Hi. In this video we're gonna look at you and your UX career. Now, looking at this page here, I love this one. Uh, CNN Money. It's the best jobs in America from last year. And, uh, uh, uh,  user experience designer comes in at number 14.

Um, just so you know, just in front is a dentist and just  after is an auditing director. Okay? So I don't know about you,  but I don't even know what an auditing director is,  and I definitely don't wanna be a dentist. And, uh,  user experience design is an exciting field to be in it. I'm in it, I love it. And what I really like about it is the measurability.

It's my creative stuff. It's all my talents in terms  of my artistic creativity, but it's measurable. I can get better at it. I can test it. I can see if people like it  or don't like it, what do they like about it,  what they don't like about it,  and keep editing and going along. So, yes, it's a cool career.

The other nice thing is that it pays a lot more as well. So if you are a senior, let's talk about senior at ux. Uh, I've done a little pay scale report, so this is  for a senior graphic designer versus a senior, uh,  a senior UX designer. And what you'll see is I've,  you can go through and do this yourself. I've picked a senior UX designer in Austin,  and I've compared them both in the same place  you put in your town. I haven't put in lots of qualifications  and stuff, which can kind of adjust this,  but it's just a good kind of guess to see.

You see the medium here is about a hundred k,  and the median for a senior graphic designer is  about half that. So there is a big price difference when you get to kind of,  uh, a UX designer with some experience. If you are brand new or say you've, um, say you're a,  you know, a really accomplished graphic designer  or a web designer, um,  but you're moving into ux, you're gonna have  to start at the kind of bottom of the UX pile,  which is fine, but you can't expect a big jump. So say if you're on a certain pay bracket now  and you're moving in, um, and you know,  and you wanna move into ux, um, there's not gonna be huge,  uh, you know, of equivalent experience. There's not gonna be huge pay difference. But what you will find is  that there's a lot more opportunity out there if you are,  you know, if you're looking for a graphic design role,  there's very few jobs out there  for a pure graphic designer these days.

And there is a lot for, um, you know, for a UX designer. So there's a lot, you know, the pain might not be different,  but there's a lot more, um, things to pick out of  and you'll have a bit more of a choice of where to work  and locations, those types of things. But when you do get to the senior roles,  you can see there's a huge price difference that'll live  out, live out a little bit. Um, UX is hot at the moment, um,  but there's a lot of people training in it. You are doing it, um, you know, you are. Um, but lots of other people are doing it as well,  and it will become a little bit more saturated  and that kind of like higher price.

So have a look, you know, for us, you know,  the high prices in this 130 K here, now this is data pooled,  you know, where they get their data from. It's, it's good, you know, good metrics  and data to use from, from PayScale,  but don't pin your hopes on a hundred k job. Um, if you're living somewhere,  if you're living like me in Dublin  or an island, the pay is gonna be very different. So, um, the other thing is, is that people are looking  for unicorns at the moment. Um, by that I mean  that when job you see job application at the moment, you see  so much that people want so much out of a job application  and they're looking for like dirt cheap. They're looking for like 30 KA year  and they want somebody who's, you know,  doing all these things, looking  for things that people that don't exist.

They're looking for people that can do the UX  but also do app development and also do web development,  but also do graphic design and UX design  and videography and all these things, okay? For, you know, these kind of low prices. So don't sweat it. If you are looking, you're like, man,  who, you know, I can't do that. I can do bits of that. And often that's what's happening.

So I do it myself. So I'm looking for a new trainer  and I put in skills I want, I want them to do,  um, the graphic design one. So I want 'em do InDesign, Photoshop, illustrator,  but then I do things like, I want them to do web,  so I want them to do know h tm, L and CSS and JavaScript  and no JS and Angular. And then I go through and I add, oh, I want to do  after effects motion graphics and all these sorts of things. 'cause um, there is, uh, you know, there's, there's lots  of people to pick from at the moment, okay? And I'm not actually looking for all of those skills.

I'm looking for people that have most of them  and they might flip flop into one camp. They might be some, they might be web designers who do a bit  of video but not much graphic. Or they might be graphic designers who do a little bit  of web but no video. And it allows me to kind of pick from that pool. Okay? So if you have got jobs  and you're like, Ooh, I'm pretty close to that,  but I don't have any of these skills still apply, okay?

Because, you know, people are just looking  for too much these days. Um, if you have got a job  and you're like, oh man, I wonder if I can even apply for,  or you don't even know what the terms are, they're asking  for something, you know? Um, and you're not even too sure what that term is  'cause we're talking about, um, you know, UX strategist  or a senior UX designer,  but sometimes they call 'em lead designers or middleweights. Or if the language isn't confusing for you  or if you're not sure if you should apply  or how you should get your portfolio together to apply  what they'd be expecting, send me a note, okay? Either through the website  or on Twitter at Dan loves Adobe, check out a Facebook. There's lots of ways of getting in contact with me  and I'd love to kind of have a look at their ad  and see whether you know what they're  expecting, if you need a bit of help.

Okay, so there's you in your new UX career. Let's go on to the next video.