suite of UX tools from Optimal Workshop.

This offering consists of 4 courses:

• Visual Elements of User Interface Design
• UX Design Fundamentals
• Web Design: Strategy and Information Architecture
• Web Design: Wireframes to Prototypes

Although this specialization is fairly new, it seems like a great starting point for anyone looking to become a more visual-based UX professional.

More info can be found here:

UI / UX Design

Human-Computer Interaction at Georgia Tech

This course begins with an introduction to the field of Human-Computer Interaction as a whole and where it sits in the context of related and similar fields like Human Factors Engineering and User Experience Design. Here, you’ll learn just enough of the history of HCI to get started having real conversations about the field.

Then, you’ll learn the fundamental design principles of human-computer interaction. You’ll start with the fundamental feedback cycle that underlies all interactions between users and interfaces. With that in mind, you’ll then learn the design principles developed by visionaries in the field like Don Norman, Jakob Nielsen, Larry Constantine, and Lucy Lockwood. From there, you’ll move into more advanced theories of HCI, including situated action and distributed cognition, then conclude by looking at how interface design can impact social change.

Learners will come away from this course with an understanding of:

• The fundamental guidelines and heuristics of user interface design to inform the creation of strong user interfaces, from major principles like discoverability and affordances to frameworks like distributed cognition and task analysis.
• The stages of the design life cycle, including needfinding and requirements, gathering; individual and group brainstorming; low- to high-fidelity prototyping; and qualitative, quantitative, and heuristic evaluation of human-computer interfaces.
• The power of human-computer interaction in the modern world and the role it can play in promoting equity, accessibility, and progress.
• The application of modern development frameworks and theories like the Agile Method, Universal Design, Activity Theory, and Value-Sensitive Design to the creation of computational interfaces.
• The state of the art in HCI, including emerging technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality, and wearable devices; new ideas like context-sensitive interfaces and social computing; and application areas like healthcare and cybersecurity.

More info can be found here:

Human-Computer Interaction

If you are looking for more UX & UR related courses, ClassCentral is the #1 search engine in the world for browsing online classes to take:

Discover Free Online Courses & MOOCs * Class Central

Could a more formal learning option serve me better?

In some countries, particularly in the United States and Canada, skyrocketing tuition has made enrolling formally in university prohibitively expensive for many people and a 12–24 month time commitment for grad school might not be realistic if you’re also needing to work a fulltime job and have family obligations to attend to. In which case, a short-term accelerated bootcamp, part-time studies, online course, or self-study might be the best option depending on your situation.

But if you are in a position to attend a higher education institution without having to go heavily in debt, you might want to look into related university programs.

University of Washington Campus

Many top UX related university programs have a steady pipeline of graduates going on to work at top companies such as Twitter, Robinhood, Atlassian, Microsoft, and Google. While the time commitment and price tag may be steep, programs such as these will more than likely prove to be a worthwhile investment given the depth of knowledge you’ll be coming out with, not to mention the alumni network support, internship placement help, access to on-campus recruiters, and the added ‘prestige’ factor of attending and graduating from a related university program.

If you are thinking of going with a more traditional route this great list from UX Mastery breaks down UX related undergraduate and post-graduate programs from every nation.

UX Degrees — A Global List of UX-related Bachelor & Master Degrees

Am I putting all my eggs in one basket? What if this doesn’t work out? What is my backup plan?

Nothing is more disappointing than hearing a person putting all the money they have into a bootcamp or university program, or going heavily in debt to fund their studies, only to come out the other side with little to no career prospects, being broke, and struggling. You want to be sure you have a safety net in the form of backup funds and job optionality when you are in search of that first UX job after completing the program of your choice, even if that means working a non-UX role to pay the bills while you are on the job hunt.

Like any investment, you want to be sure you’re making the right one for both the short and long term. You should be looking to de-risk your choice as much as possible. If you have decided a bootcamp setting is the right educational environment for you, carry out ruthless due diligence on the different offerings available so you can have confidence in your choice. Not all bootcamps are created equal. Some things you should be looking for in a bootcamp include a track record of success, positive feedback from former students, verifiable legitimacy from the perspective of hiring managers, as well as a high level of rigor and teaching quality. The reality is that the vast majority of bootcamps are more than happy to take your tuition money and not all are created equal when it comes to the quality of learning and hands-on applied practice. Lesser tier bootcamps use deceptive marketing tactics and promises of easy to find high paying jobs, only to leave learners disappointed and frustrated when they struggle to make the transition into working professionally when finished. One tactic a (now defunct) New York-based coding and design bootcamp used in their marketing, was citing high industry salaries, while conveniently omitting that the salaries being shown in marketing material were more reflective of seniors with years of experience and higher-level education under their belt. There have even been cases of a bootcamp being fined for operating without the proper educational license, and improperly marketing job placement rates and the salaries of its graduates. Remember: if it seems too good to be true, it probably is. To avoid disappoint, prior research is your best friend, as well as ensuring you have a buffer/fall-back plan in a worst-case scenario.

What is my plan of action for standing out in a crowded entry-level job market? What am I doing to find ways to gain real-world experience and build a unique portfolio of work?

The biggest complaint I hear from hiring managers regarding recent bootcamp grads is, by far, their inability to gauge a candidate’s skill set or competence because portfolios appear so similar and lack any form of real-world depth or impact. An essay published by UX Collective titled ‘The Case Study Factory’ unpacks the problem with the deceptively familiar structure of case studies being churned out by recent bootcamp grads. When a bootcamp graduate’s case studies follow an incredibly similar process structure to that of other recent grads and consists of hypothetical group work type projects, it’s basically impossible to get a feel for what that candidate would actually be bringing to the table in a real-world setting.

“The UX bootcamps benefit from its students’ projects being published on Medium: case studies become content marketing that helps attract new students and therefore revenue.” (Source)

Good employers are looking for your approach to problem framing, problem-solving, real-world impact delivered through applying your skills, and your ability to articulate your research process within a given context. A portfolio full of hypothetical redesigns and group work class projects won’t deliver much depth or be viewed as unique.

“Even designers who have not studied in the same school end up using similar structures, since they research existing case studies before creating their own. They assume that if other designers are designing them in a particular way, then it must be for a reason.

The similarities across case studies make it really hard for designers to demonstrate their unique thinking, skills, and point of view. How can you differentiate yourself when applying to a position, if case studies from other candidates look exactly the same at first glance?” (Source)

When you are looking into different bootcamps, see if they have a track history of allowing learners the opportunity to apply knowledge in a real-world context with actual businesses, even if that means a supervised internship or a mentored junior-level placement. Opportunities such as these not only open the door for applying skills in a real-world problem space but also lend to gaining exposure to some of the softskills that can only be picked up in real-life work situations.

If you’re finding that you’re not able to immediately make the jump from learning to working professionally you may want to look into different paths to gain experience and real-world portfolio artifacts.

Local tech incubators are a good place to start. By nature, the majority of early-stage companies in incubators won’t have many resources to work with. In my experience, most companies in the incubation stage don’t have much of an outward-facing lens on the world or any form of dedicated user research to funnel back that would inform design/product iteration in an evidence-based way. A surprising amount of incubation stage companies and young start-ups, in general, don’t understand the value of user research and are toiling away in isolation. This is prime grounds for an aspiring UX professional to gain hands-on experience, make a meaningful impact at a company, gain real-world portfolio artifacts, and make contacts within the tech community.

Velocity Garage Incubator at University of Waterloo

You can also look into local businesses and investigate areas of poor CX/UX touchpoints that are potentially hurting their business. Offer your skills or consulting services and deliver some real-world change in exchange for creating a portfolio case study.

Your ability to deliver results and unpack your problem-solving process within different settings is going to be far more unique than showcasing similar-looking group work projects other boot campers have or displaying a shiny looking redesign of Spotify that has been done a million times.

I’ve also touched on some more strategies for gaining real-world experience here:

“Some people want it to happen, some people wish it would happen, others make it happen.” — Michael Jordan

“If opportunity doesn’t knock build a door” — Milton Berle

Final thoughts

Going to a legitimate, well-operated bootcamp with competent and passionate instructors can be a positive life-changing learning opportunity depending on your situation. Or, if you fail to carry out prior research and pick an institution that is lacking credibility and rigor, it can be a massive waste of thousands of dollars and weeks or months of your life. It’s better to put your choice(s) under examination before enrolling, rather than committing to something only to come out underwhelmed and disappointed with the educational experience afterward. If you are seriously considering enrolling in a UX bootcamp, you owe it to yourself to go in with your eyes open, look into all options, have realistic expectations, and be armed with credible insights from various sources. I hope that by taking action and asking questions outlined in this article, you will be able to proceed with confidence with whatever your educational choice may be.

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” — Benjamin Franklin

Thanks for reading.

Follow me on Twitter:

Mitchell Wakefield