Switching careers can be a daunting experience when you lack training and work experience, but Kile Johnson, a UX designer at Greenphire in King of Prussia, tells new UX designers not to get discouraged by rejection.

He shared with Sarah Huffman at Technical.ly how he switched from a career in environmental health and safety to one in design.

Johnson always had a passion for graphic design. When he initially enrolled at Rowan College of South Jersey, he majored in graphic design, but then switched it to biomedical science.

After graduating, he got hired as an environmental health and safety specialist at an electrical product manufacturing company, but while he was good at his job, it left him feeling unfulfilled.

His favorite part of his job was creating signs and training modules for his company.                    

“I thoroughly enjoyed that process the most, despite it not being one of my bigger responsibilities,” Johnson said.

“One day, I said to myself, ‘I should get back into design if I like designing simple signs and training modules so much,’”

It was not such a big jump since he was already doing UX design as a hobby. Not wanting to go back to school, he researched bootcamps that could teach him design skills and help him find a job.

He ended up taking a month-long Google Career Certificate Program in November 2021 and then started applying for jobs. To gain more experience, he did an internship for seven months and then three months later he got hired by Greenphire, a clinical trial payment solutions company.

It took a full year to make the career pivot. And he said the most challenging part was going through the job search process.

He said the constant rejection in the beginning can be hard on your mental health, but that UX design is a competitive field, and you just have to believe in yourself and not give up.

Read more about Kile Johnson at Technical.ly.

________________

Tips for finding your first design job.