What to Consider When Choosing a UX Job

Does the Company Really Practice User-Centered Design?

If a company is hiring a UX professional, your assumption might be that their intent is actually to practice user-centered design. However, a company’s commitment to providing a good user experience is similar to a person’s being committed to eating healthy and exercising. Almost everyone would say that these things are important, but not everyone actually does them. So it’s important to investigate beyond what people say. Find out what they actually do to provide a good user experience.

The key is whether and how often they conduct user research and usability testing. If they aren’t involving users in the right ways, at the right times, they aren’t truly practicing user-centered design. So find out the answers to these questions:

• Does the company conduct user research? If so, what methods do they use? Do they conduct any field studies—going out to visit users in their natural environment and observing them performing their typical tasks?
• Do they conduct usability testing?
• How often do they do user research and usability testing? On every project or only occasionally?
• How extensive are these studies? How long do they last, and how many participants do they usually involve?
• Who are the participants? Are they representative of users, or do they use subject-matter experts or friends and family?

If you discover that the company doesn’t really practice user-centered design, ask yourself whether you’d relish the challenge of helping a company to progress to a higher stage of UX practice or you’d prefer to expend your efforts working on projects for a company that’s already enlightened about User Experience.

Would You Have Access to Users?

Regardless of how committed a company is to user research and usability testing, if it’s difficult and expensive to find research participants, they’ll tend to do less research than at companies where it’s easier to get participants. So consider the types of participants you’d need to recruit and how easy or difficult finding them would be.

For example, I started my career at a large corporation, working on a UX team that designed intranet sites and employee applications. It wasn’t as glamorous as working on consumer Web sites or software, but recruiting users to participate in studies was extremely easy and inexpensive because they were fellow employees. So I had the opportunity and the freedom to conduct extensive user research and usability testing just about whenever I wanted. As a result, I learned a lot and gained much more experience than I would have at a company where access to participants would be much more difficult and expensive.

How Established Is the UX Team?

Is the UX team already established? Do defined processes and roles already exist? Or is the team still growing and figuring out where it fits within the organization? Some people enjoy building a team and creating the process, while others prefer having the direction of predefined processes and roles. How open is the team to new ideas and processes? Some people find it very frustrating to be stuck working with a team that’s too rigid and doesn’t welcome change. 

What Process Do Development Teams Follow?

Do the company’s development teams follow an iterative, user-centered design process; a traditional, waterfall process; an agile or Lean development process; or something else? Each of these approaches has its pros and cons, but it’s easier for UX professionals when there’s sufficient time for user research, iterative design, and usability testing.

If development teams follow agile or Lean practices, find out how well they’ve integrated User Experience into their process. Of course, UX activities can fit into agile and Lean development processes. But working with a company that’s already learned how to incorporate UX activities into its agile or Lean process is much easier than having to figure out how to make this work. So, unless you really like a challenge, avoid companies that are still trying to figure this out.

Would Taking the Job Be a Good Career Move?

In addition to considering that next new position, you should also think ahead to your future career path. How would the job affect your future career prospects? In particular, ask yourself these questions:

• Would this job allow you to broaden your experience to new activities or allow you to work in a new domain?
• Would it let you specialize in a particular area that’s in line with your career goals?
• Are there opportunities for advancement or moving into other positions within the same company?
• Does the company provide opportunities for advanced professionals who don’t want to become managers?
• How impressive would the job title and company be on your resume?
• Would you be able to add your work to your portfolio? Would the work be a good addition to your portfolio?
• Is the job located in an area where you could easily find other UX jobs, or would you have to relocate to find another job later on?

What Are the Learning Opportunities?

Would you learn something new from the job? Would it expose you to new experiences, new types of projects, or new methods? Often, you can learn the most by working with other very talented people. So consider the people you would have the opportunity to work with. If you’re in your early career, find out whether there’s someone who could be a mentor to you.

Find out how the company feels about its employees attending conferences. Would the company pay for you to attend UX conferences? If so, that’s a nice perk, and it shows the company would be committed to your growth. Of course, many companies can’t afford to send all of their employees to a conference every year, and that’s understandable. However, if you get accepted to present at a conference, most companies are willing to pay your expenses and give you the time off. If the company wouldn’t support you in this, you should consider how important building your brand is to you.

Making Your Decision

In an ideal world, you’d be able to get the answers to all of these questions and have enough time to consider them before making your decision. But, in reality, you often can’t know what a job would be like until you’ve worked there for a while. You should still try to learn as much as you can by asking questions during interviews, reading about employee experiences on sites like Glassdoor, and asking current employees about their work experiences.

Of course, the stage you’re at in your career also plays a large part in your decision about whether to accept a particular position. Trying to get your first job in User Experience can be difficult, so you won’t be able to be as selective when you’re just getting started. While it can be tempting to leap at any offer you receive, you should still carefully consider the position and the company. Once you’ve gotten some experience in your first job, you’ll be able to be more selective in choosing your second job.

If you’re out of work, you may be even more desperate to take anything you can get. Having a steady salary, benefits, peace of mind, and being able to continue working in User Experience is often sufficient in such circumstances. Once you’ve re-established your career, you can begin plotting your next career move more deliberately.

As a more experienced UX professional, you’ll likely have many more opportunities available to you. But before making a move, it’s very important that you consider all of the issues I’ve outlined in this column to ensure that you make the right decision. Good luck!