Today is your first day at your new UX program. After months of pondering what your next career move should be, countless hours of research, discussions with mentors and planning, you're finally here. Today is the start of a new career journey. Today is the day you become a UX designer. Take a second. What are you feeling in this moment? What are you excited about? What makes you nervous? What are your expectations? What is your biggest fear? What are you most confident about? What is your mental battery like? What about your emotional battery? Are you already burnt out or are you revving to go? You've reached this major checkpoint, but it's just the beginning. There's still so much you don't know. By stepping into a new career field, you've just expanded your world immensely. It's exciting but you can't help but feel incredibly intimidated by the thought of it all. So, now what?

Now, you reset

What professional background did you come from before starting your UX program? Were you already in tech or did you come from somewhere completely different? Did you just graduate from college? We often put too much emphasis on our previous backgrounds when we transition into a new career. This type of pressure can either be the result of over-confidence or crippling imposter syndrome. Here are two examples of this based on my own experience. When I first started UX I was coming from a background in architecture. I had studied design philosophy and practiced mixed-media (including digital media). I was comfortable speaking in design language and have always been surrounded by design. I was told I was great at design all my life. When I started learning UX for the first time, I was (admittedly) over-confident. I thought the transition would be easy. I thought my design background in architecture would put me ahead of others coming from non-design backgrounds. This type of mentality only set me up for failure later. The learning curve was surprisingly large and it hit me like a freight train. Humbling. Now, let's look at the other extreme. During this time, I was also working with someone who came from a background that seemed so far removed from the design world. They felt like they were already behind. So behind that it became crippling to their confidence. They were constantly intimidated by new concepts and used their unorthodox background as an excuse for everything. This type of mentality resulted in a slow learning process that could've been avoided in this particular instance. So, how should you approach this moment in your life?

Have a beginner's mindset. Drop your pride, your preconceptions, and your insecurities and assumptions. Your past doesn't define you so don't let it define your future. View this as a new experience. Give yourself the permission to be a beginner again. A beginner isn't overconfident about new skills because they don't have experience in them. They also can't doubt themselves because they don't know how difficult or easy the topics might be. A beginner is eager to learn and expects to fail along the way to success. A beginner makes mistakes because they know they're new. If you start this way, you're guaranteed to have a more enjoyable experience and it will help you learn faster.