I have always been “that friend,” the one you can go to with all of your problems. As the oldest of 3, I had a natural instinct to take care of others. So when it came time in college to choose a major, social work spoke to me as it combined helping others and fighting for social injustices. I loved the idea of understanding people and how their lives have been shaped by their various worlds. It was not until the first semester of senior year that I got a taste of research. We were asked to choose research articles and to critically think about each stage of the research process. I loved these assignments and practicing how to take information beyond what is written in front of you.
Wanting to continue to build my critical thinking skills, I continued on to complete my Masters Degree in Social Work. My career in social work took me to various workplaces, but in each role I sharpened my skills in empathy through giving space for people to own and share their stories with me.
As I continued to work in the field, accumulating over 3,000 hours working in the field, 120 hours of individual supervision, and then ultimately applying to sit for the Licensed Clinical Social Work exam and passing I continued to practice individual and family therapy. As COVID-19 rocked the world, I became isolated from my fellow therapists and it was just me and my clients over Google Meet. After 10 months of telehealth, I realized that I craved working on a team and I wanted more opportunities for growth.
As I took some time to reflect and research, I benchmarked times in the past that I was fully present and engaged. I thought about my time in college and my research course, and the idea of doing research still excited me. I reached out to my network and did the typical Google search “Social worker making a career change.” After researching various career options, I stumbled upon the field of UX. Learning more about UX, I saw common themes to social work such as empathy for the user and advocacy of the user. I had vivid flashbacks of interdisciplinary team meetings where as the social worker, I advocated for my client’s individual needs and practiced empathy daily with each of my clients during therapy sessions. As well as, thoughts of how when I would use certain websites for work and I would say “well I think there is probably a more intuitive way of organizing this information.” Little did I know people dedicate their professional lives to this work.
I told a friend that I was thinking of making a career change, and they mentioned how Thinkful had a UX/UI Design program. I looked into the program, it seemed like the mission of Thinkful aligned with my career goals. With lots of encouragement and support from family, I made the big jump putting in my notice at work and enrolling in the UX/UI Immersion program. I have enjoyed every moment of this experience and pushing myself to be comfortable and embrace all that comes with the learning process.
I am excited for this new adventure, so let's connect!