1. Translate Your Past Roles Into UX Language
Whether you worked in customer support, architecture, marketing, or education, you’ve built skills that matter in UX.
The key is learning how to reframe them.
Before:
Handled customer complaints and processed refunds.
After:
After noticing below-average workflow performance over six months, I identified user pain points through direct customer feedback and partnered with the product team to create a new workflow. This led to a 20% increase in workflow efficiency.
This version makes it easy for hiring managers to follow your thought process:
- There’s a problem (workflow performance)
- A solution (workflow redesign)
- And a clear result (improved efficiency)
This is exactly how you turn past experience into a valuable asset, even if it wasn’t in a UX role.
2. Let Your Projects Do the Heavy Lifting
If you don’t have much on-the-job UX experience, lead with your projects.
Put your strongest UX work right at the top of your resume - even if it comes from a bootcamp, freelance client, or personal project. What matters most is showing how you solve problems, not where the project came from.
Tip: Use clear, professional titles like “UX Designer (Freelance)” or “UX Designer (Capstone Project)” to help hiring managers immediately understand the role you played.
3. Prove Your Process, Not Just Your Tools
Hiring managers don’t want another resume that lists “Figma” and “user research” with no context. They want to see how you solve problems.
Before:
Created wireframes and conducted usability testing
After:
Redesigned onboarding flow for a budgeting app, simplifying the user journey and reducing time-to-first-action by 30 percent.
No hard data? Use outcomes like:
- Reduced confusion
- Increased clarity
- Improved user satisfaction
These statements still show your impact.
