UX Designers being misused

Context- I’m 30 YO. Have 4.5 years of overall experience and 3.5 years in User Experience Design. Ive got a background in physical product design & I landed in UX due to non availability of 3D projects in TCS. My leaning in UX since 3.5 years has been hands-on. I’ve worked for a client for almost 3.5 years as a user experience designer. I used to work in silo 95% of the time and hence didn’t know the right YX methodology to use during the UX research process, didn’t know the rights questions that I need to ask to both the stakeholders and users as I didn’t educate myself through any online courses regarding the same. Before I graduated, I was told be a few friends that ‘UX is doable and it’s very easy up learn. If you can pursue physical product design, you can easily do UX. Fast forward 4 years, I’m compiling all the work I’ve done for the client and I’ve realised a lot of loopholes and lack of depth both in the design process and in the designs. Neither I asked the right questions during the User interview nor my design fully solves the user’s problems completely. I have to add these 2 projects I d worked for the client as I need to showcase real world projects in my portfolio. I want to switch not just due to bad pay. I want to switch for better exposure, for growth and to learn to work in a team. I can’t go to the client and gain more clarity on the needs and requirements of the project as I no longer work with them. I will re-educate myself regarding the user research methodologies, best UX practices , UI design principles etc. But how do I showcase these projects which are flawed and has a lot of loopholes?

Have you had experiences working with UX Designers which made you want to pull your hair out and smash your keyboard into the screen? Have you instead worked with designer unicorns who made your life easy? UX Designers who looped you in from the very start of the engagement, understood your tech stack and developmental constraints, reviewed designs with your team before pushing them to production, who crafted well-organised design systems and components which were updated in real time, making life easy for your FE developers and in time for each dev sprint? Do you believe such designers even exist? Please share your stories.

I just got laid from from the current company and looking a job as a creative designer , most of the companies are adding Video creator in the JD , i mostly work on 2D designs and digital sketching, every company I checked are asking for a graphic designer + video editor . Is this normal among mid companies ?

I am working at a design agency from 2 years with a CTC between 4 to 6 LPA which way to less considering my experience and the work I am doing handling multiple clients, delivering Designs in tight deadlines and yet getting paid way to less. But considering current situation the market is so saturated that I don't hear from companies that I have applied for.

As a UX designer, I struggled with an accounting feature due to lack of knowledge and specs. Despite help, the process felt wrong. My boss suggested I might not be suited for this role and should rethink my career choice. How do I respond?

I recently had the chance to interact with a couple of product designers from the Bangalore startup scenes. The huddle also included a few who are quite active on the LinkedIn community - where they constantly talkabout craft, user empathy, design principles and what not! But when you really listen to what they are saying - they are just all fluff and no meat. They just want to beautify things for the sake of it. There’s no depth in understanding the users. When asked “What measures do you take to empathise with the users?”, this senior and ‘awarded’ designer casually answered - “ We just go with the VIBE!” I MEAN, REALLY? Looks like the marketing effort that goes into building their social profile is all these designers care about. The future of UXD scares me. Sorry for the betrayal, users. 💀

What are the things you look out for while giving work to design agencies?

Its been 3 months since I left my last company after completing 8 months of internship, I rejected the full time offer because I was exploited and work culture was very toxic, since then I applied to more than 100+ jobs online and hardly converted 5 interviews and got 1 offer for part time which is soon going to be revoked, assuming from the company's behaviour. At this point I have lost all the motivation to work, improve and apply for jobs I am tired and drowing in self doubt. It even kills me to see the people who are not skilled as I am are getting good jobs and salary. With all this my family is not so supportive and not a single day has passed where I didn't get into arguments with my parents.

I just want to know how designers and pms are placed in a company? Because where I work I feel the PM is really dumb and she doesn't understand ux or even a bit a sense of visual design on how ui should work. She says "I don't really care how a button looks as long as it's there on the page". And I keep her in loop for feedbacks and she just doesn't understand the problem statement. Initially I thought maybe I'm not explaining it correctly but it's almost a year now and I feel she's dumb. She's actually a friend of the CEO so she agrees to whatever he says and he's kind of similar so I don't really know what to say. Also, I always work on a new project without having a PRD in place. So again is that how it's supposed to go where I do the PMs job and a product designers job or how is it? Any comments or thoughts are appreciated 🙏