Leveraging your background for design interviews
Many UX designers share a common thread: they’re career switchers. Often, their past experiences lead them to UX design, but how exactly does it work?
How can you make a significant career change when you have no previous design experience?
We’re co-hosting this workshop with our friends at Designlab, and we’d love for you to join us to learn how to leverage your background for a successful UX design interview.
In this workshop, you’ll also:
Hear from a panel of design professionals who also made a career transition
Learn how they leveraged their past experiences to land their first UX/UI design role
Practice pitching your background through audience participation and receive tips feedback from panelists
🐰 Meet our speakers
Crystal Chu is a Product Designer at Microsoft, karaoke singer, and potato lover from Toronto, ON. With a background in Humanities and Healthcare, plus her passion for art, she strives to solve problems in a holistic and creative approach. When she's not designing, she likes to make music, do pilates, and dabble in all sorts of things.
Connect with Crystal: Linkedin
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Kenny Wei transitioned from Chemical Engineering and Process improvement into Product Design. Currently working at a fin-tech startup helping small businesses stabilize their financial structure so they can focus time on the things they love.
Connect with Kenny: LinkedIn
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Mai Tsuji is a UX designer on the Destiny 2 World Systems team at Bungie. A Designlab alumni, she recently made the career switch into the industry by drawing from past experiences playing in music ensembles and working in customer service. Her favorite hobbies are reading epic fantasies and science fiction, playing video games and collecting game soundtracks, playing cello, and horse back riding.
Connect with Mai: LinkedIn
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Katherine (Katie) Loveless spent over 15 years in a multi-faceted photography career, shooting everything from destination weddings, to portraiture, to architecture, to photojournalism, to products, to landscapes, and even published a best-selling photography memoir in Iceland. A few years ago she discovered UX Design and realized it was her absolute perfect career. In 2021, having no formal design training or college degree, Katherine enrolled in DesignLab's UX Academy. Shortly after completing the course, she landed a few job offers before accepting a UX Designer position working on smart home automation apps for Level Home.
Connect with Katie: LinkedIn, Instagram
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Melysia Cha is a construction professional turned designer. Before embarking on her journey to becoming a UX practitioner, Melysia worked in the commercial construction industry in several roles spanning from project management to sales. Her passion for serving the tradespeople and interest in construction technology routed her to Designlab where she was able to mesh the two together. She now holds a role at Buildforce as a UX Designer in Austin, TX (but she will always be Minnesotan in her heart). When Melysia isn't knee-deep in Figma or collaborating with her Product and Engineering team, she enjoys watching anime, running dungeons in Guild Wars, and trying to armor smith with EVA foam.
Connect with Melysia: LinkedIn
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🔬 About Designlab
Designlab offers a rigorous and holistic curriculum towards UX/UI design, robust and unique portfolios for all graduates, and 1:1 support as learners look to step foot into the field. We take the time to ensure that our mentors are not only experts in the field, but are also excited and engaged to bring up the next generation of UX/UI designers. Our unique community provides students the opportunities to participate in group crits to practice collaborative conversation and thought. Students, alums, and mentors are encouraged to connect with each other through our community space, allowing for organic networking opportunities. Despite being a fully remote program, no student comes through Designlab alone!