The $200 self taught UX/UI beginner pack that led me to a full time role
Big thanks to student discounts and free trials
The beginning of my UX/UI journey is probably similar to a lot of people being that it started on Youtube. I watched numerous Day in the Life of a UX/UI Designer, How to start a project with Sketch/Figma, and the inevitable rabbit hole — Bootcamps vs Self-Taught UX/UI design paths. I weighed my options and recognized I was in college working on my business degree but approaching winter break. I thought, “Why not start learning UX/UI as a curiosity and see where it takes me.”.
Through soaking up all this knowledge and following tutorials, I was so energized in actually having so much say in what I wanted to learn and being able to pull up the answer to any question I had about design online or through networking.
So…what did the $220 break down to? 💰
- $ 75 | Interaction Design Foundation (Beginner’s Guide to Interaction Design. 50% off subscription bc student discount)
- $75 | Squarespace (Portfolio host. 50% off subscription bc student discount)
- $ 50 | LinkedIn Premium (50% off promotion and 1 full priced subscription)
- $20 | Udemy (Specialized courses. Bought during promotions)
What was free 🤩 :
- Figma
- Sketch for 1 month
- Youtube
- Networking
- Relying on 3 quality mentors for career guidance and confidence boosts ✨
Yup, in terms of what I actually paid for this was it. Between Dec 2019 to Oct 2020, I had all of this in my back pocket before I landed my first paid product design internship.
Reflecting on the actual cost of my design curriculum humbles me and makes me more proud to be working in such an accessible career field. I didn’t have that impression of tech at first. I thought I had to have tech roots or be a sort of cookie cutter applicant to enter. But as I have met more designers, I hear all sorts of backgrounds and they share their college degrees as if it was a summer camp experience they had.
With that being said, I do want to share this tweet.
Although there are people who have access to tech/STEM insights at an early age, whether it be from a family/relative or fortunate school system, the narrative is changing. People from different backgrounds are able to access information and apply themselves to it with the click of a button. And as a first-gen graduate I took advantage of all the resources I could find… and quickly noticed how outdated the college education system is.
What continues to enrich the tech community is having more Youtube videos of diverse designers sharing their experiences, transparent articles on Medium, and budget friendly course material. All of which already exists!
So, if you are out there wanting to try something new. Download Figma and follow a course just for the heck of it. Oh look its almost holiday break too 😉
