Morgan Cammins, a mindful recruiter, has defined five inspirational tactics to help you achieve your career aspirations:

Optimize your presence on LinkedIn

A quality LinkedIn profile is the gateway to the digital marketing world. The main platform where you can build your brand and name is, of course, LinkedIn. When you optimize your LinkedIn profile, you’re essentially creating a detailed online representation of your professional identity. It’s an opportunity to showcase your achievements, skills, and aspirations to potential employers, clients, and colleagues. To achieve this, ensure that all sections are complete and up-to-date, including a professional photo, a headline that conveys your value, and a detailed summary. Add work experience, education, and relevant certificates, using keywords for easier discovery. You can also add multimedia elements such as videos or presentations to highlight creativity and expertise. Use a friendly tone and avoid jargon, engage with storytelling techniques to connect with the audience on a personal level. Your LinkedIn profile is your digital business card that can help you build a network and find opportunities. Devote full attention to creating a profile that best represents you.

Work with a mentor

Mentors are powerful role models who can inspire and motivate you to reach your full potential. Look for mentors who share your values and aspirations and be open to learning from their experience and insights. Working with a mentor can be a transformative experience on your journey to success as a digital marketer. To make the most of mentoring, it’s crucial to clearly understand what you want to achieve and how the mentor can help you accomplish that. Dedicate time to identifying specific skills you want to develop and find mentors who align perfectly with your needs and goals. Be clear about what you hope to gain from mentoring. But it’s also important to consider what value you can provide to them, making mentoring an exchange of information and understanding. When you have a defined attitude, approach, and the right mentor, you’ll quickly see how your success grows in the world of digital marketing.

Smartly leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) opportunities

Artificial intelligence is transforming the digital marketing industry. Embrace this change by investing in developing your AI-related skills and exploring the latest AI techniques and applications. Harness the power of artificial intelligence to advance your career. By using AI tools, you can improve the way you present yourself. For example, artificial intelligence can help you tailor your CV or LinkedIn profile based on a specific business role you’re interested in or even based on the specific job description you’re applying for. When aiming to advance your career, it’s crucial to nurture a positive attitude. Always keep in mind the acronym VCI: vision, goals, and execution. With AI and VCI, there’s no chance of lagging behind digital trends; instead, you’ll be galloping forward.

Develop a positive mindset

A positive mindset is the foundation of success. Instead of focusing on challenges, focus on opportunities. By practicing optimism, you can train your mind to focus on the possibility of positive outcomes, even in seemingly impossible situations. Instead of dwelling on the negative, try to envision situations turning out better than expected. Simply visualize your success, set clear goals, and stay motivated. If you feel exhausted by efforts to advance in your career, with nothing happening, take a step back and consider small, positive habits you can start nurturing to prepare for career advancement.

Develop habits for success

Creating habits can be difficult, and sticking to them even harder. This is known to anyone who has ever tried dieting or going to the gym for the first time. In reality, sticking to habits is very easy; the trick is to maintain consistency. That’s why it’s important to approach habit-building as a long-term investment, requiring patience, discipline, and clear commitment to goals. Habits are the foundation of success. To be successful, first identify the skills you need to improve. Then, commit to daily practice: network, learn, explore, mentor others, or efficiently use your time to advance in your career. To build lasting habits, it’s best to “break” them down into small steps and create a routine that suits you. Also, it’s important to identify motivators and track progress. Make sure to celebrate every success, no matter how small it may seem.

By optimizing your presence on LinkedIn, working with a mentor, developing AI skills, cultivating a positive mindset, and developing habits that lead to success, you’ll see how quickly you can achieve your dreams in the digital marketing industry. Don’t let the competition stop you—let your passion, knowledge, and motivation lead you to success.

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

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We’re here to clear up any confusion or complication regarding SEO. Once you grasp the basics, you can harness SEO as a powerful digital marketing strategy.

SEO optimization encompasses a comprehensive set of techniques and practices that can significantly enhance the visibility and ranking of your website on Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines when people are searching for:

• Products you sell.
• Services you provide.
• Information, knowledge, and/or expertise you offer.

The better visibility your site has in search results, the higher the likelihood it will be found and clicked on. The ultimate goal of search engine optimization is to attract visitors to your site who will become customers, clients, or returning audience.

SEO is a crucial aspect of digital marketing. Through thorough keyword research, creating high-quality content, building quality backlinks, and optimizing your website for search engines, you can easily achieve your marketing goals.

The three fundamental and key components of SEO are:

• Technical optimization
• On-page optimization
• Off-page optimization

Technical optimization involves activities on your website designed to improve SEO but are not related to the content itself. On-page optimization includes targeting the right keywords within your content and ensuring excellent user experience (coding, tags, page organization, optimization of multimedia content, and textual material…). Off-page optimization involves improving your site’s ranking in search engines through off-site activities, such as building high-quality backlinks, social media activities, brand promotions…

But before optimization, it’s crucial to conduct a comprehensive analysis that assesses every aspect of your site, both on-site and off-site. This analysis provides insights necessary for developing an effective optimization strategy. Once your plan is ready, focus on every detail, from meta tags and image optimization to building high-quality backlinks and actively engaging on social media. Remember that success is a journey, not a destination, so stay committed to your goals and regularly monitor your site’s performance. It’s also important to understand the differences and similarities between paid and organic search, two types of search that can help you achieve success.

Paid search results appear at the top of search engine pages, while organic results appear below them. Both types of search require keyword research and creating great landing pages to generate traffic. Search engines rely on algorithms to find and rank websites based on various factors, such as loading speed, website reputation, backlinks, and the quality and relevance of content. By focusing on continuous improvement and keeping up with the latest SEO practices, you’ll remain competitive and relevant in today’s ever-changing digital landscape.

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

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The UX industry is in a constant state of evolution. And now, with the rise of AI, we find ourselves entering a new and exciting phase.   As AI technology advances, the opportunities for UX designers are seemingly endless. AI can streamline many aspects of the UX design process—and it’s empowering designers to create more personalised, user-centric products and experiences than ever before. But, for every opportunity that AI brings, it also presents a whole new set of challenges. It’s both an exciting and testing time for the UX industry and navigating this next wave of trends will prove crucial.

The trend of all trends, artificial intelligence is transforming the world—and UX—as we know it. By 2025, it’s estimated that AI and machine learning (ML) will drive over $4 trillion in business value. As it stands, over 80% of businesses have adopted AI in one way or another.  For the UX industry in particular, the impact of AI is huge—and we’re just at the beginning. 53% of companies are currently using AI technology to innovate their products and services; a number that will grow significantly through 2024 and beyond. Indeed, interest in—and demand for—AI-powered design tools is high and growing. According to Google Trends, the search volume for AI design-related tools and software has increased 1700% from 2022 to 2023 alone. Likewise, searches for the term ‘generative AI’ have increased by 8,500% in the last few years.

Personalisation has long been a hot topic in user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, and it’s nothing new. The likes of Netflix and Spotify have been using machine learning algorithms to provide highly personalised experiences for almost twenty years.  But, with advancements in AI technology, personalisation is now reaching unprecedented levels of complexity and sophistication. Cue the era of hyper-personalisation.

Take Spotify for example. When Spotify first launched, its personalisation capabilities were relatively basic. It relied on simple algorithms that considered factors such as user listening history, favourite artists, and manually curated playlists to generate recommendations.

Now, as AI technology has advanced, Spotify can analyse much larger volumes of data that go beyond user listening history. It can also evaluate contextual factors such as time of day, location, what device is being used, and even what mood the user is in.

Google’s Gemini also speaks to the rise of increasingly bespoke user interfaces that adapt and respond based on the user’s intent.  Launched at the end of 2023, Gemini is being touted as Google’s most capable AI model to date. It’s been built to be “natively multimodal” which means it can seamlessly understand, operate across, and combine different types of information—including text, code, audio, image, and video.  Based on the information and context provided by the user, Gemini will generate a completely custom-made interface to provide the user with the information they want, in the most valuable format—be that a list, a selection of images, a step-by-step guide, or something else entirely. We recommend watching the Gemini product demo to see this AI newcomer in action.

UX designers aren’t only designing with AI. They’re also increasingly tasked with the new challenge of designing for AI. That is, integrating AI into existing products or designing AI-assisted experiences from scratch. As a result, we’re seeing the first hints of a new trend: the emergence of distinct interaction patterns and principles for designing AI-assisted experiences. Luke Wroblewski, an internationally recognised digital product leader, introduces three high-level interaction patterns he’s noticing.

The first facilitates direct interaction between the user and the AI. As such, the AI must be integrated in a way that enables the user to provide prompts or instructions to generate a specific output. Here the challenge lies in ensuring that the AI model can interpret different inputs with accuracy.

The second pattern focuses on designing experiences where AI is working behind the scenes. In other words, the user doesn’t interact directly with the AI; but, as they interact with the product, the AI is learning about their behaviours and preferences. If you’re watching videos on YouTube, for example, you’re not explicitly asking the AI to provide recommendations—but it will do so based on what you’ve watched so far.

The third approach looks at integrating AI alongside the usual buttons and menus the user interacts with. In this case, the goal is for AI to assist the user with their tasks—for example, by providing suggestions or completing sentences for you as you type.  Essentially, these patterns offer different ways for users to interact with AI—ranging from direct control to background assistance.

AI brings with it many opportunities—but also many challenges. In 2024 and beyond, UX designers and researchers will navigate uncharted territory in the form of new ethical dilemmas. The ethical dilemmas and challenges posed by AI are manifold, ranging from data security and privacy to concerns about bias, transparency, consumer trust, manipulative design practices, and unintended outcomes.  Bias in AI algorithms can perpetuate systemic inequalities and hinder efforts to create inclusive and equitable user experiences. As AI becomes increasingly integrated into the design process, UX designers must be proactive in identifying and mitigating biases in AI systems. This will be a huge challenge—and, as yet, there are no clearly defined guidelines or processes in place to tackle it. Transparency and trust are another major issue, with over 75% of consumers having expressed concerns about AI-generated misinformation. In the years to come, UX designers will need to work harder to gain users’ trust. This will mean designing with transparency, finding ways to communicate how AI is shaping the user experience, and ultimately making sure that the user feels informed and in control. Then there’s the issue of manipulative design practices. Hyper-personalisation can greatly enhance the user experience—but, by the same token, AI-powered systems can be used to manipulate user behaviour. This gives rise to concerns about addictive design patterns, persuasive technology, and the exploitation of cognitive biases. Designers must be mindful of the ethical implications of using AI to influence user decision-making and ensure that they’re not compromising user well-being and autonomy.

As AI technology advances and the UX field matures, the goal posts for what constitutes a great user experience are moving. Gone are the days when it was enough to design products that are functional and aesthetically pleasing. Now more than ever, emotional design is what will set exceptional products apart.  Emotional design is the practice of designing products and experiences that connect with the user on an emotional level. It’s about evoking certain emotional responses in the user—and recognising that human behaviour is driven not only by rational decision-making, but also by emotions, feelings, and subconscious desires. This trend emphasises the role of human psychology in design. But, inevitably, AI also has a role to play here. AI-powered personalisation, for example, will enable designers to create experiences that are not only tailored to users’ functional needs but also resonate with their emotional preferences. By analysing vast amounts of data about user behaviour and preferences, AI algorithms will be able to identify patterns and trends that both reveal—and predict—users’ emotional states and motivations. As such, AI will serve as a helpful tool for meeting users’ emotional needs—but emotional intelligence and human empathy will continue to reign supreme.

While it’s unrealistic to imagine that machines could eliminate the need for human designers—UX is all about empathy, after all—there’s no denying that AI will change the nature of the UX designer’s work. In the coming years, research and strategy will have an increasingly important role to play. The true value of UX designers will lie not only in their ability to create awesome user experiences, but most notably in their ability to problem-solve, act strategically, and exercise ‘vision thinking’—that is, to take a holistic perspective and consider the bigger picture.

With all these transformations in the industry, it’s no surprise that the UX job market is also shifting. While the traditional tech sector has long been the default arena for UX jobs, that’s changing in 2024.

There are two big drivers behind this trend. First, we’re in the midst of a downturn in the traditional tech sector. In a nutshell, many tech companies accelerated their hiring in the pandemic—only to find that this wasn’t sustainable. Now, post-pandemic, hiring levels have slowed right down in order to return to more normal employee numbers. As such, UX jobs aren’t as easy to come by in the tech sector. At the same time, industries that haven’t traditionally prioritised UX are now investing heavily in digital transformation and improving the customer experience—resulting in high demand for UX designers. Finance, government, and the medical tech sector are just some areas where UX opportunities are in growing abundance. Another trend shaping the job market right now is the growing number of junior UX candidates. When the UX bootcamp market exploded a few years back, we saw a surge in free and low-cost programs promising rapid training in UX. But, unlike industry-vetted and university credit-rated courses, the quality of these bootcamps is largely unregulated. As such, the industry is now inundated with junior candidates who possess UX qualifications on paper but aren’t necessarily equipped for the practicalities of the profession. There may be an increase in the number of entry-level UXers looking for work, but hiring managers are still struggling to find suitable candidates who can actually do the job. The need for skilled, job-ready UX designers is greater than ever. Those who can demonstrate hands-on proficiency, up-to-date industry knowledge, and a design-thinking mindset will be best placed to get hired.

Source: UX Design Institute

The post The top UX design trends in 2024 appeared first on Digital Communications Institute.

Positioning itself as the alternative to Twitter (X), this Meta-owned microblogging platform currently boasts more than 100 million downloads—with more joining the party each day.

Since its launch in July 2023 and expansion into the EU in December, Threads has gotten off to a flying start. But, will its success endure beyond the initial enthusiasm for this new platform on the block? And will it prove to be a bite-sized social media marketing tool that offers a real return on investment (ROI)?

What is Threads?

Created by Meta, Threads is a short-form content-style social media platform that many see as the forward-thinking alternative to Twitter.

The Threads platform is in many ways like the platform formerly known as Twitter (which is now simply named ‘X’) in terms of feel and functionality. However, one of the key differences is that it’s decentralized. This means that rather than being regulated by one central entity, users can take charge of their privacy settings as well as the way they view, create, and interact with the content on their feed. A social media platform fit for the age of the Metaverse, Threads gives creators as well as personal users complete autonomy over what they create, and consume.

Since Elon Musk acquired X, and we’re still figuring out how the platform will change, droves of users are flocking to Threads as a better alternative.

Who Is Using Threads?

So far, Threads appears to attract users from a fairly broad range of demographics. However, there’s a bit of a skew when it comes to gender. In fact, according to one study, around 68% of users are male and 32% are females.

What’s also striking is that while users from all key user demographics use Threads, the bulk of the platform’s user base are Gen Zers.

96% of the platform’s users also frequently use the Meta-owned Instagram (which is a given, really), with 80% also being highly engaged on WhatsApp.

Threads has shown to be particularly popular in India, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, and the UK. With the platform finally opening up to EU countries in December 2023, a market of almost half a billion was newly available, with the platform potentially seeing about 40 million more users per month, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Threads’ rise has been pretty monumental so far, with Mark Zuckerberg claiming that the app has a solid chance of reaching a billion users in the not-too-distant future.

Threads has positioned itself as a platform to empower content creators. And while its leadership team states that Threads doesn’t exist to amplify news, it’s also not anti-news. As such, Threads blocked user searches for the terms ‘COVID’, ‘long COVID’, and ‘vaccinations’, but is expected to lift these restrictions soon. One of the reasons may be a bid to improve platform engagement by creating a more open, conversational space.

Despite its current neutral stance on news, just days after the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted, droves of reporters began to share key updates on Threads, making it an outlet for current affairs.

At this point in the game, it appears that Threads, while still behind X in terms of overall numbers, is outperforming X in terms of downloads. The platform is on a steady rise – and if harnessed the right way, it could offer a treasure trove of brand-boosting benefits.

How to Create a Strategy for Threads

To get the best value from your Threads content, you need to think strategically. Having a clear-cut strategy that consists of looking, listening, testing, trial, error, and lots of creativity will earn you consistent engagement while amplifying your platform reach.

Here are some tips to help you craft an effective Threads strategy:

• Get started and try it out: Brands should at least have a presence there, even if it’s to grab a username because user numbers will increase in 2024. This is the time to experiment with the platform. So, if you create an account and start interacting on the platform, you’re halfway there. (Find out more about establishing a presence on Threads in our Trends webinar.)
• Sit, watch, and listen: See what your competitors are doing, as well as other brands or sectors you’re interested in that have nothing to do with your industry.
• Think creatively: To build your audience and stand out on Threads, you need to be creative. By leveraging a balanced mix of the platform’s best engagement options (more on that soon) and content formats, you will spark interest and start making promotional waves.

Conclusion: Marketing with Threads

Threads is a platform on the rise. Despite having many functional and aesthetic crossovers with X, this new kid on the microblogging block offers the potential to tap into tight-knit communities that are likely to respond to what you have to say.

Jump on the crest of this trending wave, approach your content strategy with care, and you stand a chance of gaining an edge on the social media marketing pack.

Source: Digital Marketing Institute

The post A Guide to Marketing on Threads appeared first on Digital Communications Institute.

But what’s the reality?

We looked up the latest market data and hiring trends, and spoke to Eoghain Cooper, Career Advisor and Recruiting Specialist at UX Design Institute, to find out what’s going on in the UX job market right now—and how it’s impacting entry-level UX designers in particular. We’ve compiled all the most useful insights into this article, divided into two parts: The UX job market outlook for 2024, and practical advice for entry-level designers.

Has the UX job market reached saturation point? (The short answer)

The short answer to this question is no—the UX job market has not reached the point of oversaturation.

The industry is changing and evolving (when is it not?) and the UX job market isn’t what it was two or three years ago. We have seen a downturn in UX job postings in recent years, for reasons we’ll go into shortly. Despite this, UX designers are still in demand—and there’s still a notable deficit of skilled UX professionals. As you can see, the topic is a bit more nuanced than a simple yes or no. With that, let’s take a closer look at what’s really going on.

Why does it feel like the UX job market is saturated? What’s driving this misconception?

A lot is happening in the UX industry right now, and it’s not surprising that UX designers might feel like they’re on shaky ground—especially entry-level ones. There are several key factors contributing to a general feeling of uncertainty in the job market:

• Large-scale (and ongoing) layoffs in the traditional tech sector

• A significant downturn in UX job postings

• The rise of AI 

All pretty scary on the surface—but decidedly less so if you dig a little deeper. With that, let’s explore the reality behind the headlines.

UX job postings have decreased significantly in recent years—what’s going on? The numbers don’t lie—but perspective is everything.

If you’ve been keeping an eye on UX job openings, you’ve probably noticed that there’s been quite a drop. From 2022 to 2023, job site Indeed reported a 73% decrease in UX research job postings. UX designer job openings were down 71%.

The numbers don’t lie—but perspective is everything. Remember how the hiring frenzy during the pandemic years (2020-2022) turned out to be unsustainable and unrealistic in the long term? It makes sense, then, that UX job postings would drop to more normal levels in 2023 and beyond. Even more reassuring is the longer-term trend of job growth before the pandemic. If you compare UX research job openings in 2023 to those in 2018, you’ll notice a 53% increase over those 5 years. Not bad! Likewise, while a 71% drop in UX design openings from 2022-2023 seems shocking, that’s only a 23% decrease from 2018-2023. The longer-term trajectory is considerably less worrying and speaks to the natural maturation of the UX industry.

In short: UX design job openings may be down compared to a few years back, but the demand for skilled UX designers is not. As Eoghain puts it: There are still fewer UX jobs than there were at the end of 2022— I’m not going to pretend there hasn’t been a downturn. But ultimately there is still a deficit of qualified and highly qualified individuals.

The rise of artificial intelligence—will AI replace UX designers?

It’s impossible to talk about job security without mentioning AI. Perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions since ChatGPT and similar entered the mainstream is: Will AI replace UX designers? A legitimate concern, but not a reality that seems likely to materialise any time soon (if ever). So what’s the situation here? AI is replacing certain jobs—PwC estimates that up to 30% of jobs could be automated by 2030—but it’s also creating new ones. The World Economic Forumpredicts that, by 2025, AI will have opened up 97 million new (human) jobs.

As for UX specifically, AI is already streamlining certain aspects of the UX design process. Many designers are now using AI tools to help with user research, content design, and general day-to-day tasks. But, given that UX is fundamentally a human-centric field that relies just as much on emotional intelligence and empathy as it does on data and analytics, there’s no likely scenario where AI could fully replace human designers. The rise of AI is more of an opportunity than a threat. UX designers can work faster and more efficiently—leaving more room for strategy and creative thinking. Exciting times! For further insights on the topic, check out this interview with Nick Babich, Principal UX Designer at Brain Technologies, exploring how AI will impact UX designers in both the short and long term.

Are UX designers still in demand? 3 major growth sectors for UX jobs

Overall UX job growth has slowed in recent years, especially within the tech sector. However, while typically UX-heavy industries are starting to plateau, we’re seeing an interesting shift in other industries that haven’t traditionally focused on UX. Eoghain Cooper specialises in helping entry-level UX designers land their first job, and he notes three sectors in particular that are investing heavily in UX right now:

• The finance industry

• The medical tech sector

• Government and civil service

So what’s driving the UX boom in these sectors?

Ultimately, a more pressing need than ever to adapt, modernise, and provide a first-class user experience.

UX job growth in the finance industry

In finance, legacy banks are now competing with challenger banks like Revolut, N26, and Monzo. If they want to keep up, they need to level up in terms of the digital experience they provide—and that, of course, requires skilled UX designers. The NatWest Group, for example, invested $2.3 billion in their digital transformation strategy in 2022, while JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley are both building new UX divisions to support their digitisation efforts. These are just a handful of examples of the rise of UX in finance.

The rise of UX in the medical sector

The medical sector is also undergoing intense digitisation, driving a greater need for UX designers. The global consumer healthcare market is projected to reach $781.5 billion by 2030—and, most significantly for UX, the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) market is projected to reach $187.6 billion by 2028 (compared to $13.23 billion in 2020). There’s a rapidly growing demand for digital healthcare solutions—and for people who can design them and ensure they’re accessible and usable.

How can entry-level UX designers stand out and increase their chances of getting hired?

The UX job market is competitive—and, as we covered in part one of this report, there’s an abundance of entry-level hopefuls coming from UX bootcamps and courses.

So how can you cut through the noise and prove your value?

Career Advisor and Recruiting Specialist Eoghain Cooper offers 5 key pieces of advice that have proven crucial in helping his graduates land jobs:

1. Pay attention to the quality of your portfolio
2. Strategically leverage your previous experience
3. Showcase success metrics
4. Take a targeted approach to your job search
5. Optimise your resume for ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems)

Let’s explore each strategy in more detail.

1. Pay attention to the quality of your portfolio

Your UX design portfolio is your first real opportunity to show hiring managers what you’re capable of. Eoghain emphasises the importance of quality over quantity here: you don’t need loads of projects—one or two is enough to get your foot in the door, as long as they’re well thought-out and communicated.

And, while you’re often advised to showcase your design process, Eoghain explains that it’s much more impactful to showcase the results of your process.

“Often, when starting their portfolio, junior designers will explain what they did, step-by-step, without actually highlighting the impact of their work. However, hiring managers don’t necessarily need to see affinity diagrams—they need to see what key insights you took from them and how you utilised them.

For example, I would usually recommend that someone highlight their research strategy and explain why they’ve chosen particular methods and how that supports the project. I also want to see the key results that came from that, and how those were balanced against business considerations—not just the needs of the end user. From there, I want to see what decisions they made and the impact of those decisions. A hiring manager is going to be looking for results and impact.”

Learn more: What do hiring managers look for in a UX portfolio?

2. Strategically leverage your previous experience

You might be new to UX, but you’re not an entirely blank canvas. Every candidate brings their own unique experiences and perspectives to the field, no matter what background they’re coming from.

If you want to stand out from the crowd, you must strategically leverage your previous experience and highlight your transferable skills.

Eoghain explains:

Often, people don’t actually see their value or identify existing skills that will be useful for UX—or they don’t know how to frame it. For new UX designers, though, it’s essential to highlight your transferable skills.

“If you’ve got a background in psychology, for example, and have conducted clinical research, that’s a perfect opportunity to highlight your strong methodological research skills. Even seemingly unrelated areas have lots of crossovers. We’ve had a lot of people come from customer service backgrounds—in which case, I encourage them to emphasise their ability to empathise with end users, ask appropriate questions, and solve key customer problems.”

3. Showcase success metrics

Related to the topic of leveraging your previous experience, Eoghain also advises sharing success metrics from your previous role(s).

Even if you’re coming from another industry—say, marketing—it’s well worth showcasing tangible performance metrics or data that demonstrate your success in that role.

This shows that you’re capable of working to a particular standard. As Eoghain puts it: performance is transferable. If you can apply yourself and perform in one industry, you can just as well apply yourself and perform in a new industry like UX—and hiring managers will see the value in that.

4. Take a targeted approach to your job search

In terms of finding suitable jobs, Eoghain strongly advises taking a targeted approach.

Focus on specific companies within industries you’re interested in and research what the company is all about and the values they stand for. Then customise your application accordingly.

With a highly tailored application, you’re showing the hiring manager that you’re genuinely interested in their company. This indicates that you’re more likely to stick around long-term—so they know that their investment in you is time and money well spent.

5. Optimise your resume for ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) 

Finally, Eoghain notes that many companies are now using Applicant Tracking Systems to vet candidates and screen their applications. This is an automatic process, so the system will be looking for keywords and phrases that appear in the job description.

To increase your chances of getting through the ATS, identify key terms in the job description and incorporate them (naturally) into your resume. This approach will help you pass through the technology and get to have a conversation with a human!

Source: UX Design Institute

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