What is Your Competitive Advantage?
How to stand out from the crowd leveraging what you've already got
UX bootcamp folks will make you believe that you can get a UX job right after graduating. Don’t believe them. They will say anything to get you into the program.
I am not saying your chances are 0. I am just speculating.
Think about it. How many other people are talking a bootcamp with you? How many have taken it before and are still looking for a job? How many are taking (and have taken) other bootcamps? How many graduated with a degree, and how many learned on their own?
I don’t have the numbers, but I’d say we are talking about hundreds if not thousands of people in the US alone.
Last I checked there were around 700 entry level UX positions across the country:
I haven’t looked too closely but at least some of those positions are asking for some years of experience… For an entry level? Go figure…
Now, I am not saying this to discourage you. On the contrary, I’d like to help you stand out from the crowd.
Luckily, you won’t have to do much extra work for it.
Find your competitive advantage
All you have to do is find YOUR competitive advantage. You can do that by tapping into what you already know and have!
Broadly speaking you can use any (or all) of the following:
your background: education and work experience,
skills: marketing, coding, graphic design, writing, etc.,
hobbies and interests: languages, music, art, photography, etc.
Make a list of ALL the things that make you YOU. Take your time. Don’t hold back.
None of those things might be related to UX design directly, and that’s not a problem at all.
As you go through this exercise, you might realize that you have more depth of knowledge and experience as well as passion for certain areas than others. Take note of that.
You might also realize there are certain things you are not so familiar with or would rather not touch. Take note of those too.
What is your competitive advantage? Please share in the comments!
How to use your competitive advantage
Now that you have done this exercise it’s time to leverage your competitive advantage.
Add some personality to the messaging in your portfolio:
“Marketer turned UX Designer” is so much better than generic “Passionate about UX…”
List some of your interests on your About Me page
Use your competitive advantage to choose portfolio project ideas
Will it work? You just never know. It might be enough to draw someone’s attention to your portfolio and a case study, or spark a conversation during an interview.
One thing for sure, it pays off to be genuine. Saying things you think others want to hear won’t take you far.
A word about bootcamps
Don’t get me wrong, I am not picking on bootcamps. They can be a great way to get into UX design.
Bootcamps just happen to be a perfect example of uniform education:
everyone goes through the same program,
works on the same projects,
follows the same design process,
generates same (or very similar) portfolios, and
gets the same kind of diploma/certificate
Nothing wrong with that! And it can be enough of an advantage when work is plentiful and there is more demand than supply. But it won’t be like that all the time. It certainly doesn’t seem to be the case now.
So you’ve got to find a way to stand out! You’ve got to find and use your competitive advantage!