I'm currently working in Architecture working on transitioning into UX Design. I took a UX class through UCLA Extension for a quarter and so far (from a fairly objective view) I'm ahead of the game than the rest of my peers since I already have a lot of transferrable skills like software & design skills. I'm planning to take one more quarter of class. Will that be enough to put together a portfolio along with architecture pieces?

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Maybe? Having transferrable skills is great as long as you can effectively communicate how they are of value. Unlike Architecture, UX is a field that moves and evolves much faster, so your portfolio needs to also be able to keep up with the pace. There is a reason why bootcamps are more common approaches to building a portfolio when transitioning from another field: the ability to quickly learn about the process through mentorship, and apply it to create a portfolio that best represents your potential for impacting the user experience. Hopefully your classes are giving you these tools, and the mentorship to help guide you through it.

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It depends on how many projects you were able to create during the class and the quality/depth.
I’m an architect that transitioned to product design. I have completed a bootcamp in 3 months where I worked on 3 projects, one if them was a partnership with a company.
My bootcamp colleagues took from 1m a year to find UX/product design jobs.

I think that you need one good project with a range of skills, research, ideation, design, good presentation… networking really helped me, like asking people to review my portfolio/coffee chats

Be prepared to start lower on the ladder than you currently are. It’s super rare to hire for mid to sr positions when someone doesn’t have experience designing products that launched. Even if they are a star in a different field that has some similarities.

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Thank you for the reply!
I am fully prepared to be a junior UX designer. This is unfortunately my 2nd career change. Had to start from the bottom with Architecture as well after going for my master's in arch. Been in the industry for over 4 years now.

On the positive side, once you land that super difficult first jr gig, you should be able to advance fairly fast if indeed you are ahead of the field.

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I am also aware that it is competitive out there to get the first junior position. Most importantly, any job starting out from scratch will be painful at first and a huge learning curve. Would you happen to know how many portfolio work would be ideal for beginning to apply to jobs? Better yet, what are some things you look for in a portfolio?

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