Table of Contents
- Career transition: From marketing to UX design
- 5 brutal realizations during career transition
- 1. I didn’t know my strengths & weaknesses
- The mistake
- The reality
- The fix
- 2. I didn’t have clarity on my direction
- The mistake
- The reality
- The fix
- 3. I didn’t have a plan to grow in my career
- The mistake
- The reality
- The fix
- 4. I didn’t know how to network
- The mistake
- The reality
- The fix
- 5. I didn’t know how to increase my confidence
- The mistake
- The reality
- The fix
- The compound effect: Why every mistake was worth it
- Your action plan: The next 30 days
- My final message for you
Do not index
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Read time: under 10 minutes
Career transition: From marketing to UX design
I made the leap from marketing to UX design 10 years ago, and let me tell you, it was messier than I thought.
The career switch cost me roughly $50K in lost income, countless sleepless nights, and a lot of impostor syndrome. But here's the thing: every brutal lesson was worth it.
Today, I'm going to share the five biggest realizations I made during my career transition, the things I wish someone had told me earlier.
If you’re ready, let’s go!
👉 5 Tough Questions to Ask Before Switching Careers to UX Design
5 brutal realizations during career transition
1. I didn’t know my strengths & weaknesses
The mistake
I approached my career switch like a bull in a china shop. I thought, "I'm good at marketing, so I'll probably be good at UX too."
Wrong.
Marketing taught me to manipulate user behavior. UX taught me to understand it. These are fundamentally different skills, and I spent months trying to force my marketing brain into a UX-shaped hole.
The reality
Three months into my UX journey, I bombed a portfolio review so badly that the interviewer actually asked if I was in the right room. My "UX" case study was basically a marketing campaign disguised as user research.
That's when I realized I needed to do some serious soul-searching.
The fix
I spent two weeks doing what I call the "Career reality audit." Here's the exact process:
Self-assessment framework:
- What tasks make you lose track of time?
- What parts of your current job drain your soul?
- What skills do colleagues constantly ask you about?
- What work feels effortless to you but difficult for others?
The feedback loop:
I reached out to 10 people who knew my work (colleagues, managers, even clients) and asked them three questions:
- What am I naturally good at?
- What should I stop doing?
- If you were hiring me, what role would you create?
Skills gap analysis:
I analyzed 20 UX job postings and created a spreadsheet comparing required skills vs. my current abilities. The gaps were... humbling.
Pro tip for you:
Create a "Skills inventory spreadsheet" with three columns:
- Green (strong): Skills you can teach others
- Yellow (developing): Skills you can execute but need improvement
- Red (learning): Skills you need to acquire
Update this monthly. It's like a fitness tracker for your career.
[Skills assessment matrix showing green, yellow, and red categories for different UX skills like user research, prototyping, and visual design]
2. I didn’t have clarity on my direction
The mistake
UX is like a buffet at a fancy hotel, everything looks good, so you pile your plate high with everything and end up with a mess.
I wanted to be a UX researcher AND a visual designer AND a UX writer AND maybe do some service design on the side. I was basically trying to be the Swiss Army knife of UX.
Result? I was mediocre at everything and excellent at nothing.
The reality
Six months in, my portfolio looked like it was designed by committee. I had research projects that went nowhere, visual designs that looked like they were made in Microsoft Paint, and case studies that read like academic papers.
A mentor looked at my work and said, "I have no idea what you actually do."
Ouch.
The fix
I implemented what I call the "Focus funnel":
Step 1: Define your north star
Instead of "I want to be a UX designer"
I got specific: "I want to be a UX researcher who specializes in early-stage product discovery for B2B SaaS companies."
Step 2: Time-box your goals
- 3-month goal: Learn UX fundamentals
- 6-month goal: Launch portfolio with 3 solid case studies
- 12-month goal: Land first UX role at a tech company
Step 3: Monthly reviews
Every month, I asked myself: "Did this month move me closer to my North star?"
If the answer was no, I changed course.
Pro tip for you:
Use the "One thing" rule: Pick ONE UX discipline to focus on for the next 6 months. Master it. Then expand.
Don't try to boil the ocean. Pick one part of the ocean and boil the hell out of it.
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3. I didn’t have a plan to grow in my career
The mistake
My career plan was essentially:
- Get job
- ???
- Profit
This is like planning a road trip by saying, "I'll drive west and see what happens."
The reality
After 8 months of "learning UX," I realized I had no real experience to show for it. I had certificates, but no actual projects. I had theoretical knowledge, but no practical skills.
I was like someone who studied cooking by reading recipes but never touched a stove.
The fix
I created what I call the "Experience acquisition system":
Portfolio projects (The foundation)
I redesigned three apps I actually used:
- A fitness app that frustrated me daily
- A local restaurant's terrible ordering system
- My bank's mobile app (with their permission)
Freelance projects (the practice)
I offered free UX audits to local businesses. Yes, free. But here's the thing, these became my first real case studies.
Strategic learning (the accelerator)
Instead of random online courses, I learned exactly what companies in my target market needed:
- Interviewed 5 UX hiring managers about their biggest challenges
- Analyzed job postings to identify skill gaps
- Focused 80% of my learning time on those specific skills
Pro tip for you:
Create a "Learning ROI calculator":
- Time invested in learning
- Practical application within 48 hours
- Measurable outcome or portfolio piece
If you can't check all three boxes, you're probably learning the wrong thing.
4. I didn’t know how to network
The mistake
My networking strategy was basically sliding into LinkedIn DMs like: "Hi, I'm switching to UX. Can we chat?"
Translation: "Hi stranger, can you do unpaid work to help my career?"
Surprisingly, this didn't work well.
The reality
After sending 50+ cold messages with a 2% response rate, I realized I was approaching networking like a used car salesman, all about what I could get, not what I could give.
The fix
I flipped the script and started with the "Give first" approach:
Value-first outreach
Instead of asking for help, I started offering it:
- Shared relevant articles with personalized insights
- Offered to user-test their company's products for free
- Connected them with other professionals in my network
Authentic storytelling
I stopped pretending to be a UX expert and started being honest about my journey:
- "I'm making the switch from marketing and learning a ton"
- "Here's a mistake I made that might help others avoid"
- "I'm documenting my transition and would love your perspective"
Listen-heavy conversations
I made every networking conversation 80% about them, 20% about me. People love talking about their work, and I just had to ask better questions.
Pro tip for you:
Use the "5-3-1 rule" for networking:
- Give value to 5 people
- Have meaningful conversations with 3 people
- Ask for help from 1 person
The math works. Trust the process.
Example outreach message:
"Hi [Name], I saw your recent post about [specific topic]. Your point about [specific insight] really resonated with my experience transitioning from marketing to UX.
I've been documenting lessons learned that might be useful for others making similar switches.
Would you be interested in a 15-minute chat about your journey? I'd love to share what I'm learning and get your perspective on [specific question related to their expertise]."
👉 The Ultimate Guide to Networking for UX Designers:
5. I didn’t know how to increase my confidence
The mistake
I thought confidence would magically appear once I had the "right" skills or the "perfect" portfolio. And It doesn't work that way.
I was stuck in the confidence catch-22: I needed confidence to get experience, but I needed experience to get confidence 🤡
The reality
Eight months into my transition, I still felt like a fraud. I'd second-guess every design decision, apologize for my ideas before presenting them, and constantly compare my beginner work to experts with 10+ years of experience.
I was basically a confidence vampire, sucking the energy out of every room I entered.
The fix
I developed what I call the "Confidence compound system":
The wins journal
Every Friday, I documented three wins from the week:
- Successfully completed a user interview
- Learned a new Figma feature
These small victories added up faster than I expected.
The failure reframe
Instead of hiding mistakes, I started celebrating them as data points:
- "I learned that my initial hypothesis was wrong"
- "This usability test revealed three critical issues I can fix"
- "This rejection gave me specific feedback to improve"
The repetition engine
Confidence comes from competence, and competence comes from repetition. I created a daily practice:
- 30 minutes of Figma every morning
- One user interview per week
- Weekly design challenges from the UX community
Pro tip for you:
Start a "Done list" alongside your to-do list. Write down everything you accomplish, no matter how small. You'll be shocked at how much you actually get done.
Real example from my wins journal:
Week 12: Successfully conducted my first unmoderated user test, learned that my navigation was confusing (but now I know how to fix it), and got a LinkedIn message from someone who found my career transition posts helpful.
👉 The Art of Selling Yourself
The compound effect: Why every mistake was worth it
Here's the thing about career switches: they're not linear.
You don't go from Point A to Point B in a straight line. You go from Point A to Point Q to Point F to Point Z and eventually land somewhere better than Point B.
The five brutal lessons I learned didn't just help me switch careers, they made me better at everything:
- Self-awareness makes me a better designer because I know my biases
- Clear direction helps me prioritize ruthlessly
- Strategic planning ensures I'm always learning the right skills
- Authentic networking has opened doors I didn't even know existed
- Genuine confidence makes me a better collaborator and leader
If you're considering a career switch to UX, my advice is simple: Do it. But do it smart.
Don't be like me and learn everything the hard way. Use the framework I've shared, avoid the mistakes I made, and compress your learning timeline.
👉 How To Switch Careers To UX Design (2025)
Your action plan: The next 30 days
If you're serious about switching to UX, here's your homework for the next month:
Week 1: Self-assessment
- Complete the Career reality audit
- Create your skills inventory spreadsheet
- Ask 3 people for honest feedback about your strengths
Week 2: Direction setting
- Define your specific UX north star
- Set 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month goals
- Research 5 companies you'd love to work for
Week 3: Experience building
- Start one portfolio project (something you actually use)
- Join 2 UX communities (online or local)
- Begin documenting your learning journey
Week 4: Network building
- Reach out to 5 UX professionals using value-first approach
- Share one piece of content about your journey
- Find one way to help someone in the UX community
My final message for you
Career switching isn't just about changing jobs, it's about changing your entire relationship with work. The five lessons I learned the hard way don't just apply to UX. They apply to any major life transition where you're betting on yourself.
Yes, it's scary. Yes, it's expensive. Yes, there will be moments when you question everything.
But here's what I wish someone had told me ten years ago: The cost of staying in the wrong career is always higher than the cost of switching to the right one.
The question isn't whether you can afford to make the switch. The question is whether you can afford not to.
Your future self is waiting. Don't keep them waiting too long.
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