UX Career Bootcamp

Optimize Yourself for UX Career success!

The diversity of UX careers brings some unique challenges when it comes to presenting yourself to potential employers and when looking for growth opportunities with a current employer.

This workshop will guide UX professionals towards long-term career success with:

• Ways to illustrate your strengths and articulate your value to potential employers, clients and business partners
• Improved work samples for winning business or a new job
• Negotiation tips
• More targeted personal branding
• Better social media and networking skills
• Methods to present and brand yourself as a UX professional

Get the inside scoop from two experienced UX professionals who have successfully navigated the world of UX careers, have consulted for a variety of different clients, and who have experience reviewing resumes, making hiring decisions and mentoring other UX professionals.

You will have an opportunity to review your existing deliverables and online presence with both the facilitators and your peers, get concrete tips for professional advancement, and make tangible improvements to your UX presence.

About the Instructors

Cory Lebson speaks regularly about UX careers related topics and has spoken about UX and tech careers not only in person to audiences of all sizes, but also on the radio. In addition, he has published a number of career related articles in popular online UX publications, has blogged about UX careers and is now in the process of authoring a UX Careers Handbook for Focal Press. Cory has twenty years of experience in his own UX career, primarily conducting user research, and over the course of those years he has managed teams with responsibilities that included hiring others. He has frequently served as a mentor to more junior UX professionals, both as a volunteer and as part of his professional consulting responsibilities. Cory has been a longtime volunteer for the User Experience Professionals Association, having served as the president for both UXPA International and for the Washington DC chapter of UXPA. Cory has an MBA in marketing and technology management, as well as an MA in sociology and a BS in psychology.

Amanda Stockwell has a unique blend of UX process and research expertise and job placement and career advancement insight. Amanda splits her time between performing UX projects for clients and providing UX hiring expertise to one of the largest talent agencies, Aquent and Vitamin T, where she evaluates client needs and associated job descriptions, reviews and interviews scads of UX professionals, assesses candidates for particular roles, and helps individuals shape and advance their UX careers. She has written related content for UXmatters, How Design, and on several blogs. Amanda has a background in Human Factors and an engineering degree from Tufts University.

What attendees should know

We will be reviewing online presences and portfolios and performing interactive activities throughout the class. While we're happy to hand out hard copies of the activities or review paper portfolios, we think participants will get the most out of this event if they bring a laptop, tablet, or other device.

There will also be plenty of time for discussion and to answer questions that you don’t often have the opportunity to ask candidly.