The job outlook for UX professionals is bright. If you’re a UX professional with three to five years of experience, now’s the time to think seriously about your career progression. But what exactly does that look like, and what are your options? 

The Opportunities

If you’re a junior UX or UI designer or researcher, you have one or both of the following goals: make more money or secure a promotion. The average salary for a UX Designer in Canada is $78,000 while entry level or junior level positions start at $38,708. Experienced UX designers, or designers in a management position can earn six figures per year. 

In short: There is room to grow, and a market willing to pay for that growth. 

The Options

The UX design professional evolves every year. As more products and services move online, and new mediums like smartphones and VR headsets are introduced, the sub-disciplines of UX design grow as well. As a result, there are several ways a UX professional’s career can progress. 

Specialize as an Individual Contributor

Not interested in managing a team? Deepen your knowledge of UX problems, hone your skills in a sub-specialty, and use this professional development to earn more money. 

If you started in a small company as the sole UX professional, consider looking for a specialized role within a bigger design team at a larger company. In these mature teams, you can focus on your favourite area of user experience design by becoming a visual designer, UX researcher, UX content writer, motion designer, and more. 

Your other option is lateral moves across companies. Instead of moving up vertically within a company you can switch roles every few years, acquiring experience across industries. In addition, this is an almost guaranteed way to increase your salary. When employees switch jobs, they enjoy an average salary increase of 10 to 20 percent. 

Broaden Your Scope To The Entire Product

Interested in how your work ties into the development of the larger product? Perhaps it’s time to broaden your scope. If you started as a UX researcher or UX designer, you’ve come into contact with other members of the product team such as graphic designers, UX architects, UX content writers, developers, and more. This gives you an idea of all the individuals a project manager must bring together to successfully take a business case from conception to completion. 

Project managers in Canada make, on average, $90,200 per year with experienced project managers earning over $150,000. 

Want to stay focused on managing products specifically? You can become a product manager where your main job is to produce a product that your customers will adore. 

In tech companies, great product managers are crucial. They have a rare combination of technical, creative, and communication skills that allow them to bring diverse talent together to not only create a great product, but market and sell it as well. 

On average, product managers in Canada make $77,916 per year.

Move Up The Corporate Design Ladder

Finally, your career can progress up the proverbial ladder. If you’re interested in securing higher level positions, like becoming a senior product manager before becoming a Product Director and then a Chief Design Officer, map out what you want your career to look like. Ask yourself questions like:

• Do these high-level opportunities exist within my current company, or will I need to move elsewhere?
• What experience do I need to acquire to be considered for these roles?
• Is my manager open to conversations about career progression, goals, and objectives, or do I need to move to a company with a stronger focus on professional development?
• What non-design related skills do I need to be considered for management level roles (e.g. problem solving, communication, business strategy)?
• Where can I find a mentor to help me navigate this path I want to take?

Don’t assume you can only climb the corporate design ladder within a large company. If you’re the only design professional within a small, but thriving, startup, you have a unique opportunity to solve business problems and eventually build your own team. 

When Andy Law started at Netflix, he spotted an opportunity to solve a business problem through design, volunteered to step up, and is now the company’s Director of Product Design. 

When Julie Zhuo started at Facebook in 2006 as a product designer fresh out of university, she used a combination of career planning, networking, and design skills to secure promotions that eventually resulted in her role as VP of Product Design.

User experience is an exciting, interesting, and lucrative field that will grow hand in hand with the booming tech industry. Ensure your career grows along with it.