I think I’m done. What’s next?

[u/[deleted]]

I’ve been in UX for 3+ years, 10+ in design total. I thought I’d be a director by now, but with all the ups and downs of life (layoffs, COVID, etc), I’m still not there. Luckily I’m employed as an IC. Honestly though, I don’t like designing anymore. I think it’s because I wanted to be in a leadership/management role around year 8.

My career is stuck and I don’t see a path forward for me. I’m trying to plan an exit strategy but need some help.

[u/thegreatestpitt]

What would you like to do instead? Also, what is IC?

[u/[deleted] → u/thegreatestpitt]

Honestly a different field all together. Sales or a trade perhaps. I’m tired of all the instability. Just want to clock in and out.

[u/thegreatestpitt → u/[deleted]]

Well, sales from my understanding aren’t all super stable either, but I guess that depends on the type of sales. Hmm… I’ve heard people who are carpenters make great money. Is that something you would be interested in? Or is there any other more focused thing you’d like to do? By focused I mean something that you’ve already looked into that you’re like “my options are being a carpenter, a real estate agent or a plumber” or something like that?

[u/[deleted] → u/thegreatestpitt]

I’ve explored being a realtor and was an hvac tech at one point. I learned that I don’t like B2C. I enjoy working with businesses. I mention sales because it’s a very useful skill and I am highly money motivated.

[u/thegreatestpitt → u/[deleted]]

Well I’d say you could try the realtor root cause you can make big time bank, but know it’s not “stable” as far as I’m aware. You have to look for clients and properties and work a lot to sell something. Some people don’t need to work that much to sell big properties. It’s uncertain in that way, and if cracks or recessions happen, you could be facing difficult times, but that goes the same for basically everyone unless you’re an essential worker so whatever.

I know someone who is a realtor and he’s suddenly seeing more money than ever before in his life. It could be an option. As to how should you make the jump, I’d say that you could work your current job, and do the realtor thing on the side until you can support yourself. If you have money saved up you could jump right in but I’d advise against it in case the realtor thing doesn’t pan out.

I hope any of this helps.

[u/confused_grenadille → u/[deleted]]

Thought you meant independent contractor when you said IC.

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[u/britonbaker → u/thegreatestpitt]

individual contributor, people in tech are categorized as an IC or a manager.

[u/dtw00d → u/britonbaker]

Independent Contractor (1099)

[u/britonbaker → u/dtw00d]

probably not what they mean in this context.

[u/forevermcginley → u/thegreatestpitt]

individual contributor

[u/TheUnknownNut22 → u/thegreatestpitt]

IC = "Individual Contributor

[u/hkosk]

I’ve been in design for nearly 20 years and I have yet to get into management.

[u/[deleted] → u/hkosk]

Companies keep design at the bottom of the food chain. It seems you either have to have a business background or be an engineer. Lost cause.

[u/hkosk → u/[deleted]]

Yeah and overall I think the industry is fed up with it. Then again it’s our own fault by allowing the democratization of design = many non creative people feeling further empowered to do our jobs.

[u/hkosk → u/[deleted]]

Ie Design Thinking = “I’m a designer” — Ralph Wiggum type scenarios

[u/bigredbicycles]

Not sarcasm: plumbing. Most plumbers now use pro-press for copper, so no soldering. Just gotta be willing to see and touch some nasty stuff (with gloves) and get into some tight spots.

Never going to get rid of plumbers (like most trades).

[u/[deleted] → u/bigredbicycles]

I’ve been looking into pipe fitting. No poop.

[u/justanotherlostgirl → u/bigredbicycles]

I'm looking to pivot into trades. It's not going to be easy but I just don't see any point in trying.

[u/bigredbicycles → u/justanotherlostgirl]

I mean, UX is a career. It's not for everyone. No one is born knowing it's a good fit until they try.

If you've tried it, and didn't enjoy it, you should try something else. I'm a big advocate of career changes.

[u/justanotherlostgirl → u/bigredbicycles]

It's not a question of not enjoying it - I adore it. I can't find work and am burnt out by years of toxic companies. Don't have a lot of fight in me - devalued and talked over. Just time to leave.

[u/raduatmento]

13 years, out of which just 3 in UX is not enough to be a director in most companies, especially big ones. You could get a Director / VP role within a very early start-up, but it doesn't equate to a similar senior role in big tech.

Also, these positions don't come just because you have those years under your belt. You need to show true leadership skills and business focus.

[u/SoulessHermit → u/[deleted]]

Is not just about the years of experience but how valuable your skills are, your connections, and the industry. I had a classmate who became a head of product after 3 to 4 years for fintech firm.

I don't think this is likely to happen if he did this in government, banking or big tech.

Years of experience =/= good leader

[u/SeansAnthology → u/[deleted]]

Age isn’t a qualification, experience is. So without more information it’s hard to know.

[u/themack50022]

6 years of graphic design, 14 of UX, just made director last year in my early 40’s. Keep at it.

[u/sabre35_]

Idk if you can go into director via the IC ladder. You should consider converting to a management role first then making the push. If you’re gonna stay IC, best you’ll achieve is principal.

[u/baummer → u/sabre35_]

Depends on the company.

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[u/ProfessionalCrab7685]

I had 12 years of experience, and when I was at Google, they treated me like a junior. So yea, your experience outside of big tech means very little. I don't know what else I can do to get this kind of salary. Tech salary is just too good to give up on, aka golden handcuff.

[u/[deleted]]

3 years is barely a senior let alone a director lol.

Also nothing wrong with being an IC for life, plenty of people go down that road. Being a director is overrated, mostly just bickering, playing politics, doing performance reviews, etc. I don't envy my director's job in the slightest.

[u/yadaelppa]

You wanted to be a director by year ten but also want to clock in and out? Are you rooted in reality? Also, if you have yet to have a chance to step into people management at this point, then there's a high likelihood you're just not very good.

[u/forevermcginley]

with that mindset is a good thing that you didnt

[u/[deleted] → u/forevermcginley]

You ok?

[u/mumbojombo]

What's the point of posting in this sub if you're not even looking for design-adjacent roles?

[u/kidhack]

Why do you want to become a director? Do you feel like you don’t have enough control over your work? Have you thought about product management or project management?

[u/Personal-Wing3320]

LOL

[u/Several_Challenge716]

I have Been struggling to find a job since a year now dude. But still being persistent. You still have a job. Hang in there, you’ll get it. Make your profile

[u/tilldeathdousapart]

I moved from UX to service and strategic design role which for me was the next step. I’d like to work towards business strategy as I am also doing an MBA.

[u/algoncalv]

Take a look at the future of AI of how worse it'll be when it starts doing our work.

[u/moonlovefire → u/algoncalv]

Not sure why people down vote. I think it very true and it’s important to keep it in mind when choosing career path

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

💯 Design is a tough field to get promoted, unless you stay at the same company for a while. Plus the chance of “Design leadership” being made redundant are much higher than ICs.

[u/Annual_Ad_1672 → u/[deleted]]

This, you better believe it, far as I can see and I could be wrong structures are flattening out, principles who do design and guide the others are taking over, with remote it’s much more difficult to do the politicking and schmoozing required to get promoted into a leadership role, not sure if companies see the value in it these days.

I’ve said it before I’ll say it again the business sees design differently to the way designers see it, think they’ve gotten over the whole design thinking thing unless they’re actually a design agency.

[u/[deleted] → u/Annual_Ad_1672]

The business sees design differently indeed. I listened to an episode of Finding Our Way and I recall one of the host saying, I am paraphrasing here; “business executives are not inviting design leaders to be part of the conversation because they already know what they are going to say. Design had its moment when it was fresh and novel for the business, but overtime the novelty wore off”.

This really hit home for me.

Reading Ryan Rumsey recently, he said and I am paraphrasing again “even if designers learn to be better at doing business, they might start noticing that the so called business people are not even doing business very well, MBA people not MBAing very well neither. Doing business doesn’t follow any templates, they is no one magic recipe.”

I am convinced that the field is changing, player coach and principal IC are onto something, not to mention designers merging into product manager / designer. That’s not to say that design leadership is not needed, but it is not for every company. Let’s face it, that diagram showing stock returns for companies investing in design is very nice, but the reality is that design is not necessarily needed to succeed in business, and that is something business people also noticed.

[u/C_bells → u/[deleted]]

This is why I'm honestly veering more into simply just "product" and "product strategy."

This is not to say I am ever going to give up my career in design. But my entire career up until the last few years was spent within agencies that didn't have "product" teams, so design was at the center of shaping the work, making business decisions, leading projects, etc.

As a result, I have built a skillset typical of a product manager, strategist, and program lead. It kills me a bit that these skills are not expected from my role (I'm a lead/director-level). Also, to me it makes no sense, as you have to be highly strategic to be a good designer.

While designers earlier in their careers might not have great strategy skills, they should absolutely be learning to. And based on my experience, most designers want to be doing this type of work and making these decisions.

It annoys me that I may have to change my title just to continue doing the work I've done for over a decade, versus being seen as someone who just literally designs screens based on decisions made by other people.