This podcast focuses on igniting a career in UI/UX design, highlighting the abundant job opportunities, attractive salaries, and the skills needed to succeed in this field. Michael Bernzweig discusses the importance of building a strong portfolio, the potential for career growth, and the various educational paths available, including non-traditional learning options. He emphasizes the accessibility of UI/UX careers for individuals from diverse backgrounds and the flexibility of remote work in this industry.
This podcast focuses on igniting a career in UI/UX design, highlighting the abundant job opportunities, attractive salaries, and the skills needed to succeed in this field. Michael Bernzweig discusses the importance of building a strong portfolio, the potential for career growth, and the various educational paths available, including non-traditional learning options. He emphasizes the accessibility of UI/UX careers for individuals from diverse backgrounds and the flexibility of remote work in this industry.
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Michael Bernzweig (00:00.11)
Are you ready to transform your career and break into the tech industry, even without traditional experience or degrees? Looking for an affordable, practical path to launch your professional journey?
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Welcome to Career Spotlight, your weekly guide to career transformation and success. Your host is Michael Bernzweig, who in 1998 launched Software Oasis as one of the first platforms enabling businesses to download, license, and deploy software instantly across their networks with a single click. Today, Software Oasis has evolved into one of the leading communities helping career changers and ambitious professionals launch successful careers in tech.
Each week, Michael sits down with industry experts, successful career changers, and hiring managers to bring you real-world insights and practical strategies. From entry-level tech positions to business roles, Career Spotlight delivers actionable advice and insider knowledge to help you navigate your career transition successfully.
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OK, I'd like to welcome everyone to today's webinar. This is a topic I'm quite passionate about as I actually manage the team that coordinates all of the UI UX here at Software Oasis. And so it's definitely a topic and subject near and dear to my heart. Today's webinar is on igniting your UI UX design career.
for anyone that is excited to break into the field or just looking to learn a little bit more or shake things up in your career. So what we'll cover in today's webinar are some of the opportunities. know everyone listens to the news and you hear all the doom and gloom about jobs, but this is one area of the job market where there are actually
more jobs available than people to fill them. So right now, and we'll cover some of the stats and things like that in the webinar itself, but I want to cover really the opportunity, the salaries, the career path, and some of the details that you need to know if you're looking to explore a career in UIUX.
With that, let's get started. want to keep everybody on time. I know everybody is setting a half hour aside today for this webinar. So welcome to everyone that's on the call. So one of the exciting things about UIUX, whether you're here in the US, we're located just outside of Boston, or from anywhere around the world, it is something that you can do remotely.
great things, as I had mentioned at the top of the webinar, is that there's actually a surplus of jobs in the UI UX design area. There are actually 15,000 more job openings than applicants. So based on that, there's actually a very attractive starting career salary of around $70,000 US. One of the things I'll point out
Michael Bernzweig (02:23.49)
is that UI, UX is really something that is a skill that you can acquire. It's not something where you have to have prior experience or even be in the tech field. So it's a perfect career for anybody that's either just getting started or for someone that may be doing something completely different. Maybe you've just
graduated from high school, you're not at a point where you want to either plunk down the money or the time or the effort to go to college, or maybe you're working in some other field. Maybe you're driving Uber, working in a warehouse, you simply want a career change, or maybe you're at a higher level in another existing position and you really want to transform your career.
What we're going to cover today is some of the ways in which you can get from where you are to where you want to be in a very short amount of time, literally 12 to 18 weeks. So I'm going to cover all of that today in the webinar and we'll kind of take it from there. And I can tell you from my own experience, having worked on user interfaces and
and the user experience with our team here at Software Oasis over the years, very small tweaks and adjustments and things like that to an interface can make huge impacts for an organization and to the experience of customers that are actually interfacing with an organization. So it's a really amazing area to be involved in and based on a lot of the
opportunity. It's something where you can genuinely start at a very attractive starting salary and within just a few years be well over $100,000 a year in income. So it can be a really life-changing opportunity and transformation for a lot of individuals and the industries
Michael Bernzweig (04:46.368)
that require UI, UX to design are expansive. I mean, it's every organization. can't recall any organizations that don't have a website anymore in the year 2025. So at this point, from local businesses, SMBs, all the way through to mid-market and enterprise and even global enterprise businesses
need for UI UX design. really, if you get all of the details in place in terms of a skills, skillset and portfolio, which we'll cover in the following parts of this presentation, the opportunity for non-traditional candidates to land decent jobs is very real. So we're going to cover that. And it's not.
like in years past and I'm gonna cover a lot of details here. I'm not gonna read the slides. I just wanna make it interesting for everybody. You can obviously read the bullet points, but what's really amazing with a career in UI, UX and all of that, it's really a career path that anyone can get into.
and change the trajectory of your life, yourself, your loved ones, your family, very, very quickly. And it's not the type of thing where some of the options that we're going to talk about, it's not the type of thing where in order to make this kind of transition, you really need to jump off a cliff. You can really do this nights, weekends, evenings, spare time to have a smooth transition.
and get up and running fairly quickly. So we'll talk about some of those paths. And all of this without accumulating all kinds of debt for boot camps or college tuition or the like. So that's a big part of all of this. during the webinar, anybody that has questions, just pop them into the chat. We'll do our best to get to.
Michael Bernzweig (07:08.382)
all of them and on this next slide, I want to cover some of the skills that are essential for UI UX to make it it possible.
Michael Bernzweig (07:26.316)
All right, so let's take a look at this next slide here.
Michael Bernzweig (07:35.734)
All right, so I want to talk about some of the actionable steps that are important to get yourself up and running with a career. So the first thing, some of the specialty sites like Behance, more general sites like LinkedIn, you need to get your profile set up and optimized so that employers can actually find you when they're looking for candidates.
And you want to start out initially by practicing with some of the industry standard tools, which have free versions that you can actually start with, including Figma, Adobe XD. There are quite a few industry standard tools that you can start out with for free that will give you the opportunity to explore.
to see if some of the tools that you'll be using day to day jive with your understanding and technical knowledge and feel like the types of tools that you wanna spend your time with. So that's one detail, actually a second detail. And very important, you may not have experience in the field, but pulling together some real world
projects for a portfolio, so you have some samples to show employers is absolutely necessary. So it could be something as simple as doing a project in a family business, doing a project for a local charity, for a nonprofit. There are so many different organizations that need help.
where you can really lend a helping hand, volunteer. And in exchange, what you're doing is you're actually generating projects that are real world assets that you can keep in your portfolio. And a portfolio really speaks louder than any resume or any credential or anything else. It's something tangible that you can show a prospective employer.
Michael Bernzweig (09:58.536)
So I just wanted to point that out. And for anybody that's wondering, I'm Michael Bernsweig, the founder of Software Oasis. And I just wanted to give everybody a little bit of an overview of who the heck you're listening to and who you're hearing from so you have a little bit of background. But I just wanted to point that out. And next, I wanted to talk a little bit more in detail about
pulling together a portfolio because a portfolio is an important piece to getting an interview to get actually, you know, the very first step in getting yourself in front of an employer for an interview, which is the beginning of your whole journey. So you really want to pull together typically three to five
examples of projects that you've worked on so that you have something tangible to show to an employer in that process. And obviously, if you're making, you want to be completely honest. If you're making a career transition, employers get it. And at the end of the day, as a candidate, you are very attractive in that, you know,
for someone just getting started in a field, an employer understands that at the end of the day, you don't have a lot of the senior level understanding of some of these UI UX design principles and strategies that are important on the job. And they love that because they're able to take you under their wing and...
teach you how they do it within their organization. you know, really take some of these areas that you might see as negatives and turn them into positives and, you know, figure out what is it about you as an individual, your skills, your talents, everybody is a unique individual that makes you a great candidate for a specific position that you're applying for.
Michael Bernzweig (12:19.658)
So, you know, non-traditional candidates with formal education in design, strong portfolios, you know, and all of that are definitely something that are very attractive to employers. But as far as a formal education, it's not always what you might expect. Traditionally, over the years,
Many employers required four-year degrees from some of the leading design studio quality colleges, know, RISD and other schools with top candidates to even get an interview. In today's job market, that's all changed. It's all upside down and on its head. And the reality is that
Employers are really looking for motivated individuals, they're looking at the quality of your portfolio, they're looking at your enthusiasm and, you know, your willingness to do the work that just needs to get done. So keep that in mind as you're meeting with different hiring managers. And, you know, you'll find that many successful graduates of, you know, different,
career courses, boot camps, other types of non-traditional learning paths do have some very real job opportunity foundations. So we're going to talk a little bit more about that. And, you know, at this point, there are, as I had mentioned, many job opportunities in the field. Every type of organization from
Fortune 500 all the way through and down to tech startups are looking for UI UX developers and designers to really jump into some of these roles. And one of the exciting things is a lot of these roles are remote. So you can really do a lot of this work from home or in a hybrid situation. And over this next decade, so
Michael Bernzweig (14:44.556)
through 2035, a lot of the firms, McKinsey, a lot of the other research firms are actually projecting continued growth in this area, including Forrester Research. So really exciting. What I also wanted to talk about is the long-term career path and trajectory for some of these positions because
It's not just a matter of getting from where you are today to where you want to get to. It's a matter of what are the long-term possibilities for a career in UI UX design. So one of the things I want to point out is that it's one of the interesting fields in tech that you'll start at a fairly reasonable starting salary and within
just a few years have the opportunity to, you know, clearly progress from junior to more senior roles and, you know, more entry level salaries to fairly significant salaries within just a few years. And, you know, there's lots of opportunities to further specialize once you get your foot in the door and you get started with some of these
these different positions, everything from designing specific interfaces, menus, all kinds of different surveys and different ways in which individuals or consumers are interacting with organizations. And it really is fascinating. And one of the things that I find amazing how
as I mentioned earlier in the webinar, just small tweaks to designs and layouts and ways in which individuals interact with the different elements that are really the bridge from the organization that you're working for to consumers at large can make dramatic, dramatic differences.
Michael Bernzweig (17:04.3)
to organizations seeing big changes in revenue, in conversions, in new pipelines of prospects turning into consumers and customers of products. So the experience is really the biggest part of.
of everything that you're doing and interacting with on a day-to-day basis. So it really is exciting. And you can really see a very measurable ROI for your organization based on what you're doing in your day-to-day job and the changes that you're making. for anyone that has interest in statistics and data and all of that, it really is an amazing career path.
you know, if math and science and statistics and all of that are up your alley in terms of what gets you excited and makes you want to wake up and get started every day, this may be a good career path for you. A lot of individuals, and one of the paths I'm going to talk about is non-traditional courses that can help you get to where you want to get to from the roles that you're in.
One individual that comes to mind was working in a retail setting, making a salary in the 30s when she first started with one of these career courses that I'm going to point out. And within six months, she was earning well over $75,000. So she nearly doubled her income.
very quickly and got herself to where she wanted to be and did not need to go through a formal college education after that position to get back into it. And I think the other thing that's important, a lot of people as they're transitioning from one career to another may not have the luxury as they did earlier in life to really
Michael Bernzweig (19:23.2)
you know, put aside everything. You may have, you know, fixed monthly expenses. You may have a family. You may have other obligations and either don't have the time or the financial ability to plunk down 30, 50, $70,000 a year for formal education. So there are opportunities and paths for literally just a few hundred dollars for a course.
that will get you to where you want to get to and get you to the type of salary and income that I've seen with so many individuals. So that is really exciting. One of the things about taking a course to get you to where you want to get to is you can really go at your own pace. Whatever it is that's going to fit your schedule.
So it's not as if you have, you know, rigid guidelines of specific hours in which you need to be in a classroom or need to be there to take exams and things like that. Everything is project-based. So as long as you're following the curriculum and you're really learning from some real-world examples from instructors that have actually been there and done that and are working in these roles,
You're going to find success at the end of the journey. And along the way, you'll also, through the program that you see at the top of the screen there, have the opportunity to receive direct mentorship and feedback on your work along the way and actually into the career journey as you're starting to apply for positions.
you can really get yourself into a self-paced online learning course where you'll be able to develop a lot of these skills and get yourself skilled up so that you're a marketable commodity, shall we say, in the job marketplace for UI UX positions. And you can do it very economically.
Michael Bernzweig (21:41.638)
As I mentioned, just a few hundred dollars. The other thing you can do if you want to explore to see if UIUX is a field that really checks the boxes for you, at that link above softwareoasis.com backslash UIUX dash course, or by scanning the barcode that you see on the screen, you can actually get started for free.
And, you know, take some lessons, see if it feels like the right kind of journey. If not, you know, you can also explore several other career paths, all of which have quite a few open jobs. In fact, all of the courses that you'll see at that link have open positions.
and in fact, over a million open positions for candidates. And all of these positions have exceptional starting salaries. So there's about a dozen different courses that you'll see. by all means, try them all. Definitely, find the right career if you're not exactly where you want to be right now.
Take the time, it's free, figure out the different types of paths that are the right paths for where you want to get to. And the other thing that you'll find is that this program provides you with some additional benefits. You're going to get tips along the way on getting your profile set up so that you can actually get interviews to find jobs.
You're also going to have ongoing support and access to career coaches that will be able to help you through the job search process and assistance in, you know, once you've graduated, I just want to be honest, once you've graduated and have your certificate of completion, you'll be able to request assistance for, you know, getting help
Michael Bernzweig (24:04.163)
landing that first job. So in this UIUX program, what I want to cover here is you'll actually master some really important skills related to the basic elements of UIUX design, most importantly, prototyping. That's really the first step in getting to the final result that your new employer
we'll be looking for. there are a lot of tools of the trade, shall we say, different pieces of software and different ideologies that you'll be working with that you'll also learn in the course. So these are all tools that you're going to use on your first day on the job, the really real world applications.
that you'll be learning as you go through this course to get to where you need to get to to be able to land your first job. really the first step is taking some of the introductory lessons, seeing if it's the right fit for where you want to get to. And you're also going to find that there's a lot of employers, everyone from Google to Amazon to.
some of the major airlines that you heard about in the news, all looking for individuals with these skills. So what I'm going to say is definitely this is not just pie in the sky type of stuff. This is all real. The courses that you'll see have been rated by thousands of students very well on a lot of the
the top career sites, including Career Karma, Course Report, literally 4.8, 4.9 from thousands of candidates have actually taken these courses and landed jobs. That's the end result. It's not fun to spend 12 to 18 weeks getting to where you want to get to if you can't land a job. That's the most important part of it.
Michael Bernzweig (26:26.295)
As I mentioned, the courses are literally just a few hundred dollars, so you can get started on a very basic budget. You can even break up the few hundred dollars into a few payments of a hundred or so dollars a piece, a hundred, two hundred dollars, whatever it is. And the other big thing is that you'll actually have lifetime access to all of the materials so that
as you're going through your career, you can always refer back to a lot of these different resources. I think you'll find that the courses actually deliver a lot of results. So hopefully, everyone is able to get through these and find the kind of results that they're looking for in a career. And if anybody
does have questions, can always go to the softwareoasis.com website. There's a contact form there. Always feel free to reach out to me or anybody else on the team here as you're going through your journey. But hopefully this has been helpful for everybody and wanted to keep everybody on track. So I think we're right about there. We'll get a copy of this out to everybody after the webinar. And I appreciate everybody's time today. So thank you very much.