Six tips for a career in UX

Principal Engineer (PE) at Intel Marla Gomez (MSI ’04) recently shared the story of how her tremendous tech career began as a transition where opportunity, support and curricular values from the University of Michigan School of Information served as a basis for extraordinary growth.  

Now a member of the dean’s External Advisory Board, Master of Science in Information alumna Marla offers counsel to UMSI on matters related to a wide range of topics, including research initiatives and curriculum development. 

As PE and manager of Intel’s IT User Experience division, she also has career advice for UMSI students looking to build successful careers in user experience (UX) and user interaction (UI) design. 

Find her six top career tips for UX designers below, along with online resources, suggested courses and more from UMSI to help you put Marla’s advice into action. 

Build a diverse portfolio. 

• Bookmark this handout on portfolio best practices from UMSI’s Career Development Office  
• Take a portfolio-building mastery course in UX research and design
• Schedule a portfolio review with UMSI’s Career Development Office 

Seek out real-world experience. 

• Participate in a semester-long program like Design Clinic 
• Get involved in a two- to three-hour Design Jam  

Make the most of user research. 

• Take courses like SI 623 - Research Methods for Information Professionals and SI 682 - Advanced User Research in the Field
• Equip your user research toolbox with resources from around the web

Get really good at testing. 

• Check out these five steps to quick-start A/B testing from UXBooth
• Gain new insights into your data with U-M’s Applied Data Science with Python specialization on Coursera, which will help you learn to apply data science methods and techniques and acquire analytical skills you can use in A/B testing 

Know the front-end languages.

• Develop your core programming and software development skills by enrolling in a UMSI course like SI 206 - Data-Oriented Programming, or build on your knowledge of front-end languages by enrolling in a more advanced course like 506 - Programming I or 507 - Intermediate Programming 
• Take advantage of free software development courses offered by the University of Michigan through Coursera, like Python for Everybody and JavaScript, jQuery and JSON for Everybody

Align yourself with the mission. 

• Schedule a career advising appointment with the UMSI careers team on iTrack 
• Browse tech jobs with social impact on Tech Jobs for Good, or follow them on Twitter @TechJobsforGood 

Check out the UMSI Career Development Office’s Career Resource Library for more resources to assist in your career development, and direct any career-related questions to [email protected].