Luiza Sequeira is a student at Bootcamp MID and got her first opportunity in UX Design to work in a consultancy.

She talks about her migration process, the differences she felt between Graphic Design and UX Design, and how she treated her career transition with humility and transparency in a job interview.

Check out Luiza's story and get inspired!

Luiza, to begin with, tell us a little about yourself

First of all, I would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this interview. When I was migrating to UX Design, I watched a lot of videos with the students and it's really cool now to be on the other side.

I have a degree in Graphic Design, but I have worked practically my entire career with industrial design. That way, I worked with physical product development for 10 years.

I had already achieved people management responsibilities and, in fact, that was one of the factors that opened up some opportunities for me to decide to change my career.

Why, then, did you decide to migrate to UX Design?

Reflecting, I see that there is no specific reason that aroused my interest in UX Design, but they were several small factors.

I think I'm going to pull up my history a bit to be able to answer that question.

My first internship was at Tilibra, in a stationery business. I designed notebook covers and I really enjoyed this production and product development job. At the same time, I was always a very communicative person who enjoyed working as a team.

However, the Graphic Designer job is a bit solitary, sometimes. We were left to put on the phone, do the work, and leave. And that frustrated me a bit, but over time I started to get used to that routine.

Later in my career, I I had the opportunity to work closer to people and teams, communicating and providing for this side of teamwork.

I ended up having very good and recognized results with my team management responsibilities and I was wondering how I could bring these two parts together: teams with design.

There came a time when I stopped to think about what would be the next step to be taken in my career. I sat down and wrote down everything I liked to do. At that time, I already knew that I liked the part of strategy, business vision, but at the same time I also liked to illustrate.

When I was in this indecision about what to do, a friend of mine — Laís — who was already an MID student at the time, talked to me about the focus she was giving to UX Design studies and that maybe this area would be interesting to me.

She ended up referring me to MID and the various contents of Aela.

When I started to see the videos, interviews, and material about UX Design, I began to see a possibility in this area.

Until then, I had a very mistaken view about UX. I believed that everything was just about beautiful canvases, Illustrator, and Photoshop, so I never thought I would be interested in the area. But as I got to know better, I realized that UX has nothing to do with it and that it is something much deeper!

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What are the similarities and differences between the world of the physical product and the world of the digital product?

One thing that was very difficult to learn were the Jargon in UX Design!

There are many similar processes and methodologies in physical products and in digital products, but which have completely different nomenclatures! I even used to play with people, saying “I know what you're talking about, but I learned that with street language!”

Speaking more specifically about processes, in industrial design we used digital methodologies, but there was not as much control or profound knowledge about them. In this sense, many processes ended up failing because there was no such improved understanding.

Regarding research, strategies, and user understanding, I didn't have major problems. The conversations I had helped me a lot and I adapted quickly. The single most difficult subject for me was architecture, because I wasn't as knowledgeable about the subject.

There are several similarities between graphic design and UX Design, but graphic design has several addictions that we should avoid taking to digital. Especially when it comes to aesthetics, there is an exaggerated concern in Graphic Design, without thinking about the functionalities and the system as a whole. That was an addiction that I had to learn to let go of.

How was your UX Design study process?

From the moment I decided to study UX Design and change careers, I already started to save money because I knew that at some point I would have to dedicate myself solely to studies.

But in the meantime I didn't stand still. I enrolled in the MID and started studying the first modules in parallel with the work. In addition, I consumed other content such as videos, articles and books, and I bought and read a lot Books about UX Design!

I stayed in this routine, dividing my attention between work and study, for 10 months.

Until it was time for me to quit work to dedicate myself fully to my studies.

I spent about 3 months just studying and ended up applying and getting a position in UX Design! It was really good swift!

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How was the selection process for this vacancy?

It started with an interview and they asked me about my background, the experiences I've had, in short, to learn more about myself.

After that first part, I took a test — Design Challenge. In that test, I felt that the MID learnings were crucial to my success.

I not only placed the final screens of the project, but I put together an entire case with my reasoning and the process that led me to the result. In fact, the final prototype didn't even look so good, because I wasn't as skilled with Figma. But I made a point of Assemble all my thoughts and leave this process well structured.

In the end, they really liked my test and about two days later, I received a proposal!

A very interesting point to comment on is that throughout the process I made it very clear which one was mine. Professional moment.

I shared that I was migrating my career and that I was starting my knowledge in UX Design. That's why I didn't have much technical ability, but because I was starting out, I I really wanted to learn and I was open to absorbing everything that was taught to me.

It was really cool to have that humility and transparency during the interview, because you show the company where you are in the journey and make yourself available to learn and count on the help of the company to consolidate itself in the area.

I believe that my attitude greatly contributed to my obtaining a vacancy in this company. And I truly advise everyone to allow themselves to be humble and show that vulnerability of starting their career.

What is it like to work with UX Design in this company?

The company where I work today is a consultancy and I viewed this opportunity, from the beginning, as a second bootcamp, where I learn a lot and with a lot of speed.

As is normal in consultancies, I end up participating in several projects and this helps me to build baggage and gain experience.

But at first I was scared! Because we end up thinking that we won't have time to do the activities. The deadlines are different from when you're a designer within a company.

However, participating in various projects has been quite cool. There are some projects that are more challenging and others that are simpler. So all of this poise ends up making everything more interesting and cool!

I am really enjoying working in consulting because each project requires focus on a certain part of the process. And I feel challenged by that!

There are projects where I need to focus more on research, others on UI, others on mobile. This variety has provided me with a lot learning at a very interesting speed.

In addition, it is important for me to understand which part of the process I identify myself the most, whether with the discovery part, or with the UI part, for example. Consulting allows me to test my tastes and desires in a better way.

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What would you say to Luiza from the past?

I think I would tell her to have patience. Give time to time.

There are very dense things that we will not be able to master 100%. We can get to a comfortable spot on a topic, but there will always be something new if we want to go deeper.

I think we should keep a beginner mentality, and always be willing to learn. Because things change so fast and there's always something new for us to discover. So we need to have this humility to understand that we will never know everything.

Also, I would tell her that everything is a matter of process and that Starting something new doesn't mean giving up or abandoning what you've already done.

When I decided to migrate my career, I didn't unlearn my background. It was all a matter of choosing new paths to follow. That's why I believe that being calm is very important.

In that sense, books have always been of great help to me. They always reminded me that UX Design wasn't Web Design, nor was it beautiful screens. Remembering this, I felt at ease about the path I had chosen.

If you had to choose one book, what would it be?

I really liked a book that talks about service design called Good Services.

That book opened my mind!

Another cool book is a call This Human. This book talks about how we should be as designers. It's as if it were a self-analysis about UX Design and it brings a Interesting position about the profession. It's pretty cool.

Do you have any additional tips for those who want to migrate to UX Design?

One tip I give is to get in touch with those who are already in the market. Talk, exchange ideas, experiences. That's very important.

Another tip, as I mentioned that happened in my interview, show humility. Understand and show which are your gaps that you need to fill.

Take advantage of the material that is available, talk, listen and think positively because at some point things work out. Study hard and be dedicated!

Reading Tip: 11 Fears That Prevent You from Migrating to UX Design