Whenever I See the UI/UX Designer Job Post, I Want to Throw Up 🤢

The growing trend of design work exploitation.

Riku Arikiri
4 min readMar 28, 2022

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Photo by Iva Rajović on Unsplash

Nowadays, this rising trend of companies hosting these job posts as UI/UX or UX/UI Designers. These ones have been confusing a whole lot of people. It also disheartens many by the amount of nonsense that is asked of employers.

Whenever I read these job posts. I wonder; do these people even know what they are asking about? And if so, are they willing to pay people for the amount of work wanting to be done?

The straight answer? It’s no. With the advent of boot camps, online courses, and google’s intervention in the UX Design space. We are seeing a swarm of newbie designers entering the field. I have no issue with people changing careers. But the number of people just writing UX/UI Design on their LinkedIn while they’re working as a sales rep is beyond me.

No portfolio, no knowledge of frameworks, just some random bloated words in a CV and a udemy certification(without the credential). Motivated by YouTubers, coming into a field with high expectations of earning a 100K+ salary. Not knowing the reality of the field they are venturing into.

Apart from that, there is a dire need for designers in the field as well. But what kind, it begs to remain a question. Because employers want people with experience for internships, as well as entry-level roles having skills of senior designer.

Meanwhile paying them a minimum wage salary for 10x the work. And because after the pandemic, the rising inflation, as well as the global outage of jobs available. It’s every man, woman, and child for themselves.

The average competition on LinkedIn for every job is over 300+ applicants. But in reality, the real figure is around 1500 to 3000 for every UX job(courtesy of recruiting friends). The recruiters are so buzzed with the number of people coming. That most of their day just goes by scheduling interviews.

It’s not that people with skills aren’t available. It’s just that the entire market is flooded with people with skills. The worst part for most employers is the compensation expectations. If you believe you deserve a higher compensation, then you’re in tough luck.

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Riku Arikiri

It’s never black or white. Sometimes there’s a bit of spicy red in there as well.