Do you need a PhD to get into UX research?

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As a Senior UX Researcher I have applied for jobs, interviewed others and guided mentees through application processes for UX research jobs. In this video I'll explain why a PhD will give you a competitive advantage when applying for UXR positions and why I wouldn't recommend doing one anyway.
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[@valaz]

Book a 1:1 with me: superpeer.com/valuxr - help planning your career trajectory and how to get there - specific questions - feedback on your resume or portfolio - interview practice run

[@anthonymachette8693]

Thanks for this great video! I'll be finishing my Ph.D. this coming spring and am looking to move into UXR. I've got several years of independent research experience and over a dozen publications from the past few years. However, I'm looking to gain UXR experience over the next several months to show hiring managers that I can apply my research background to UXR. Do you have any suggestions for how to gain such experience? I've been told to start freelancing but I'm not quite sure where to begin (maybe that's a good video idea?!). I'm finishing up the Google Certificate in UX Design and Research currently but curious if you have other advice :)

[@valaz]

Hey! I might make a video about it, thanks for the suggestion :) but in the mean time, one thing you can do is reach out to non-profits and ask if they need your services, you could do a pro bono project or two which would have real world impact, that could be great. You could also do fake projects of your own (I am guessing you might be already doing it as part of your course), pick an app or a physical product and think what would you do as a UXR if you were the first one hired to their team. What might you research? Usually anything around the onboarding experience would work well, because it is easy to get your hands on and ask people to do usability tests with and there is always something that confuses people (eg. I pick and app like Monday.com and I ask 5 friends who work in tech or product management which seem to be their target customers to go through onboarding, then document it and present as if you were doing this project for a client. What were the main insights? What would you recommend? etc. Behavioral science research also draws good attention in UXR, so you might not necessarily need to do projects, but thing about how you can take a piece of research that you did and explain how the skills you have a are transferable, how could a similar piece of research be applied in industry for example. keep in mind that not all companies require you to have experience when you start, but it can certainly be helpful to show that you understand the jargon, what they are looking for and would know how to get started. I find that smaller companies and startups are much more open to beginners, as long as they have another UXR who could mentor.

[@alexdiaz1492]

Hi Val, just graduated with a BA in psych with about 2 years worth of research in academia. I’ve been following along with your videos recently and was curious as to what opportunities may I be able to land with the experience I have and whether there are other job positions that would help me transition better into UXR without a PhD.

[@valaz]

Hey Alex! I would say it's harder with BA only, but not impossible. May be if you are looking in the US, it could be easier BCS it's more common to just do BA, but I'm not an expert here. You will have to really present your skills in a strategic way, bring your 2 years of experience in research to the forefront. If you have the option to do so, try to find an internship in UXR, do an online course with a certificate that you could add to your resume. If you don't have the option to do be looking for a long time, I would consider applying for alternative positions in tech and try to transition from there. I' be started in product analytics myself and did lots of uxr tasks that I could than leverage to apply for uxr positions, I've seen people transitioning from customer support or customer operations, it's a good prep as you are on direct contact with customers and product teams if it's an internal Cs team. Consider also if UXR is the way forward, you might also like market research or analytics or something completely different, I would keep my options open when applying, sometimes alternatives come along that you didn't plan for.