How I landed my UX design job at Electronic Arts without a design degree
Exactly what I did, step-by-step
Hey everyone! I’m Grace Ling, the Founder of Design Buddies. I wanted to share about a popular topic based on my own journey & learnings - how I became a UX designer without a design degree.
I changed my career goals many times and always felt like a beginner. But I believe that all of our experiences build on each other to make us who we are today. Nothing is a waste of time.
Growing up, I played a lot of MapleStory (I’m max level). MapleStory inspired me to draw and ultimately work in the games industry. I wanted to become an anime artist.
In Cupertino, there was a lot adults wanting their kids to work in STEM. A common conversation among parents was them flexing about which school their kids went to. As an insecure kid wanting to fit in, I succumbed to society’s pressure.
Randomly, my mother started paying me to go to the gym with her. I started running then breaking school records. I studied bioengineering in university to biohack myself to run faster.
Then I decided to pick up computer science engineering because I wanted to make games instead. Engineering is hard for me, so I locked myself in the library for hours to study and had no life. I was sad.
When I graduated undergrad in 2019, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I signed up for a Master’s in Computer Science engineering to procrastinate on getting a job.
Then I discovered UX design, a job that pays quite well in tech without needing to code!! It also allows me to be creative and solve problems, combining my art and engineering backgrounds.
I tried applying for design jobs, but got ghosted 30+ times.
People on LinkedIn made it seem like getting into FAANG is so easy. But I got ghosted 30+ times.
Then I did this to actually land a job:
I couldn’t find a design community so I started one - Design Buddies (hi!), now with 150,000+ members
Made my first case study - a feature design on Discord. I think redesigns are great for your first design case study because you have real people to test with and a product example to work with.
Competed in 10 hackathons to gain problem solving experience
Did the Daily UI challenge to improve my visual design skills
Prepared my portfolio. I had 2 strong case studies I focused on: my Discord case study and Cell-fie, a VR game I made in school.
Practiced interviews with design professionals from Design Buddies. Focused on behavioral, portfolio presentation, and app critique interviews.
Posted on LinkedIn about my learnings and projects to attract hiring managers
Reached out to professionals on LinkedIn for informational interviews. That’s how I landed my job at Electronic Arts.
I would have benefited from some structured guidance and feedback to fast track my career to UX design.
But I was hesitant to sign up for any traditional bootcamps. They say their hiring percentage is so high and they hire their own students. Oftentimes, they also take a % of your first year salary.
That’s why I’m so excited to be launching our 10 week design project cohort along with Design Buddies and UXGO (+ offering a scholarship)! Instead of focusing on fictional projects, we’re working with cool early stage startups in emerging tech/social good to help design students get practical design experience and a chance to get hired by the startup.
We have a curriculum covering all the basics you need to know about UX design to get your first job in UX design, taught by coaches from tech companies who’ve been through it!
We’re opening our applications, which are accepted on a rolling basis. Apply now here:
https://www.ux-go.com/uxgo-2025/10-week-internship-course
Our fall cohort starts on October 18, spots filling up fast!
🐰 About Design Buddies/UXGO
Design Buddies/UXGO is a community where you level up your design career. Land jobs, improve your design skills, and make friends. We have resources, events, design challenges, job boards, fun perks, and more.
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🐰 10 week internship & project cohort! Starts Oct 18
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