I worked as a graphic designer between my company’s marketing and IT teams.

I’d always been interested in web design but never fully understood what that entailed. Then, an opportunity came up at my company to work alongside the IT manager developing the website and I jumped at it!

I had worked closely with the sales, IT and digital marketing teams, so I knew about the different channels within the business. But before studying UX, I never knew how to make them work together.

The diploma was more substantial than other courses; some were only three months long and offering a job guarantee at the end which I just didn’t buy into.

We were working quite a lot in silos. Before I started advocating for the collaborative, UX culture nobody really paid attention or realised the full potential of what UX could offer.

It’s been amazing to see how you can use UX as a unifying business goal. It benefits the customers and it benefits everyone else too.

Yes, I always encourage people to do the Professional Diploma because of the range of skills that you develop; from tech skills to social skills to presentation skills. There are so many transferable skills that can be applied to UX, that you can really come from any background and do well.