I stumbled into UX several years ago after working in a combination of communication, marketing, and graphic design role

ink of just how many innovative ideas, inventions, works of art, and un-manifested dreams that could’ve helped the world never happened because people were just too afraid or not disciplined enough to pull them off. Think of yourself. Think of what you’ll go to the grave having not done.

If you’re comfortable sitting tight and gaining knowledge and respect within your organization, you can continue to ask for more leadership opportunities, offer to mentor others, and come up with ways to improve your team. The other thing to consider is that after the senior UX designer role, you don’t do a lot of actual design work. Moving into management means your job suddenly becomes very administrative and teacher-oriented. If this is your jam, continuing up a ladder is definitely for you. If your passion is creating and making, then you may want to explore other routes. Remaining a senior UX designer but at a new company could be refreshing enough to keep you from feeling aimless. Sure, it’s technically a lateral move, but working with a new team on new projects can reignite your passion for design.

If the agency has multiple locations, you may have various ladders to choose from and could hop from one to the next while remaining with the same agency. While waiting to move up into a managerial role, be sure to learn as much as you can about leadership and how you would want to manage a team.

As a naturally anxious person, this choice puts me on edge, but it’s an important one to note. If you have the courage, portfolio, network, and a self-motivating personality, this is an exciting option. Freelance could be a valuable part of your career path if you need a break from the 9–5, are still developing your skills, or need a change of pace.

The next eight months of my life were a whirlwind — I researched everything about UX, applied to General Assembly, quit my job, broke my lease, sold most of my belongings, moved to LA, and completed a UX Design Immersive over 12 weeks. Then, I drove home and got a job as an in-house UX Designer at a Fortune 50 company.

Another way to go about your career path is to become an industry SME (subject matter expert). You will continue to be marketable as you move from company to company because you already have so much background knowledge coming in. You can work on moving up the rungs as you shift around, but as I mentioned earlier, lateral moves aren’t the worst. You will most likely be in the workforce for about 45 years, and we’re on this earth to enjoy our lives; we don’t always have to be in such a hurry to move up quickly.

Anywhere on your career path after your junior design work, you could take the plunge to work for yourself and feel the wind of autonomy beneath your wings. Make sure to research what freelancing is really like before taking it on full time. There’s a lot to learn about quoting projects, client boundaries, over-communication, finding clients, and so on.

The most traditional route is joining a company and climbing the ladder from junior designer to senior designer and up to design director. This route provides stability if the company is past the start-up phase and has an established team. You’ll generally work 40 hours a week, get a salary, 401(k) benefits, and a gold watch for retirement at these companies. The difficulty with this route for designers is that the ladder is often short. Going from junior to senior designer often doesn’t take very long, and you end up sitting in a senior role for quite some time. Having the same title for a while isn’t bad, but you may feel aimless, especially if the person sitting in the role above you has a lot more experience than you do. What do you do for the next ten years?

I worked there for almost six years and made my way up to a senior UX designer role mentoring junior designers on the team and leading large projects. For many reasons detailed in ‘I have to quit,’ I am now on a work sabbatical and have to decide how to proceed in my career by next summer. As I contemplate what I want to do next, I’ve taken some time to contemplate the numerous directions UX practitioners can take their careers.

This was the best, most-actionable career advice I had ever received and led me to search through the apps on my phone. Those apps represented the brands that I respected the most as I allowed them real estate in my hand every day. I opened a tab for every company and scoured their job openings. I learned two things while doing this: One, every company was unfortunately located in Palo Alto, very far from my home in the Midwest. Two, many companies had openings for a UX Designer, so out of curiosity, I googled what that meant.

Working for a startup at the beginning of your career when you’re single and don’t have many responsibilities is far more fun, and you get to try on a bunch of different hats to see where your passion lies.

Working for an agency gives you experience with many brands and project types that can inspire you creatively at each project kickoff. An agency’s ladder is about the same height as an in-house ladder depending on the company’s size. The main difference between agency work and in-house work is the culture. Agencies occasionally expect longer hours since you’re working for clients who can be demanding, but because you are there longer, you get some benefits like a more casual dress code, beer on tap, game rooms, etc.

With this path, find an industry you’re passionate about and set forth learning and growing. If you’re ambitious and interested in becoming a CEO one day, this route is the path most traveled.

Imagine joyous music and light shining out from my Macbook while I read description after description of the field of UX. I think I might have even levitated off my chair. Everything about it sounded perfect for me, a highly-organized person with a graphic design background, some coding knowledge, and an enthusiasm for technology.

While you would technically be considered an in-house designer working for a startup, it’s also like doing all the roles at once like a freelancer and living the agency life of never leaving the office and wearing flip-flops. Sometimes you’re even choosing your title at a startup, so there are no rungs of the ladder to climb. At an interview, when you ask the traditional “what would my opportunity for growth be in this role?” the answer would be very optimistic, “the sky is the limit!” Startups can be invigorating if you’re passionate about the product or service but don’t hope for much of a life outside of work. Time is of the essence, and money is in short supply, so everything has to be very fast-paced.

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I stumbled into UX several years ago after working in a combination of communication, marketing, and graphic design role

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