Latest / The Comeback Career Podcast with Fexingo: Returning After a Gap, Stay-at-Home Re-Entry / Returning as a UX Designer After a Career Gap
Transcript
- Lucas: So the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects UX design roles will grow by about 23 percent through 2030. But for someone with a four-year career gap, those numbers can feel irrelevant when you're staring at a blank portfolio. Luna: Yeah, that's exactly the fear. I talked to a mom last week who said she felt like her design skills had 'evaporated' while she was on leave. Lucas: Right. And that's where our guest today, Sarah Chen, comes in. She stepped away from a marketing role in 2021 to care for twins. By early 2026, she was ready to return—but as a UX designer, not a marketer. She'd always loved the user-research side of marketing. Luna: So she had a direction, but no recent UX work to show. What did she do first? Lucas: She started with a volunteer project. A local food bank needed a better way for donors to schedule pickups online. Sarah offered to redesign their scheduling flow. She did user interviews, wireframes, usability tests—the whole process. It took about six weeks, and she had a real-world case study. Luna: That's smart. It gives her something concrete to talk about in interviews. And it shows initiative. Lucas: Exactly. But she also needed to fill the knowledge gap. She enrolled in a part-time UX bootcamp over three months. Not the expensive ones—this was a local community college program that cost about twelve hundred dollars. It taught modern tools like Figma and principles of accessibility. Luna: Was the bootcamp enough on its own, or did she pair it with something else? Lucas: She also worked through the Google UX Design certificate on Coursera. That gave her a second case study, which she put on her portfolio alongside the food bank project. So by the time she started applying, she had three solid pieces. Luna: And her previous marketing background—how did she spin that as relevant? I imagine recruiters might see it as a different field. Lucas: She framed it as 'I already understand audience segmentation, A-B testing, and customer journeys—now I'm applying that to digital products.' She even put 'UX Designer with 8 years of customer-centric marketing experience' in her headline. It's about connecting the dots for the hiring manager. Luna: Did the career gap come up in interviews? Because a lot of our listeners worry about that. Lucas: It did. Sarah was upfront about it. She said, 'I took time to care for my family, but I used that period to reflect on what I really wanted to do. I dedicated the last few months to rebuilding my skills so I could hit the ground running.' That honesty actually seemed to work in her favor. Luna: I love that she didn't apologize for the gap. She owned it and showed what she did during that time. Lucas: Exactly. And it helped that she had a strong network. She attended two local UX meetups per month for three months. At one, she met a product manager from a health-tech startup. That connection eventually led to a contract to hire offer. Luna: So it took about five months from starting the bootcamp to landing the role? That's a pretty fast timeline for a complete career pivot. Lucas: It is fast, but she was relentless. She applied to about 40 jobs, but the one that stuck came through networking. That's pretty common in UX—many roles aren't posted publicly. Luna: Which resources would you recommend for someone in a similar position? Not everyone has twelve hundred dollars for a bootcamp. Lucas: Sure. The Google certificate is about fifty dollars a month after the free trial. You can finish it in two months if you're focused. Also, the UX Design Institute has a shorter, cheaper course. And there are free communities like Designer Hangout on Slack where you can get feedback. Luna: And what about the portfolio? Sarah had three projects. Is that enough? Lucas: Three is plenty for a junior role. The quality matters more than quantity. She made sure each case study told a story: the problem, her research process, the iterations, and the result. She even included her sketches and user-testing videos. It showed her thinking, not just the finished screen. Luna: One thing that stood out to me: she chose a nonprofit project. That's low-pressure and allows for real user feedback. Lucas: Exactly. And nonprofits are usually happy to get free help. Sarah's advice: pick an organization you actually care about. That motivation shows in the final work. Luna: It's a great example of how a career gap doesn't have to be a liability. It can be a launchpad. Lucas: And that's really the mission of this show—to help people see that possibility. We don't run any ads here because we want to keep the advice focused and useful. Luna: Yeah. If this episode helped you think through your own return, you can support that mission at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Every bit keeps the show ad-free and independent. Now, back to Sarah's story—she's been in the role for three months now, and she says the biggest surprise was how much she learned from her peers. Luna: That's great. What does she recommend for someone who's just starting to network? Lucas: Her advice: don't go in asking for a job. Go to learn. Ask designers about their day-to-day, their tools, their biggest challenges. That curiosity builds relationships naturally. Then, when a role opens up, you're top of mind. Luna: I think that's the key takeaway. Career gaps are common, but the comeback requires a strategy, not just a wish. Lucas: Exactly. And Sarah's story shows that with a little structure—a volunteer project, a low-cost course, and a networking habit—that comeback is absolutely achievable.