Do you love your job?

Looking for a job is a pain. You apply for job after job and...

(crickets)

Ok, maybe it's not complete silence. There's some phone screens and the occassional interview… but no job offers. Isn't UX suppose to be really hot right now?

What gives?

Well, you're probably sabotaging yourself (unknowingly).

All of the career advice you've heard is bulls#!t.

I'm sure your mom and dad had good intentions telling you all that stuff. You're high school counselor probably didn't know any better. And most of the people in the real world, hate their job so their advice is suspect at best.

The truth is most "traditional" career tips don't apply to the tech world.

You need a degree... if you really want to put off starting your career for a bit.

No color on your resume... because color ink is more expensive? That's nonsense.

Always wear a suit... if you want to make sure Google never hires you.

Fake it 'til you make it... just sounds like lying to me.

We could go on but the point is... you need to be careful with the career advice you take. What works for accountants doesn't work for designers.

In the tech world, we have our own rules.

But I feel like an imposter.

Let me tell you a secret... everyone struggles with imposter syndrome because no one really knows what they're doing.

We're all figuring it out.

But imposter syndrome is especially bad in the beginning. You feel completely unqualified or like a "fraud". It's normal.

Even seasoned designers, award winners on the top of the design world such as Tobis Van Schneider, have to deal with imposter syndrome.

Don't worry. You can learn to break through it. It gets better over time. But it's a natural part of doing any meaningful work.

Speaking of work, did you know…

You'll spend 90,000 hours at work over your lifetime.

That's more time at work than you'll spend with your family (awake at least).

Work is an interesting concept. We voluntarily spend an unfathomable amount of our lives there. That's time away from our families, friends, hobbies, hopes and dreams.

In a recent article, Business Insider uncovered some rather disturbing statistics:

• The average worker will spend 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime.
• 100 hours are spent commuting each year by the average American.
• 80% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs.
• 13+ million working days lost each year due to stress-related illnesses.
• 64% of Americans canceled vacations last year. One-third did it for work-related reasons.
• 25% of people check into work hourly while on vacation.
• 59% said they check in for work during traditional holidays.
• 10,000 workers per year drop dead at their desks as a result of 60- to 70-hour work weeks in Japan. The phenomenon is known as “karoshi".

It’s not pretty. We work a lot... but we're dissatisfied with our jobs? That's odd. And we're essentially destroying every aspect of our life for it.

As designers, we're not immune to this stuff. If you're not being utilized well, it's easy to just go through the motions. Who likes wasting their time designing presentations for some executive?

But it doesn't have to be that way.

You can love what you do, do interesting work, like the team you work with, respect the company you work for, be compensated well at the same time and be respected for the work you do. It’s completely possible.

You just need to go find it.

What are you worth?

If you're a designer in the tech space, you're worth a lot in the marketplace right now. You're in one of the hottest career fields in the world.

CNN named user experience design as one of the top 50 jobs in America with a promising outlook going forward. UX designers are living well right now...

Median pay: $95,600
Top pay: $150,000
10-year job growth: 22.1%
Total jobs*: 3,426,000

If you're not at that level, you're not being paid your market value and it's directly impacting your potential life time earnings.

If you're making $60k at the age of 30, you're lifetime earnings are a little over $4M. But if you're making $100k at 30, you're looking at $7M+.

That's about $3M in life time earnings lost! Gone. Forfeited. You can't get it back.

Don't make the mistake of not taking action.

For a little more insight into compensation, check out Onward Search's UX Jobs Salary guide, HOW Design's report, PayScale's or The Next Web's.

By the way, those life time earnings numbers don't even take into account promotions, annual raises, company matches, stock options, etc....

But it's not just money. You deserve better.

Money is nice, but more than anything, it's about being valued and happy doing what you're doing.

It's about doing your best work. Meaningful work.

Did you know... you can be compensated well and do interesting work for a great company you love working for? It's possible. Shocking, I know.

There's more opportunities out there than you'd think. Don't get your job outlook from the media or your broke unkle. It's there. You just need to put yourself in a position to take advantage.

You'e way too valuable to sit on the sidelines. You've invested in yourself. You have the skills. We just need to get you positioned correctly.

Don't be one of those people

Look around you. I know you see them.

The people that aren't going any where. They've plateaued and stopped growing.

They're probably going to be exactly where they are for the next 20 years. Yet, they complain about it every day and they don't do anything about it. It's sad but it will happen if you let it.

If you hate your current job or it's extremely toxic, it's easy to be motivated to change. But if things are just ok, that's where things get hard. It's not that bad. Complacency is setting in.

But you're getting boiled.

You're skills aren't getting better. You're not advancing as fast as you should be. You're 3% annual raise is meh. All around, you're not growing.

You don't want to be like that. You want to get better. You want to be challenged.

By constantly improving, you can set your sights on lofty goals in all aspects of your life. Your career in particular is one that's pretty quantifiable and completely in your control.

You can work at a great company, love your job, do your best work, get in line to be promoted and make more money over the course of your life.

You just need to take action.

You've never had more control over your path in life than right now.

It's time.

If you're not 100% happy where you are, it's about time you put yourself first and start setting yourself up for longterm success.

Is it easy? Definitely not.

But it's completely possible to make a great living in the world without hating your job, the company you work for or the team you're on.

I believe strongly that anyone can get ahead with a little guidance and a strong desire to succeed.

Want some help getting there?

That's where I come in. I wrote a book to be like a career coach in your pocket (errr... hard drive).

It's called Hired: The Smarter, Faster, Easier Way to Get a Job as a UX Designer. It's a step-by-step handbook for UX designers of all levels.

In the book and bonus materials, you’ll find relevant career tips, tricks and insights to help you:

• Learn critical career skills not taught in design school
• Evaluate your skillset and prepare for the next step in your career
• Create an irresistible resume and portfolio
• Know where to find career opportunities in UX
• Prepare for design interviews
• Learn how to negotiate like a pro
• And much much more…

The book follows a proven methodolgy developed over years of coaching designers on-on-one. Below is an overview of the process…

What is the book like?

The book is 230+ pages of tactical and practical tips for getting ahead in UX and standing out from your peers. Below is a sample of what it looks like:

(Kindle version)

(PDF version)