I am going to join the 10k Designers Cohort soon, but before that, I was confused. So I hopped on a call with a senior who shared his experience of a Bootcamp he completed a couple of years back.

There you go!

Today, I’ll go over eight different tips that I’ll give you as someone who has graduated from a Bootcamp and now works as a UX lead and mentor so that you can get the most out of your program and truly make a difference when it comes to landing your first job.

Get Started ASAP

So the most important piece of advice I can give you is to get started as soon as possible. As someone who has gone through a Bootcamp and felt rushed, one of the best things you can do is start early, even before the program start date if you have one, and reach out to other people in the industry because of what you’re essentially doing is cramming semesters of material from a college program or a real career in the industry into a few months or a few weeks.

Get Assistance/Find a Mentor

That’s extremely difficult, and I strongly advise you to seek assistance from people in your program if you have a career advisor, a mentor, or a tutor, because they can walk you through the steps of actually getting started.

Furthermore, if you have anything you need to prepare for landing a job in the industry, whether it’s a portfolio, a resume, or a cover letter, you should start working on it and thinking about it as soon as possible so that you’re not rushing and cramming everything in at the last minute.

When applying for jobs, you typically want to leave some of that buffer time towards the end of your program so that you can focus on curating and making sure that your resume, portfolio, and website are all up to date before submitting them anywhere.

Learn how to communicate ideas

Second, as part of your Bootcamp program, you will be placed in situations or positions that may make you uncomfortable, and this is all part of the learning process. If you’re in a Bootcamp’s UI or UX program, you’ll need to learn how to present your ideas to others. Because design is such a collaborative field, you’ll be expected to communicate your thoughts in what you’ve designed to people who aren’t familiar with your thought process or even what you do.

In addition to what you’re learning in your program, I strongly advise you to join different communities and reach out to people in other industries or people you wouldn’t otherwise meet in your program. There’s ADPList, which can help you find excellent mentors. Design Buddies is a Discord channel where you can talk to many people who are either new to product design or have been doing it for a while.

Furthermore, LinkedIn has a large number of people with whom you can communicate.

There are many people you can contact from different industries that you might not be familiar with, and they’re a great way to learn about UI/UX in a variety of fields, not just the ones you’re interested in.

Stop taking criticism personally.

Third, make certain you’re not taking criticism personally. This is one of the more difficult ones to master, especially if you have an ego at the moment. And I remember having a lot of enthusiasm for designing and building when I first started.

Coming into a Bootcamp, I felt like my opinions were definitely very, very strong, and I believe that over the course of your program, you’ll learn that some of the things you already know are incorrect, or that other people have different perspectives that they want to share with you that are different from yours.

So make sure you’re open to new ideas, especially when you’re presenting your ideas to your mentor, tutor, or other people with industry experience, and that you’re taking a step back and thinking about what you’re learning and whether their advice or feedback is useful to you as a designer.

Ask. Ask. Ask.

Number four, always raise your hand if you don’t understand something. One of the worst things you can do is just coast through your course, making sure you’re turning in all of your assignments and homework, only to realize at the end of the program that you haven’t really answered some of the questions that have been burning inside of you.

So there are a lot of nuanced aspects to the design process. You’ll want to take a step back and ask yourself, “Are there any questions that I’m confused about?” with a lot of the new skills and software you’re learning. And, if I do, who would be the best person to talk to about it?

Is there anyone I could talk to about this? Is there anyone in the industry I could speak with, or are there any good online resources? With that, if any of you have any questions for me, you can contact me through Twitter, which is listed below. I’m always happy to talk to new designers, and it would really help me out.

Network

If you’re enrolled in one of these programs, you’ll almost certainly be assigned a tutor or mentor to work with. In that case, I believe you’re extremely fortunate, as many excellent mentors and tutors in these programs will go out of their way to accommodate you and assist you, regardless of your situation.

And as a designer and mentor, one of the things I try to do is really get to know each of my student's goals and needs so that I can find side projects for them to work on, or if there are people in my network who I think would be a good fit for them to talk to, I try to connect my students with those people within the industry.

As a student in the program, one of the most important things you can do is reach out to your mentor and have an open conversation about your goals and needs. They will be able to contact people in their network in this manner.

They can help you find resources outside of the program and connect you with the right people so you can get the most out of it. So, in addition to going through the program and curriculum that your Bootcamp or program is teaching you, there’s a lot of value in supplementing your education and supplementing your program with some of these other available educational resources.

So, if you’re looking to learn new software, there are many great online resources available for free. Most of these businesses will have their own tutorial to walk you through the process of getting started with their software. However, there are times when you can find many great UX books and attend a lot of free conferences. There are many great ways to learn and further your education that you’re only scratching the surface.

So, in addition to simply learning from your program, applying the skills you’ve learned in your Bootcamp or program to a real-world project can be extremely beneficial.

Share what you know

Another thing you can do is share what you know with others. And you might be thinking to yourself, “Oh, I’m not qualified to teach others.” My Bootcamp has just begun. What’s the best way to get started? I didn’t know how to apply my skills to a real-world project when I first started. I didn’t know where to begin. One of the first things I did was begin writing Medium articles based on some of the skills and knowledge I’d gained.

So, after reading Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things, one of my first articles was about applying that to something I was familiar with but not an expert on.

So, applying that to the newspaper industry and understanding why the newspaper industry as a whole is starting to decay and decline as a result of the newspaper’s design versus some of these digital or new applications that you see on your phone or computer.

And that was a great way for me to put some of the skills I’d learned in this book to use while also attempting to teach and share my knowledge with people who were unfamiliar with newspapers or design.

If you’re new to article writing and don’t know where to begin, one of the best things you can do is start a blog that you can eventually add to your portfolio to show employers and others that you’ve taken the time and thought to step back, digest what you’ve learned in the program or through other mediums so far, and share that knowledge back to the community in your own finesse. So my final piece of advice is to have fun and enjoy the process.

To conclude…

If you’re looking into a Bootcamp or a program, or if you’re currently enrolled in one, you’re likely coming from a different career, making a career change, or in this other boat where you’ve identified design as a passion improving your skillset.

Regardless of which path you’ve chosen, I believe it’s critical to understand that the Bootcamp will have its ups and downs. You’ll have times when you’re frustrated and don’t understand what’s going on, but you’ll also have times when you’ve essentially created something new and are willing and able to share it with others in your community and network.

That’s one of the most wonderful feelings you can have.