There are many online communities for UX designers to find jobs and share their work. LinkedIn and Twitter are two of the most common places to network and job search as a UX designer. In addition, Medium, Dribbble, and Behance are tailored specifically for designers to share their work and network. Let’s go over how each of these websites can help as you’re getting started in the field of UX design. 

Create new online profiles

Online profiles are your first chance to meet fellow UX designers and make a good impression with recruiters. Make sure that all of your professional social media profiles are filled out completely and include the following information:

  • Your name
  • Your education, including this certificate program
  • Your work experience or interests 
  • Your skills (e.g., problem solving, collaborating, tools like Figma and Adobe XD, and more)
  • A professional photo of yourself
Graphic mockup of a resume/online profile for Khaled, showing their image, education, experience, and skills

LinkedIn is an important site for networking and job searching. Employers are likely to check your LinkedIn when considering you for a job. LinkedIn is built for business and networking purposes, so your profile will have space to talk about your work experience, goals, and achievements. If you’re creating a profile on LinkedIn for the first time, you’ll want to include information like:

  • Your location
  • Links to your portfolio and resume
  • Your qualifications, including past work experience and the completion of this certificate 
  • Outstanding achievements (e.g., employee of the month, awards, special recognitions)

Twitter profiles have limited space, so keep your information short and sweet! Even with limited text, you can still talk about your goals and what you do professionally. Twitter is more of a glimpse into your personality, personal brand, and interests.

To get started:

  1. Go to the Twitter homepage or download the app and navigate to the homepage. 
  2. Click the sign up button. 
  3. Create your account using the popup box that appears. Remember to add a few details in your profile about any personal and professional interests related to UX.

Medium, Dribbble, and Behance are great places to talk to other designers, get feedback on your design work, and look for jobs. Medium is a blogging website, where you can post opinion pieces on different design-related subjects. Dribbble and Behance are sites where you can share snippets of your work to show your design skills to other designers and employers. 

These sites can supplement your portfolio. If you have time, posting on these sites is a great way to add to your story as a designer and help you learn more about the world of UX from other amazing designers! 

Update existing online profiles

You might already have social media profiles of your own. In some cases, recruiters will search for you on social media to get a feel for who you are as a person. Make sure that your profiles all reflect positively on your personal brand. Here are some pro tips for making your online profiles the best they can be during your job search.

  • Do a Google Search on your name, and review the results. You can see exactly what a recruiter will find if they look up your name. If there’s anything unprofessional or inappropriate, take note and do what you can to get rid of it.
  • Make all profile pictures professional. You want to have work-appropriate photos on your online profiles. This does not have to be a professional portrait, but you should choose a clear photo of yourself with minimal distracting elements.
  • Make personal profiles and/or albums private. It can be helpful to separate your personal online profiles from your professional ones. Try to keep the amount of personal information that a recruiter can view to a minimum.
  • Carefully review your content. Be on the lookout for any of your posts that might be inappropriate or controversial, and consider removing them from your online profiles.

Think about what you want a recruiter or your new boss to know about you. Having a clean online presence can help give recruiters a positive impression of you before you even land an interview! 

Add to your portfolio 

As you’ve probably noticed, your portfolio website is the number one place to showcase your work as a UX designer. Here are a few things you can add to your portfolio as you continue in this certificate program: 

  • Include your resume. You can create a separate page of your website that includes your resume, or include a link to a PDF version of your resume. Don’t worry too much about your resume now; we’ll help you develop a UX resume in a later course!
  • Add links to social media profiles. Many designers put these in their navigation bars, or at the bottom of their website. This makes it easy for recruiters and other designers to view your profiles on platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Medium, Dribbble, and Behance.
  • Make contact information easy to find. We recommend creating a “Contact” page on your portfolio website, so that recruiters can reach out by email or phone. 

Put it all together

Your professional presence is made up of all of your online profiles, so make sure that each one adds value to your story as a designer. In addition, each online profile gives you the opportunity to showcase a different aspect of your design skills, network, and get feedback from other designers. Getting involved in online UX design communities signals to employers that you are enthusiastic about UX design and can help you grow as a designer, too.