Academic Research to UX Research Career Changer

About the Program:

Every year, we sponsor 2 remote UX apprentices from anywhere in the world to join us for 7 months, either in the fall or spring seasons or online. Our UX apprentices work through the end-to-end UX design and UX research process for a startup idea of their choice that will help them attract hiring managers in that topic space or industry.

Apprentices take our program for free and receive 1:1 mentorship throughout the 7-month program. Alumni UX apprentices go on to make between $85,000 -$130,000 in UX design, product design, UX research, or service design roles after they complete the program.

We are committed to helping women, immigrants, POC, and LGBTQ folks break into tech and land 6-figure UX jobs. We help you land 6-figure UX jobs or coach you till you get it.

Apprenticeship Requirements:

This apprenticeship program is open to new grads and UX career changers alike! Here are some apprenticeship requirements to keep in mind before applying:

Interested in creative tech career paths in UX research, UX design, product design or service design

Willing to commit 5-10 hours of work per week to complete program deliverables

Willing to attend 2-3 hour weekend lectures to learn the end-to-end design process OR willing to complete online video course modules

Open to feedback from UX mentors and demonstrates a willingness to revise design work

Apprenticeship Program Learnings:

Build digital products and services 0-1

Lead end-to-end design process for a startup idea or topic of your choice

Lead product scoping and feature scoping, as well as entire project management

Identify target market for product and position product for launch success

Develop a business model for the product or service and demonstrate how the product/service will scale as the business model scales

Lead discovery research by managing user recruitment, creating research plans, writing interview guides, leading 8-16 discovery interviews, and synthesizing interview insights

Deliver a compelling UX design and business pitch for your startup idea, showcasing both qualitative and quantitative data to justify the problem space and the solution

Tell a compelling story about users by showcasing user types, personas, stakeholder maps, journey maps, process maps, service blueprints, ideation matrixes, sketches, wireframes, UX workflows, prototypes and other visual deliverables

Lead user testing of wireframes and prototypes to improve product/service usability and constantly iterate on your startup idea

Design a unique design system for your solution from scratch, creating components, a style guide, and branding for your solution

Analyze direct and indirect competitors to clearly articulate your solution’s differentiators and why your solution is innovative and more likely to succeed over competing options

Consult with startups to create a scope of work and fulfill UX research, UX design, product design and service design work based on your scope of work.

How to Apply:

The application takes a few minutes to complete and will ask you to send in your resume. You do NOT need to have a UX resume or portfolio to apply- we consider folks who are at the very beginning of their career change, who are still exploring multiple career options.

You will receive UX tips and challenges via email to help you with your transition into UX and will be contacted by us if you are being considered for the apprentice program. Once contacted, you will go through a brief interview process before joining the cohort. Due to the large volume of applicants, we cannot contact all applicants about their application status. If you don’t hear from us about an interview within 2 months of applying, please consider your application closed. We consider applicants on a rolling basis.

Originally posted on Himalayas