So, you want to be a UX professional…

If you think you might want a career in UX, you should become familiar with all of these sources:

RESOURCES:

Before you do anything else, connect with Bree Walter. Why? Because she’s is an accomplished UX Bearcat who really, really wants to help you find your UX legs. Read about Bree here.

• Free UX eBooks by UXPin
  Did you see the “free” part?
• Invision Fireside Chats
  In-depth video conversations about design systems.
• UXPin Virtual Summits
  Look for the “Virtual Summit” video collections. You can also look here for more.
• Jakob Neilsen: Nielsen Norman Group
  Look through Neilsen’s site, NNgroup.com . Read the reports and articles. Check out their top stories and resources of the year page.
• Jared Spool: User Interface Engineering
  Look through Jared’s site, UIE.com .  Read All You Can Learn, Articles, and anything else.
• Jesse James Garret: The Elements of Use Experience
  Read this classic book about UX. See the original diagram that is the basis for UX design.
• Steve Krug:  Don’t Make Me Think
  To get you started, here’s a free sample chapter.

COURSES:

• Design Lab’s UX Academy
• UX-focused training via Lynda.com. Train yourself in specific UX areas using Lynda’s online training modules.

BLOGS & SITES:

• Leaders of UX Awesomeness — Free UX strategy discussions with Jared Spool and other high-level UX pros
• Inside Design by Invision
• Studio by UXPin
• UX Collective
• UX Planet
• Ideo
• DesignBetter.co
• Adele Design System Repository by UXPin
• Mulzi Chrome Extension

PODCASTS:

• DesignBetter.co 
• UX Cake
• Google Design “Method”

SLACK GROUPS:

• Product Tribes
• UX Mastery
• Here’s a directory of Slack communities

JOBS:

• UXPAKC job board — Look through job descriptions of UX job openings.
• LinkedIn UX jobs and internships — Be sure to customize this for your own locations.
• Find UX jobs near you
• AIGA jobs board
• IXDA jobs board
• UXJobsBoard.com
• JustUXJobs.com
• UXDesignJobs.com
• Krop — Results for UX and UI
• dsgnjbs.com
• UX Magazine’s job board
• Remotive.io — find a remote job
• Crema — KC UX-focused agency
• Nerdery — UX-focused agency in KC and a few other cities

GIGS:

• Catchafire — find a remote job or gig

PORTFOLIOS:

Look through some UXPin prototypes.
See a UX case study — something like this would be great for your portfolio!
Here are “26 Beautiful UX Portfolios”
Read NNGroup’s 5 Steps to Creating a UX-Design Portfolio.
Look through some UX portfolios. And here are some direct links:

• Bearcat Kia Jones’ UX portfolio site.
  • This isn’t a portfolio, but it’s just as important: See Kia Jones’ UX brainstorm blog. It’s important to look at all things UX, and to show that’s the way you think. UX’ers often have to compile examples of their UX observations to prove that they truly are UX at heart. Kia started this blog in the beginning of her junior year at Northwest.
• Bearcat Elicia Reuscher’s UX portfolio site.
• Bearcat Taylor Johnson’s UX portfolio does an excellent job showing the process behind UX.
• Bearcat Tim Gillissen’s portfolio: He’s a UX designer/developer at VML
• See Sheila Mullings portfolio: She’s an Experience Designer at VML. (Be sure to check out her Elevator Pitch!) Most of her site still looks the way it did when she was still a student.
• See Adrian Cunanan’s website.
• Alex Benson’s sandbox page

Your portfolio should have a collection of projects that include these steps, up to “Code”.

If you’re really serious, GET A MENTOR!