How to Find a UX Job in a Crisis

know being in a #lockdown and facing a possible recession can be highly demotivating and it is easy to think that there are no opportunities out there right now, but luckily it is just not the case. If you have lost your job or had your interviews put on freeze, it is time to think about where your next opportunity is and how you are going to find it.

As a UX recruiter, I am in a very similar position, clients are on hold, budgets are looking unstable and contractors are being let go, but it is not time to start pulling hair out and instead let’s put all our energy in thinking what is next.

Who needs some UX magic?

The short answer is lots of people, here is a long list of companies from Still Hiring who you can look up, visit their careers page, and get applying. Do not forget to follow them on their LinkedIn company page to receive their job updates.

David Chouinard from Candor also compiled this amazing list of over 7000 companies with their recruitment status, keep checking it out, it’s updated daily

Who is getting?

Another way to see who is most likely to be hiring is by looking up who has recently won funding, these businesses are likely to be going through rapid growth and needing to consider user experience.

With the free basic search, you can track 1000 businesses with Crunchbase or you have 7 days to commit some serious searching you can use a free trial of a Pro account.

Seedtable specializes in analyzing the data from Crunchbase and sends you a weekly review, it has an EU focus and can be great for pulling out breakfast time highlights.

Another great global resource is AngelList It’s where startups and investors get connected. You can search recently funded startups by investors and lookup live job opportunities by title.

Where’s still hot right now?

With the recent announcement from the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak of a £1.25 billion government support package for innovative young companies that don’t qualify for existing coronavirus rescue schemes and a £500 million investment fund for high-growth companies, there is a number of industries that are going to be rocket-fueled.

Health-Tech?

The need for online doctors, wellbeing apps, fitness tracking, diet tracking, meditation is on the rise Headspace, Calm and Ten Percent Happier has seen a surge in usage in the past month and there are plenty of opportunities to help them design their future human-centered products.

Check Crunchbase to see who’s hiring.

Education-Tech?

We are all stuck at home and plenty of us have that hour we usually commute or go out for lunch or dinner free and are signing up for online courses, webinars, and training. These businesses are seeing a huge increase in traffic and subscribers and are going to keep seeing growth over the next few months.

Using a google search with the phrase “Recently funded education startup” will give you a list of companies and information about their funding rounds.

Entertainment?

The Apple App store has seen a record-breaking $23.4 billion spend across their platforms, Netflix has had 16 million new subscribers and has seen a 27% increase in revenue from the same period in 2019.

With over 1,000 Media and Entertainment businesses listed on Crunchbase, there are plenty of opportunities for designers.

Online Shopping?

The online e-commerce platforms have taken a hit from panic and bulk buying, online grocery shops sales have soared and pharmacy and health sites are seeing wait times and page freezing. There are lots of start-ups that have food, clothing, and pharma deliveries which are all seeing a need to grow their teams to support the higher traffic and product requests.

Your profile matters?

If you have been putting off updating your LinkedIn now is the time to make it swish, the majority of hiring managers looking for a UX designer will go to this platform first.

There is so much great advice online about creating a strong profile, here is one direct from LinkedIn’s Senior MP of design, Sheba Najmi and Design Lead, Kristine Yuen

If you get your profile working for you and leading people to your folio sites you are going to find lots more opportunities coming to you and your applications making more of an impact.

Recruiters can help

I know lots of you have had bad experiences with recruiters but my advice is to find a specialist, lots of recruiters look after far too many types of roles to really understand UX properly.

When searching for a specialist look for titles like Senior Digital Recruiter, UX Recruiter, Design Recruiter, Technical Recruiter, and Creative Recruiter and check how long they have been working in this market. It usually takes 1–2 years working with designers to understand how to support them to assess their folio’s and case studies, help understand their design or UX specialism, and build an interesting client portfolio.

I am always open to share any further advice with you and currently supporting the UK and USA market.

I hope you have found these tips helpful and motivating and they can help you to create new leads, broaden your network, set up interviews, and find a new opportunity.