There are too many UX roles in London right now to have enough qualified people to fill them all. I’m not the first to say it, but if you’re wondering if the grass is greener elsewhere, then now is the time to get out there.
Agency vs. Client
Don’t be too hasty to pick a side.
Agencies are in a massive state of flux. Those who have been genuinely practising a good design methodology and have been led well by a solid executive team continue to flourish. They are easy to spot. They have the luxury of cherry-picking their projects. They might have some ‘famous’ employees: well known in design and development circles. They might not pay the best salaries, but will offer fame and experience over fortune: a platform for you to build your personal brand while actually having the portfolio to back it all up.
If that’s your thing.
And then there are the rest. Those who have shoehorned ‘digital’ into a tired offering. The service design-hawkers. The tired agile manifesto documentation-bashers. The craft-obsessed former industrial designers. Those with no project managers. Those who like to ‘just go straight into PhotoShop’. Those that never get to go to conferences because their utilisation rate is their only genuine KPI. Harder to spot, but easy to discover if you ask the right questions.
Client-side there are interesting problems to solve too, and also better growth opportunities for the more senior among you who don’t really fancy going freelance. Companies large and small are skilling up in-house: largely due to the fortunes they’ve been paying for agency user experience work of vastly differing quality. This is a market-wide opportunity not to be sniffed at.
Go big
Your value and experience will be judged immediately on what basic salary you’re after. Don’t be tempted by utilisation bonuses, signing-on bonuses, profit sharing schemes or any of that nonsense. Ask big, and ask it confidently.
UX salaries have increased hugely in the last two years, especially among the shady ‘Senior’ or ‘Lead’ UX levels. Remember that very few agencies have the need or scale to implement an intricate pay hierarchy. State what you think you’re worth and add another ten grand.
If you haven’t had an annual pay-rise from your current employer, then start looking. Right this minute.
Once you’ve made the decision to start looking, then these are the guiding principles I used recently. Yours might not be the same, but it’s worthwhile thinking about them before you start interviewing.
Don’t stop learning
We all have areas of our field we’re not particularly good at, that go against our natural skills and experience. Find a job that stretches that. Skill up. Work in a business you know nothing about but don’t lose focus on what you can offer that business. And try to keep a vaguely standardised recognisable job title.
Find interesting problems to solve
When interviewing at an agency, don’t be distracted by how nice the meeting room is, or which model of iPad your interviewers have, or how many Bromptons there are neatly lined up by reception. The only thing worth focusing on is who the clients are, and what the specific projects are too. If you don’t fancy the sound of them, then don’t be beguiled by the surroundings. Focus on the work. The more detailed you are around what daily activities you’d like to be doing straightaway as well as where you’d like to be in twelve months or so will only help both parties in the long run.
Don’t judge clients by their face value though. There are interesting design challenges in even the most boring of companies. It’s what they need agencies for, after all. There seems to be a huge increase of ‘marketing communications UX work’, if there is such a thing. Make sure you know what that entails before signing up.
Don’t be the best
Being the best UXer in the room, unless you’re a contractor, is not always beneficial. Sometimes it’s not an option though. Many are bemoaning the lack of genuine seniority in our craft, especially among those who have talked their way into seniority without the chops to back up the chat. There’s a ton to be learned from business analysts, commercial folk, product managers and all sorts of non-UX people you’ll come in to contact with.
Profitability wins
There are some highly profitable digital businesses, doing great work and rewarding their staff as a result. There are also plenty of others struggling to make ends meet, some of whom will be hiring UX people as a human bandage to legacy design decisions. There is no emotional justification for joining an unprofitable business, or one that is shrouded in uncertainty and confusing share structures. Stick with the simple company that makes money from doing good work.
Therefore do a bit of background homework on potential employers. With agencies, check the obvious such as current client lists and be forceful about asking for contract values. Do they fight tooth and nail for five figure projects, or are they firmly in the six figure, long engagement leagues? With in-house roles, a quick glance at Companies House never harmed anyone.
And do a Google News search on them.
In summary, the best advice I can give right now is:
- Make sure your portfolio is exemplary; you should be able to score an interview almost anywhere if it is. Check out Jason’s Better UX Portfolios site for more help on this.
- Despite you, the candidate, having more bargaining power than ever before, don’t be a dick about it.
- Take your time and interview generously. Don’t take the first offer that comes your way. Try not to be in a rush to find a new permanent role.
- Be sensitive to little details that will make your future working life better. Environment and gear in particular are things that bother me if they’re not right.
- Make sure your new creative leader / boss / line manager is brilliant and inspirational. Much of this will come over in how they choose to interview you. Some will be happy enough with a coffee and a chat, others will insist on the four hour half-day bootcamp approach. Therefore, pick your battles and value your own time. Turn down half-day interviews if you want. Large organisations don’t need you there for that long to make a decision if they have a great person looking after recruitment.
- Try to get a good feel for the size and strength of the visual design and development teams. With the latter, I’ve become quite opinionated about which technologies afford me, the designer, the greatest flexibility. I’ll know whether we’ll get along based on those answers.
- Strategic offers are brilliant. If the biggest, baddest agency in town wants to hire you, pursue that offer, even if you have no intention of working there. It’s good collateral.
- Be wary of recruiters. Ask for recommendations from recently hired peers. Choose one agency if you must. No more.
Good luck out there.
I was looking forward to hearing about this from you, Simon. Thanks for writing it up.
Could you say a little more about what you mean by “strategic offers”, please? I might just be being thick, but I’m not 100% what that refers to!
Hey Francis,
So I would class a strategic offer as a bargaining chip.
Let’s say Agency X, who are big and well known for paying good salaries have made you an offer, but you’re not overly keen to work for them. When you approach Agency Y, who you’re super-keen on, you can let them know you’re in demand by saying you have that offer, which might help them when it comes to talking numbers and benefits.
In a polite and groovy way of course.
Nice article, it really feels like a jungle out there sometimes, a bit of a Wild West where many are talking the talk but only some are able to deliver the goods. There are some fantastically talented people out there too.
The market may settle down eventually, but those of us lucky enough to be a part of it now should enjoy it while it lasts and continue to strive to deliver the best digital experiences, the most beautiful deliverables and the most passionate & persuasive arguments for the user’s needs during our teamwork.
If we do, then we’re worth the money!
Very interesting take, particularly your last point: I don’t think many recruiters at all understand half of what UX is about. This is painfully obvious from some of the awful job descriptions out there.
I think anyone who doesn’t look at user experience resumes/folios themselves is not going to get the best person for the role: it’s so much more than just what’s on your CV.
Indeed, there are tons of UX practitioner roles out there right now. Unfortunately they mostly seem to top out at the £35K / £325pd mark, thus tacitly (if not explicitly) rewarding no more than 3-5 years experience.
Annoyingly, the more senior roles are essentially management (‘UX Director’) leaving the niche for senior practitioners (especially freelance ones) much smaller, if it really exists at all. I wonder if there’s a glass ceiling of marketability after a few years in the UX game…
Nice article, Simon.
@mike
I think demand and economics have pushed those numbers up a bit.
Regarding the glass ceiling, I think that’s a whole other discussion. I’ve been having a few discussions with other folks about where you go if you just want to practition and I think more and more of us are starting to see where that ceiling is.
@James
I agree, but we’re selling ourselves short right now with our CVs and portfolios.
Love the article as expected. However, I can’t help but feel you are perpetuating the ridiculous money-grabbing trend that is making it harder and harder for organisations to grow and sustain the teams they need.
We are pricing ourselves to a point that there is very little margin for profit, and so we will get more and more scrutinized for the real value we bring.
A friend of mine, recently, was talking about how his organisation makes so little from the Interaction Designers in the org, vs. the Industrial Designers. They need both, but the Industrial Designers are noticeably better value for money.
On the flip side, a lot of what you are saying is savvy interviewing and negotiation strategies. Stuff that a few of us could do that bit better.
@mike
There are certainly jobs that are more senior and practitioner challenging than going to UX Director or Head of UX. They will pay more than what you are presenting there for your level of experience. I know, because I have them and I fight other orgs to get people for candidates.
Can’t deny that, but a savvy interviewer such as yourself can always spot a chancer who is asking for too much.
This post is more aimed at the senior designers who are a bit stuck where they are right now and need a shot of confidence.
@Mike – the vast majority of UX roles in London fall under the ‘senior’ practitioner category and pay between £50k and £70k on average. Rarely do I ever see a UX role paying less than £35k as the market demends experience at the moment.
Portfolios are really key, please (whichever candidate is reading this) spend some time on this. When I first started recruiting in UX 5 years ago, some good names on a CV guarenteed an interview. Now it’s a case of ‘Nice CV, where’s the portfolio to match’? This is simply down to the number of candidates now with good CVs in the market and the experience of interviewers knowing that a CV is only part of the jigsaw.
@ Simon, why add 10k to what you feel you’re worth? Market affects aside, don’t you risk being rejected as too expensive? Then if you go back and say ‘It’s ok, I can accept 10k less’, you or the recruiter representing you looks a bit of a fool
@Sean I’m being slightly facetious with the £10k figure, but just trying to make a point. Many seasoned designers are under-selling themselves, especially those with product strategy experience.
I also think the sensitive nature of the UXer means we’re a bit crap at asking for money.
Hi, first off thanks for the great article. I would love to get your thoughts on the best way of breaking into the UX industry. For my age I feel I have some pretty good experience, but I’m struggling to find many opportunities being advertised.
Am I best just contacting companies I aspire to and asking?
Thanks
Jack
Or a more realistic approach on the 10k thing, that’s standard for any form of bargaining. If you name your final price then that’s the point that they’ll start negotiating downards from.
Ideally you don’t want to mention a day rate or salary at all, the the side that first mentions a figure is immediately on the back foot as they have given away their position with no idea at all of what the other side is willing or able to meet.
If you go in there asking for X, and they were actually willing to pay X+Y, then you’ve sold yourself short.
Instead, ask what they intend to pay, and don’t be drawn into showing your hand. That way there are four possible outcomes:
1. they offer higher than you would have accepted, and you win
2. they offer less than you would have accepted, you say it’s not enough, they raise to high enough for you, and you win.
3. they offer less than you would have accepted, you say it’s not enough, they won’t pay any more, you turn down the offer and walk away without being ripped off, and you win.
4. they offer less than you would have accepted, you say it’s not enough, they won’t pay any more, but you accept anyway because you really want the job.. ideally with some more negotiations, eg. “if you can’t pay me enough is there anything else you can offer me instead of salary? eg. flexible working? extra holiday?”. you get the job that you want, and you win.
The one thing that definitely won’t happen is that you accidentally end up on less than you could be, which is all too common.
RE the salary negotiation techniques – there are all sorts of angles and approaches that could be used. It’s better if you use just one which is the most ethical and straightforward – decide on a figure you need/want, and stick to it.
The client will know how much you’re looking for when you apply and if they offer less than what you’ve said you’re seeking (assuming it’s a realistic figure) – then it speaks volumes about the company.
I’ve actually had situations where a company has offered more than what the candidate is looking for.
If you add more than what you need/want, you’re going to have to work extra hard to justify that during interview (if you even get called for interview because you may be perceived as over-budget). Of course, don’t undersell yourself either. For every two people I come across looking for a salary above market rates, there’s be someone asking for too little.
Recruiters see salaries from all companies, and without mentioning specific firms, they can give you advice. This is only if they know the UX market intimately though, so select your recruiters well.