Trying to Get Unstuck In My Career Situation

[tough peak]

Hi everyone, I would like guidance on these main questions.
Before answering these questions, I would very strongly suggest to review context behind myself (via Google Slides https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1lfCdaatkDk_Yv1UsQL9v6SFTVHdfGSTzq1rpL9S79Rk/edit?usp=sharing or FigJam https://www.figma.com/file/9LVUtzcHXCIOUAWMhg3C3A/Wayne’s-Career-Thoughts?type=whiteboard&node-id=0%3A1&t=RJye9YJhSzHbTucL-1) that I prepared to provide enough explanation why I'm asking these questions, as well as the many different ideas (with subjective reasons) that I've already considered to get myself unstuck.

I apologize in advance if it's a lot to scan and think through, but I could not find a more concise way to convey the magnitude and complexity of my problems via just text alone.

Main Questions:

1. Should I stick to UI challenges as new case studies to put in my portfolio?
2. Are there other viable options or side project ideas to pursue to get myself unstuck and resolve my unemployment gap?
3. How would it still be possible to do primary research and user/usability testing with real people?
   3a. I just might not have the bandwidth to undertake this effort by myself, but I don’t want this to be a clear indicator that UX Design and Product Design just isn’t right for me at this time (or maybe I’m just in denial on this).

My Situation

• 1+ years unemployment.
• Trying to find a second job outside of college related to UX Design and product design to get out of my unemployment gap.
• Current at a crossroads on my next career steps. I want to get into UX design and/or product design, but the numerous barriers to entry and personal issues have made it tremendously difficult to enter into either domain. Temporary career transitions into other roles seems far too foggy and too large of a gap to surpass.
• I feel like I’m back to square one in terms of being indecisive about what domain(s) to pursue.
• I haven’t found a strong affinity for an industry yet (health, business, finance, fintech, tech, government, etc.).
• I feel like I’m just not good enough to compete in the current job market and really need to upskill myself.

My Current Goals

Career Path Goals

• getting offers to interviews
• getting familiar with interview processes
• landing a second job, preferably within UX design and/or product design
• doing impactful work and continuing to progress in my career (like many people)

Portfolio Goals

• Completed more recent side projects.
• Updated case studies based on those side projects within my revised portfolio website (https://waynephung.com/).

I also have my Curriculum Vitae available to temporarily view if it also helps to answer my main questions. https://docs.google.com/document/d/12CRT7IX9XeG_vXay8nOns7UBxJ1Sx74Dvaq_KowFGqc/edit?usp=sharing

Also, feedback for how I'm framing my ask here and improvements to brevity would be appreciative.

Thank you to those in advance who have taken their time to help.

[vernal ridge]

I find it a little concerning how visual design (which I’m very convinced and bullish on is the single most important skill for a junior designer) is relegated so far into your skill considerations

I recall having given feedback to you in the past and I think there’s a moment in time where you kinda need to embrace the brutal facts and double down on the importance of visual design and design execution

[winged geyser]

Hey Wayne, its great to see that you've thought deeply into what your goals and how you might get there. Taking a look right now and from your portfolio and resume, the thing I'd say the best thing you could do is focus on visual design (perry got to mentioning it first haha). This can be especially seen in your portfolio design. Before anything, I'd focus on improving those skills first, then redesigning your entire portfolio with those skills (take in mind this will likely take many iterations) rather than starting and focusing on a new side project.

If you want to get more in-depth feedback, I'd also recommend ADPlist to scheduling calls with design mentors to review/get specific feedback on your future iterations of your portfolio (go into these sessions with a clear plan of what you want to discuss and drive the conversation).

[magic field]

it seems like you really want to get better and you put in a lot of thought on what you are lacking, hard to talk through everything with words, but if you want to ask more questions I'm open to DM.

I'll answer some of your questions first
1, UI challenge is not good for portfolio case study cause they are not case study, but like Perry mentioned you need to improve your UI to a standard, so doing UI challenge is good, you can post it on Dribbble if you want to post, but for your question, it's not good for case study
2, I recommend look up some hackathon and look at what prompt they use for personal project, would be better and stronger for using a technology or solving an actual issue then redesigning an establish company's product. There's also the pathway of creating a solution for something that you notice is a pain in your life. For ex. I'm doing a side project related to my care for my pets with always on the go and moved my cats oversea, I partnered up with a developer to develop it so it will be in app store.
3, you have friends and family you can reach out to, if you have specific group of people you want to look for you need to find your way, there are groups for meetup you can use that to explore people you can test and ask questions for research with
3a, I won't say this pathway is not for you, it's just you are in your early career and you are a bit not sure how to approach it, by asking questions and pinpointing your own weakness is going in the right direcrtion, keep going

other things
your profolio pieces are not strong enough, I think you know it, and the way you display it is so big on the page with too many indicator moving at the same time, can give you pointers later, but main suggestion is to keep it simpler
your resume is way too long and not standard, it's 18 pages long, a resume is suppose to be 1 page long for any level and anyone

I agree with @winged geyser that ADPList is great place to find mentor, make sure you ask good questions, and take notes

[winged geyser]

A few random points as well:

• I would focus any side projects you want to do from now on to small features rather than designing huge experiences. This reduces the scope and lets you narrow down on making whatever you are making as good as possible while reducing chances of you getting side tracked or going down a rabbit hole on something random.
• It seems like you are hosting your site on Github pages with custom code and its causing you to run into storage issues. You could look into using a different platform like Heroku if you are using custom code in a project as well as using sites like https://squoosh.app/ to reduce the size of your assets.
• Make a template cover letter and change key words in it when submitting them rather than writing them from scratch, these should not be a huge barrier to overcome when applying since they arent that important in the recruitement process compared to your portfolio, esp junior level
• Nothing is stopping you from improving the visual design of the sites of projects you did do i.e. your open speech platform. Make a better version and add something in future steps or something or say this is what you would envision it if you had x resources or soemthing (don't lie tho).
• Participating in hackathons as a designer is a great idea https://devpost.com/ has a ton. Sign up and advertise yourself as a designer wehn finding teams
• as for your main questions cause I jsut realized I didn't actually answer any of them 1. Think of UI challenges as opportunities to improve visual design. They don't necessarily have to be full blown case studies and you can view it just as "practice". 2. Practice visual design, go remake your favorite apps on figma, analyze why they did certain things. 3. not sure but research shouldn't be a priority for u rn

[vernal ridge]

Just to be as actionable as I can on giving you better perspective into today’s hiring standard in tech for junior roles, I’d definitely browse through https://cofolios.com

That being said, part of me feels like you might be better suited for a PM role

[tough peak]

I'm a bit sidetracked with another time-limited task right now, but I've taken a first scan at your responses. It's lot to take in, and I want to revisit the past feedback from a previous critique post that perry has made re visual design as well as make follow-up replies (not at the moment).

Re last response, I've already made a Figma file to compile portfolio inspiration and turn these notes into actionable portfolio changes (I've yet to revisit this effort). I'm well aware of bestfolios and cofolios to understand the rationale. More on this in my follow-ups.

I'll re-evaluate my opinions of hack-a-thon/design-a-thon competitions.

I appreciate the detailed suggestions so far and I do find great relief that I can simply limit myself to just upskilling on visual design and design execution and then think about opportunities like Hack-a-thons to scout for to apply improved knowledge re visual design into practice.

[tough peak]

My impression of your initial statement was that you perceived that I didn't show much improvement to my visual design progress and that I should revisit the feedback that you wrote up, follow your aforementioned step-by-step recommendations in order, and just refocus on visual design and design execution.

I thank you for reminding me where I should have re-prioritized my efforts to get unstuck.

Here's my progress update after perry, Evan's, and other's suggestions with supporting images to partially show progress in improving my visual craft since then, and here is where I will explain the obstacles that, in hindsight, I discovered that made me stop. This is also to make a point that I have some familiarity with visual design and to clarify that better clarity towards improving my craft via more specific subareas of visual/graphic design theories and clearer paths towards improvements beyond just portfolio inspiration would make it easier to progress due to the sheer abundance of information to consume and time needed to convert theory to practice & exercises.

I only agree to some extent that revisiting the fundamentals is paramount. After finding the most insightful articles on different aspects of visual design (and probably even more in the future) I'm well past the beginner point of:

• using different headings/styles/sizes to establish visual hierarchy (of course v. hier. is broader than this, so I'll re-learn)
• choosing typefaces (changed to Merriweather & Merri. Sans)
• modular type scales for different screen resolutions
• 4px/8px schemes for more consistent spacing systems
• crafting primary/secondary/accent color gradients to pick and choose to map them to UI components while balancing vibrancy with proper 4-7:1 contrast ratios
• resources for generating color palettes (not shown)
• moodboards (not shown)
• iconography (not shown)
• visual style guides
• UI design systems that encompass all of the above

[tough peak]

I am mindful that I did not follow the actionable steps to the tee, I'm still working on that.

Attached are images to notes on portfolio inspiration, that I've yet to work on.
Why did I put off the portfolio inspiration effort?
Because of the following:

1. How to address the shift between gathering the visual design aspects that I wanted to adapt from via constraint-free ideation and how feasible they are to implement in HTML/Sass/jQuery (for example, if I wanted to use linear motion to have text and images move from a scrolling interaction because of X compelling reason from person Y's stellar portfolio, how would I technically achieve this? from a public demo with shareable code block(s)?).
2. Content, structure, and ordering redesign of each case study taking precedence before visual-based redesign considerations (I can see the validity in how interlinked these two are). Giving the relatively same impressions from the prior and current visual design iterations of the portfolio, it is clear to me that visual design isn't the only important priority. The case studies needed to be updated and better aligned to content best practices so that the portfolio is cognizant of the <30-sec window of portfolio review during application reviews, and I'm made content outlines of the redesigned case studies but haven't implemented them yet.
3. Lack of self-branding/identity/unique selling propositions, how this dearth will influence my ability to show and not tell these, and how the these can be reflected in my visual design. More moodboarding > color palettes and typefaces chosen perhaps?

[tough peak]

ADPList has been in the back of my mind, as well as alumni from UCSD.

I'll figure out how to improve my asks and orient the session around visual design improvements. My biggest concern is spending too long in the 30-minute session to re-brief the mentor on the topics within the slide deck/FigJam just to avoid solution ideas that aren't compatible with my situation.

Maybe this time I'll try to schedule with the same ADPList mentor for 2+ consecutive meetings instead of one. I will have to avoid paying for the longer-dedicated sessions offered.

[tough peak]

1. If UI challenges should not be branded as case studies, then maybe just as a "Playground" item? Rationale is that I've lingered on the idea of resurrecting many of my (video) projects into a "Playground" section of the website separate from full case studies just to show passion projects done.
2. I've already made a case study for a Design-A-Thon that I participated back in college, which also needed to be shortened and redesigned. Honestly, that should've been a much better showcase than the Open Speech Platform (OSP) because I felt that it's giving people the wrong impression that I'm super amateur and beginner in visual design (for various reasons I felt like I was set up for visual design failure in the various OSP projects that I was given). However, perhaps it was so long ago that maybe taking on another design competition just one time would still be worthwhile, even if it ends up that I may have to redesign the final deliverable if it didn't execute well?
3. Re friends and family, the attached image from FigJam is my current situation in this aspect that I hold great self-chagrin with as I thought about the side project ideas.

Re the Curriculum Vitae, I must apologize for the erroneous use of the word. It wasn't meant to be a 1-page resume, it was a career timeline in document form of all of my professional experiences after high school (synonymous with a LinkedIn profile). I shared it because I had hoped that it would help illustrate the topics and experiences that I was exposed beyond the veil of the portfolio. My main issues with it is that I have trouble knowing how to harness it to self-brand my unique strengths (also noted as a weakness in the slide deck and FigJam file)

To clear up the confusion, I've attached the typical two-column resume template that I've used for Easy Applying to job postings as a reference. It's not meant as a prompt for resume feedback, that's for another channel.

[tough peak]

I'm already aware of sites like TinyPNG as an image compression service, with other services that I can look up for video compression as well.

Heroku's pricing plans using "dynos" containers was very confusing to me. My naive understanding is that the Eco plan is meant for infrequent site visits from anonymous people, but I'm not as able to understand comparisons of other pricing plans and the different features offered.

I'll try to resurface a cover letter template and resume with the sky's-the-limit approach for visual redesigns of the past projects.

Will attach the same reply to Lilith's response re #2.
"I've already made a case study for a Design-A-Thon that I participated back in college, which also needed to be shortened and redesigned. Honestly, that should've been a much better showcase than the Open Speech Platform (OSP) because I felt that it's giving people the wrong impression that I'm super amateur and beginner in visual design (for various reasons I felt like I was set up for visual design failure in the various OSP projects that I was given). However, perhaps it was so long ago that maybe taking on another design competition just one time would still be worthwhile, even if it ends up that I may have to redesign the final deliverable if it didn't execute well?"

[tough peak]

I'm a bit less certain about the PM route, but I'll do some online reading first.

[vernal ridge]

I’ll follow up when I get a chance later!

[winged geyser]

Going to be replying to these in chunks,

[winged geyser]

Based on the topics you mentioned and the images you've attached, it seems like you are creating assets like typescales, grid systems, color palettes without understanding the "why" of what you are creating and how these different elements interact with one another. In addition, you need to improve your understanding and knowledge of space and visual hierarchy especially. These are all considered "fundamentals" and unfortunately it seems like you don't have a good understanding of visual design as a craft yet.

[winged geyser]

Another thing I'm picking up on is that you are attaching "visual design" aspects to shiny cool effects like animations or moving text etc. Your designs shouldn't need these effects to function and honestly I'd stay away from them completely if you don't have prior knowledge into custom coding it yourself. A bad/average animation is worse than no animation imo.

Visual design might be the MOST important thing over content, structure etc (although like you said, they are deeply deeply intertwined), because that is the thing that is catching the reviewers eye. If the design doesn't clearly communicate the content, no reviewer is going to spend their time diving deeper into it.

[winged geyser]

Just curious on the "Easy applying" part, does this mean easy applying on linkedin? are you mostly using easy apply to apply for jobs?

[magic field]

I wait for you guys finish the conversation before I add in my thoughts 🙂

[winged geyser]

Unless you have some other purpose in mind, your portfolio is "meant for infrequent site visits from anonymous people".

[tough peak]

Given the repetition from you and others of the importance of visual design upskilling starting with the fundamentals here I'll revisit this channel and perry's previous feedback from portfolio forum.

It's just going to be a very long personal journey of finding the right courses to learn (and also revisiting Refactoring UI and other useful resources), then figuring out design exercises, then maybe using the feedback/critique channels to gauge how I'm progressing in visual design from other people's perspective, and getting back to Meetups/design competitions.
I'll treat it as a necessary marathon and revisit this aspect in other topics.

As you could tell, I haven't done a great job in self-assessing my competency in this area (I'm probably in the conscious incompetence phase if the Dunning-Kruger analogy is applied here).

[tough peak]

Yeah, it's been mostly Easy Applying.
I'm still pacing myself trying to branch out from this to apply for hybrid roles and using other platforms outside of LinkedIn like ESDJ. I haven't found a more efficient workaround to expedite my process in answering job application questions that aren't "optional" cover letter fields, and will eventually need to adapt an efficient system for including cover letters (I have a template, it's just getting into the habit of adjusting it "as needed").

[winged geyser]

A good starting point is asking yourself "WHY did x person choose to make something the way they did". You can extend this to about anything, from overall page layout, to even "small" decisions like color and type choice. Once you get more accostumed to this, you can start applying it to yourself. Another thing is just building good taste. Design is subjective but there is still a concept of "good taste" (a bit contentious to some tho). Go make a pixel perfect recreation of multiple apps like spotify and ask yourself at every step "why did they choose to do this this way"

[winged geyser]

I also was applying to jobs last year. as harsh as it sounds, in my mind, easy applying is the equivelent to throwing away your time

Random article I jsut found but this basically sums up my feelings for it https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/600-application-without-reply-how-linkedin-easy-apply-uroš-tadić/

If you have any other way to apply directly, your chances go up much much higher

you are shooting yourself in the foot by easy applying and shying away from direct applying due to "cover letter" avoidance

[tough peak]

Suppose that I resumed the Why? questioning to every redesign of existing apps with far greater scrutiny.
If I find a subjective answer behind the Why, would being able to provide more answers as opposed to not knowing an answer indicate that I'm getting better or worse at figuring out more correct rationales? Conversely, if I find myself not knowing a good enough answer to each Why and instead find myself to be more negative in my answers, would this also indicate that I'm getting warmer or colder in spotting questionable design choices?

[winged geyser]

emphasis on the "recreation" and not "redesign" for now, that just adds a whole new variable in it. Just getting into the habit of it will help imo, I can't speak to how it will directly affect you as I'm not you 😅

Gotta go for now @magic field feel free to send thoughts 😮

[magic field]

1, You can have a "playground", but if your early practice of UI challenges are not good, I wouldn't show it, it doesn't help in achieving the goal of getting a job. Your portfolio site is a product, your users are recruiter, hiring managers, and some early startup founders potentially, they want to see the most important things and judge you if you can do the work. You can decide what you want to showcase that will highlight it, your portfolio itself is a UX project, go through the process and make the best choices after your research.
2, Most contest type of project will not be good enough, afterall a hackathon is about 3 days long that I've seen so you need to expand on it no matter what, if you feel like you want to take on a new challenge then redo your old one that's fine, but it doesn't have to, as long as the prompt and solution is still relevant just expand on it to save time.
I'll stop right here cause I need to head out, I'll finish up my reply in a bit

[tough peak]

1. Got it on setting higher bars on what should be showcased for side work done.
2. I can't expand on the final deliverable for that design competition because it's a physical product that was discontinued, but I'll see if there's an opportunity for other digital solutions to create as a means to redesign the old case study.

[magic field]

1, Knowing that recruiter only spends a few seconds on reviewing a candidate, how can you show yourself that they want to see more? What do they care more about? These questions can be answered by the type of roles you are applying so definitely do your research
2, you can always expand on the deliverable, it’s for your portfolio it doesn’t matter it’s shipped and discontinued, however if it’s not showcasing what you want to showcase of course do other projects, or redo this project

[vernal ridge]

Okay all I was gonna say was basically covered LOL woot woot

Visual design isn’t something you read about

You need to just do it

Make things

Don’t be afraid to make things you’ll scrap later

90% of all the work I’ve ever done is scrap

But that 90% was essential to my learning

[magic field]

3, you list out a lot of your problems and challenges, the theme I’m seeing is you “can’t” find people, but solutions for you to try is already mapped out, look for a discord friend server, talk to people, it’s literally part of the job to make outreach to strangers, it’s a good practice

For self brand, also treat it like a project, you are a designer, what’s the persona that a hiring manager would want, use that and map out who you want to present yourself to be

[tough peak]

3. I'll see where re-socializing on this and other community channels goes. I might have to work on gaining "cultural capital" a bit (just gaining enough familiarity of the current discussions and domains behind said discussions) < overcoming my current anxieties via courage.
   I'll explore the self-branding aspect more.

[tough peak]

This will be after I learn visual design fundamentals, because what I've done wasn't the right approach and order.
Will work on being more proactive to action to make tons of things.

[magic field]

You have us, I’m open to give you user feedback on things you want to test

This is literally how you can get a few people to give feedback

[vernal ridge]

No I’d honestly just say to just start making things

Not everything needs to be calculated

I get the sense you’re overthinking and overcomplicating things for yourself

Again, the only way to improve is by actually doing. No amount of theory reading will be as impactful as just doing

Don’t be afraid to produce work that will never see the light of day

Even if it’s just for practice

Successful candidates all recognize that this is a craft based industry

[magic field]

I agree, you just need to start trying a few things that we already pointed out, trial and error

[tough peak]

I get it, I'll set a "Just Do It" mindset and go with the ambiguity.

[fleet furnace]

I didn't want to jump in, but I seriously think you should look into Product or Project Management. The existing story you have to tell about yourself is very clear with your relationship to facilitation, attention to detail, and extensive documentation.

I think the visual design hill that you have to climb here will be a long journey, and will not immediately set you up for success.

I think you would be a great PM, and lots of designers I know are exploring that direction in order to have more influence over what is being made and the business side of creating a cohesive vision around executional requirements for both designers and engineers

[tough peak]

I acknowledge the recommendation to pursue PM as an alternative path and will explore this domain as well, for now on my own whilst following other recommendations like just making tons of stuff and Lilith's recommendation on socializing with people (especially if said topics relate to PM). Thank you for jumping in to affirm perry's recommendation Ben.

It's just been a lot to review the past couple of days with the back and forth and will need to step away and revisit.

[fleet furnace]

That 100% makes sense. And I'll say that we don't really have many PMs here, but I believe Bobatalks (if they're still active, I haven't checked in awhile and am no longer a member) has more of a variety outside of explicitly designers that may be able to give you some guidance.