About Me
Current job title: Freelance UX Designer
Current location: Remote
Age: 46
Years of Experience: 2 Years
Total Comp:
- Salary: $75,000
- Bonus: N/A
- Benefits: I answer to me.
- Perks: Remote (Anywhere on earth), asynchronous schedule, 3 day work week.
Brief description of your current position:
As a UX Designer I develop the engagement that the user experiences when using the app. To accomplish this we create different tools for creating data relevant to those questions we ask. We do lots, and lots of user tests and prototypes. I think I am not listened to more than anything. My rates are based on being fair for clients.
How I Got Here
Degrees/certifications:
- If so, are they applicable to your current position? I went to bootcamp for UX Design. Yes, UX Design is the only tech career you can’t teach yourself.
- Was there an expectation for higher ed? A PHD helps, but not required. If you wanna work with google or Amazon as a UX Designer, the higher the ed the better.
- How did you pay for degrees/certs?I attended bootcamp on a ISA (Income Share Agreement)
Jobs leading up to your current position:
- Include job title + salary/hourly wage I was a Brand Advocate. Earning $52,000 a year.
Tips/Tools
What resources were most beneficial on your journey? My experience as a salesman. Thinking around with html code and being a web designer for several years. Small entrepreneurial projects.
What advice would you give yourself as a HS Senior? I would say, don’t run off to college so fast. Take that gap year. Find out who makes the most money and how. Then go to college and get polish.
What’s next?
Transition into a Design Advocate. Some tech career coaching.
Overall reflections/thoughts to share/advice:
As a Black Man expect people to dislike you for your intelligence in tech. I remember feeling in bootcamp how everyone was mediocre yet praised for it. All I got was ignored and over critical response to my design ideas. Funny cause the mediocrity shows in design today. When it comes to design Black Men are the trend setters. Imagine what inner city Black boys could bring us if they coded more? If the pattern is anything like the music. Just look at the Uzi Vert song. Right now the web is a bore. It looks boring. Like a gray milkshake. Yet we don’t want to drink it, but are thirsty. Black Men make the best products, that has to continue in tech. Tech has to be the 6th element of Hip Hop.
UX is a struggle to get a role at a company. I succeeded because I built a product and showed that as my calling card. Don’t waste hours on an unsure job search. Spend that time building products and show the people who would hire you. Even correcting their problems or demonstrating a better implementation, these are excellent strategies. For me they turned into freelance clients. I have so much time and money now, all I do is take taxis in foreign countries and go to the ATM machine. So I’ve never looked back on working a role at a company. That’s why I enjoy freelancing. Besides, I am still forecasted to get those 5 additional clients that stretch me to $150 k by early 2024.