4 Things I Wish I Knew at the Beginning of my UX Bootcamp

This reflection brought to you by caffeine and lofi hip hop radio.

[Note: This article is NOT about which UX bootcamp you should attend or if bootcamps are right for you. I can’t answer that for you. But if you decide to take a leap and enroll in an online bootcamp, this article might help you get the most out of your experience.]

I recently graduated from Designlab’s UX Academy. Overall it was a great program that helped me pivot to a new career in UX Design, but there are a couple things I wish I could go back in time to tell myself to save myself some time and stress.

1) Learn when to be a perfectionist, and when to be a sponge.

Designlab’s UX Academy is broken up into three phases:

Phase 1 — Foundational Coursework
Phase 2 — Capstone Projects
Phase 3 — Career Services

The first phase includes tasks like readings, quizzes, and hands-on practice of basic design principles. I would highly encourage everyone in this phase to embrace full sponge-mode. 🧽 The goal is this first phase is to become familiar with some fundamental design principles and tools — it’s not about creating pixel-perfect designs.

I regret being obsessed with perfectionism during this phase, constantly stressing out about feeling like my work wasn’t good enough and also worried about falling behind. Designlab provides suggested time limits for every assignment, but I always went over. And now? None of those assignments will ever see the light of day. That social media feed that was supposed to take 1 hour, but I probably spent 5+ hours on? Yeah, nobody will ever see it.

So save that perfectionism for Phase 2 when you’re working on projects that will actually be showcased in your portfolio. But also remember that any work can always be improved upon, and there is no such thing as an objectively “perfect” design. At some point, you’ll have to come to peace with “good enough.”

When you’ve spent five hours changing the font size and it still doesn’t look right.

2) Trust your mentor, but also trust yourself.

Most bootcamps assign each student a “mentor,” an experienced designer who can guide you during your program. This mentor will critique your work, offer encouragement, and give you ideas for iterating on your designs.

This is a two-part piece of advice:

PART ONE. Trust that your mentor has your best interests at heart when they are critiquing all of the things wrong with your project. Get comfortable receiving feedback on your work. Don’t take it personally. This is an important skill to have for any job in the real world.

PART TWO. On the other hand, don’t forget that your mentor is just another human with opinions. Yes, there is a power dynamic at play so it’s hard to not take everything they say as The UX Answer, but really it’s just one person’s opinion based on their own background and perspective. Mentors mean well, but they are not infallible. It might be uncomfortable at first, but don’t be afraid to question their suggestions or even disregard them if you are able to justify your own design decisions.

Once you’ve graduated and found a job, you will need to learn to trust your own voice as a designer and be able to articulate your decisions to other team members or stakeholders. Now is a great time to start practicing.

(Also if you consistently don’t feel supported, maybe it’s time to request a new mentor.)

“Your design looks okay, but have you considered using Comic Sans to make it pop?”

3) Take the initiative to work on real projects whenever possible.

The second phase of Designlab is all about completing three different capstone projects. Students can choose from sample briefs with imaginary companies, but I would highly recommend breaking outside of the box and working on real projects instead.

The experience you’ll get working with a real client is invaluable. Reach out to all your networks and see if your friends and family know anyone who needs a website or app. Ask local businesses if they want a website facelift. Look for online resources. Check sites like Taproot and Idealist. The opportunities are out there if you look hard enough.

Worried about a client wanting you to develop their product after you design it? Find developers on sites like Upwork, or consider the benefits of doing it yourself. This is a great opportunity to gain experience making a website. You’re going to have to make your own portfolio anyway, so might as well become familiar with platforms out there (i.e. Webflow, Squarespace, Wordpress, Wix, etc).

Working with a real client means more opportunities for collaboration!

4) Before creating your portfolio, do your research.

There are plenty of portfolio checklists out there, but that didn’t feel like enough for me. Here were some things that helped me take my portfolio to the next level:

Watch videos of portfolio reviews like ADPlist Coffee Hours and Sarah Doody. This was the MOST helpful thing I did. Realistically, hiring managers are only going to spend around 5 minutes glancing through your case studies. After watching a couple of portfolio reviews, you’ll have a much clearer idea of how to make those minutes count and how to stand out in a positive way.

Look at portfolios and bookmark the ones you click with. Even better, create an #inspo file in Figma to fill with screenshots of portfolios you love. Treat it like a moodboard to help find your own personal brand, but obviously avoid plagiarizing anyone’s work.

Realize that you can make a great portfolio on any platform (Squarespace, Wix, Webflow, etc). When it’s time to make a portfolio, inevitably there is a panic about which platform to choose. There are countless online forums with heated debates about which platform is “best.” The truth is that you can make a portfolio on any platform that will get you hired. So don’t stress about it, just pick whichever one you are most excited to work with. It’s the painter that creates a masterpiece, not the canvas.

It doesn’t matter what platform you use since every single portfolio seems to end up looking like this. ;P

I hope this article was helpful for at least one other person. Is there anything I missed? Feel free to shoot me a message or share your own takeaways in the comments below.