How to find a UX mentor

By Samaya Sinha

We've noticed that a lot of folks pivoting into UX design or UX research are looking for 1:1 mentorship and guidance on how to successfully land their first UX job. 

In some cases, its great to get free one-off mentorship sessions from sites like ADP List if you might need a quick chat or resume review or portfolio feedback. 

However, one-off sessions never go very deep. It's important to find a dedicated UX mentor who is willing to meet with you once a week or once every 2 weeks or even once a month to really dig deep into how you are progressing over time. 

So how do you find a dedicated UX mentor? There are lots of ways that you might be able to find a dedicated UX mentor who is willing to meet with you consistently. 

Since it's Valentine's week, think of finding a mentor like dating. You're probably not looking for one off dates that lead nowhere, but would rather build a deeper connection with one mentor who can really help you grow in your UX journey long term over 1-3 years.

You can find a UX mentor by: 

• Attending networking events both IRL and online, like our free Women in Design conference coming up in May! This is a great chance to find peers and mentors alike who can really empathize with where you are in your UX journey currently. We recommend friending folks you meet on LinkedIn and sliding into their DMs...which brings us to our next point...

• Sliding into those DMs ;) Think of yourself as a bit of a player and slide into UX designer, UX researcher, UX manager, and recruiter DMs on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and even X or Threads. Get creative with your pick up lines! How can you get people to respond back to your requests without coming across as overly desperate? 

• Consider working with a dedicated UX mentor as part of a coaching package. At Ideate Labs we offer 14 1:1 personalized mentorship sessions with a dedicated UX mentor to help your fill knowledge gaps, write a killer UX resume, create a robust UX portfolio, and practice interview techniques. We also provide access to life-long group coaching sessions that take place once every 2 weeks. In response to the tech layoffs, we promise to help you land a 6-figure UX job or coach you till you get it. 

What questions should you ask your UX mentor? After your intake process, you will work with your UX mentor to create specific deliverables that will help you with your UX job search. You will work on creating specific UX resumes, a LinkedIn profile that attracts recruiters, and a UX portfolio with at least 3-5 portfolio pieces. You will also work on any knowledge gaps you might have within certain UX research and UX design topics.You will have access to UX course modules that you can watch at your own pace- these will be good fodder to ask your UX mentor specific questions. Sometimes, your UX mentor might recommend watching a specific module if they notice that you have certain knowledge gaps.

What does a UX career coach do? Your UX career coach will help you plan out an actionable timeline to achieve your professional goals, as well as assign you homework to get to where you need to be. They will work with you over calls on whatever comes up that is blocking you or making you feel stuck.

How much does a UX career coach cost? At Ideate Labs, access to our online UX course and 14 1:1 UX mentorship sessions costs $4950. We believe in a hybrid approach of self-paced UX learning modules alongside with 1:1 UX coaching and mentorship to help you achieve your UX career goals and land a UX job.

We have a limited number of highly qualified UX mentors so we are only able to work with 15 students over the next 3 months. Book a call with us to learn more ASAP to get started with UX mentorship and career coaching today. 

You can also check out our free UX mentorship online course with 9 modules dedicated to helping you with the UX job search. We also created our premium junior UX jobs board subscription ($10 per month) to get you access to more junior UX jobs on a weekly basis. Be the first to gain access to all our jobs board updates. 

Please tip us if you like our content! This helps us cover our content creation costs and allows us to create more FREE UX resources for you! :) Your tips will help us create a free guide and action plan to face tech layoffs, as well as a free guide on how to handle the first 90 days of your first UX job!