Born in Moscow, Russia, Alex Vvedenskii moved to the UK to study and completed GCSEs and A-Levels at a boarding school. He did well at school and went on to study Management at the London School of Economics. Alex loves to play video games, having led an eSports team at the London School of Economics for Dota 2, winning numerous UK university tournaments.
When did the idea of a career transition to UX come up?
When I was in my second year of university, I noticed that I was not as interested as my peers in pursuing a career in banking or management consulting. Knowing that I had a passion for technology and games, I wanted to choose a career that has a high job satisfaction score which also leveraged my analytical skills from my degree in Management. That’s how I came across UX design. I began learning about it online and attended meetups. UX to me is ultimately about improving users’ experience with digital products. As a user, I felt that there was a strong growing need for this in the market.
What were some of the struggles you faced in the transition?
Getting my first role was the hardest thing. Fresh out of university, I was unemployed and without any formal UX education. So, I joined an online Bootcamp in UX design. Communicating with the mentors that I found in that Bootcamp helped me so much in overcoming my difficulties in starting out. The reason for choosing that Bootcamp was that I was able to create a working portfolio that is currently featured on my website www.alexvvedenskii.com. This really helped me land my first job at a design agency in Manchester. But it was not easy to find my first role. There were very few junior roles advertised, and those that were advertised often required years of experience. Networking on LinkedIn and joining design Slack groups was what ultimately resulted in me getting my first role.
Message to UI/UX aspirants with no degree
Learn more about UX using online resources and attend meetups. If you are still interested, I highly recommend attending UX Design Bootcamps to find that first role as a designer.
