How to expand your influence beyond pretty pictures & a real take on the job market
Allow me to re-introduce myself, upvote & suggest what you want to see from me, how to be more than a pixel pusher, & a real take on the job market.
Hey everyone,
I hope you’re surviving another week out there. The days have become so dark over here in the Netherlands it’s hard to keep track if it’s the middle of the night or just 4:00pm.
I’ve had quite a few people join this UXSurvival-List in the last few months so I want to re-introduce myself.
My name is Miranda and I’ve been in the design industry for about 13 years now. I’ve worked in startups, agencies, and done my stint in freelancing. Now I’ve been in big tech for about 7 years. I’m currently a Principal Designer at Booking.com which is the highest-ranking IC role in the company (I did management for a bit, it wasn’t for me). That means I work with senior stakeholders on strategic topics and I’m currently leading the team that focuses on the 3-5 year product vision for the company. I also coach and mentor primarily lead+ designers having helped dozens of designers reach the next step in their career.
I started making content under UX Survival Guide because I wanted to reach more designers than I was able to with 1:1 mentorship. So, I’m glad you’re here 😊. If you’re looking for more design content you can find me all over the place: Medium, Tiktok, Instagram, & LinkedIn.
Upvote & suggest what you want to see from me
I only want to make content that actually helps you out so here is your chance to upvote topics you’re more interested in seeing me cover. Feel free to make suggestions too! I’m all ears!
Want to start expanding your influence beyond pretty pictures?
I think every designer finds themself in a position where their team/stakeholders think all they can bring to the table is pretty visuals. I know I’ve been there… but if you’ve been a designer for a little while, you know there is a lot more we can offer besides just the UI. If you’re ready to start having more influence and more of an impact on the direction of the product; I’ve put together a step-by-step guide on how to get started. Each step I’ve tried and found success with firsthand.
Reader Q&A
Tailored advice and resources based on the career challenges and skill-building goals you shared in my reader survey.
“Simply getting started. I'm getting conflicting information about how saturated the UX Design job market is, but other reports say that it will only grow in the future.”
Yeah, I think there is a lot of information to try and sift through out there. And personally, from my POV the actual information itself is just conflicting. I’m seeing people still getting laid off through videos on Tiktok but then I’m seeing reports come out that show positive growth for design roles. What I’m personally pretty confident about is that if you look at the stats, the number of design jobs being posted is on a reasonable upward trend. Ignoring the pandemic tech boom. However, due to the pandemic tech boom even if there are more jobs posted there is 10x the competition in the market and that goes for all all role levels. The amount of people needing jobs has outpaced job growth. So companies have their pick of the litter. Meaning, yes, it’s harder for everyone to land a job and especially land a particularly high-paying / high-benefit job as companies don’t need to do as much to retain good talent.
But wait, there’s more
Like visual content about UX & Product Design? Follow me on Tiktok or Insta
Here are some resources I’ve created specifically for designers
I go a bit more in-depth on specific topics over on Medium and LinkedIn but sub to this newsletter for regular goodies in your inbox 😎