Why I started HiddenUX?

Back in 2012, while I was working at Sapient, I was preparing a talk with one of my colleagues. It was going to be for a local secondary school and we were going to talk about the Digital creative industry. It focused on how it has affected our lives and what opportunities were out there for them. Due to technical issues and some conflicting client meetings we could not give that talk. Shame, as I really wanted the students to be made aware of the different types of roles that were available to them after they finished with their studies. 

Something else happened that year. University tuition fees sky rocketed to £9,000 per year creating the highest average student debt of any English speaking country, £44,000. Yes, even surpassing the United States. 

Working in the Digital Creative industry for over 10 years, there was something that I kept on noticing with the key roles of any project. Roles such as a User Experience Designer, a UI Designer and a Developer, do not require you to have a University degree. I don’t have a degree and neither do many other of my colleagues within the industry. Also, from all the job interviews that I have been apart of, whether as the interviewer or interviewee, whether or not you have a degree never forms the pivotal focus of the conversation. People are more interested in your skills, experience and personality.

This is a truth that no one seems to be talking about especially to those that are considering University. Those that are applying to University are like the majority of the population during a Brexit referendum: misinformed. University is still seen as the default path in breaking into a career. 

Yet there are other factors students may not be considering when applying for University and it all stems from a powerful emotion that they feel but do not fully appreciate: fear.

The fear of missing out. 
The fear of being a bum. 
The fear of looking bad in front of others. 
The fear of letting someone down
The fear of not knowing what to do next after college and being left in the real world wilderness.

It’s a pivotal moment when you face the prospect of leaving institutional eduction after College as an 18 year old. For the past 15 years of your life, you competed to get grades, cultivated to avoid failure and taught things that you are not going to use for the rest of your life.

To top it all off, if you then choose to go to University and extend your institutional education for another three years, you will accumulate a huge debt and may also discover that you studied the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. This cycle happens to thousands of students every year all around the world. 

I can understand why it happens to many of us. We were reassured that it was the right thing to do as most of our friends were going. We were rushed into applying for University whilst still at College. Our parents definitely thought it was a good idea. We could do them proud and may even be the first child to get a University degree.

But is it right for you to go University? Why do you want to go University? Is there a better way of actually breaking into your desired Career? 

That’s why I started HiddenUX. I don't just want to share the hidden roles within a hidden industry but also the hidden way to find a fulfilling, creative and abundant career. The way that most people in the industry acknowledge but seldom talk about.