[Music] You're not good enough. Your dreams are too big. You need a degree.
You don't deserve any of this. I don't even know why you're here. You're used to any of this.
Hey, I'm Rachel. I'm a senior product designer working in Malaysia. And this is how I got started in UIUX design.
In high school, I always thought I had my life planned out. I studied really hard to secure a scholarship, but I failed to do so. I even took a part-time law degree while working to fund my college fees, but I dropped out eventually because it just wasn't my jam.
I self-studied a diploma in accounting because I thought I needed a s to prove my worth. So I decided to not pursue a degree as I didn't know what I wanted to do. Since 2013 I worked in different roles.
A call center for hotels, a sales promoter for body lotion, a direct sales agent, a real estate agent, an account executive in an ad agency and a digital marketing manager. These jobs have shaped my personality. They have built my soft skills.
They have trained my resilience. And without them, I wouldn't be who I am today. But these jobs have one thing in common.
It's just something that I do not enjoy. I hate waking up to. And I just feel like it's not me.
And then I wonder, is this how my life is going to turn out to be? Am I going to wake up to a job I hate for the rest of my life? So, I began searching for what I'm passionate about by paying attention to the things that I enjoy the most.
And I realized no matter what job I'm in, I get caught up in the visual design process. It was something I see myself doing every day. So, I thought to myself, that's it.
That's the one. I don't know how I'm going to get there, but I'm going to try. I've been told that my lack of qualification will not get me anywhere.
And someone even told me that you know you should be happy that you even have a job at our company. On 4th of March 2019 I quit my job as a digital marketing manager. And I told myself that I will prove these people wrong.
And that's how my self-arning journey began. So I gave myself a 3 month deadline to have a job because I couldn't afford to have no income. And that's how I get started.
I started learning UX with the free resources available online. and Google is my best friend. I also learned how to code on the site with free code camp because I feel like learning coding will help me become a better designer and that I also have a passion for coding.
My learning process was messy. I learned Adobe XD and started playing with the tool. I needed something to showcase in my portfolio and I took a Google interview question and turned it into a case study.
So I wrote a case study in the form of a medium article and at the same time I started preparing my CV. I read up a lot of job descriptions online to make sure that I am well prepared for the job. I was well aware that my lack of qualification will put me in a tough spot because competition is really high and I'm very aware that I need to prove myself that I am able to take on a designer role even though I have no experience and no degree.
So, I did whatever I can with the free resources online to brush up my skills. I studied day and night on design and code. During the 3-month period, I stumbled upon a hackathon.
I offered design help and front-end code help. Despite having zero idea how am I going to do that to be honest, I was really grateful because we got top 10 in the hackathon team. I got offered an interview with the bank shortly after.
I had a few job interviews, but I failed all of it because they wanted someone who could do both graphic design and UX design. And one of the recruiters told me that I am too ambitious. That's why they don't want to hire me.
I applied to a few startups in Malaysia that I see myself working with who has great culture and a mature design team. And then something wonderful happened. Faith called me up and offered me an interview.
Knowing that my chances are really slim, I told my boyfriend that how about I just give up on this opportunity, don't continue with it and just go with the offer that the bank has given me. But I'm glad I listened to him and I went for the interview straight away. So this is how my assignment looked like.
Before the interview, I practiced my presentation in front of my computer at least five times to make sure that I nailed the interview. To my surprise, I got the job and here I am. I'm sharing my story with all of you because I wanted to remind you one thing.
You have everything you need to start. And you will never feel like you're ready anyway, so you might as well just start. People will doubt you, but don't you doubt yourself.
Oh, and by the way, if you haven't subscribed, here you go. Bye.
