How to deal with Learned Helplessness when applying for roles in UX
So, here’s the situation. You’re applying for UX roles constantly and putting as much effort in as physically and mentally possible; yet you’ll see your peers swiftly getting a role without making much “effort.” This then makes us question what we are doing wrong and if our efforts are enough. This is, my friends, Learned Helplessness!
Learned Helplessness has been defined as:
“When people feel that they have no control over their situation, they may begin to behave in a helpless manner. This inaction can lead people to overlook opportunities for relief or change.”(Verywellmind)
This term comes from Martin Seligman and Steven F. Maier, when they noticed occurrences in the animal specimens they were studying were repeatedly subjected to an aversive stimulus that they cannot escape. Eventually, the animals stopped trying to avoid the stimulus and behave as if it is utterly helpless to change the situation.
Symptoms of Learned Helplessness include:
· The feeling you’re not good enough
· Low self-esteem
· Feeling of giving up
· Being depressed
It’s a horrible sensation whereby the demon of comparison and jealousy can overtake the reality of the situation, sometimes even ruining relationships along the way!
A confession from myself: the first time I came across this term was during my second year at university around 10 years ago, when I was trying to obtain a placement as part of my Business Studies degree. I tried day and night for about a year to apply for placements and attend interviews, and found that no matter how hard I tried, I never seemed to be successful in obtaining the role. Whereas others on my course and my ex-partner would only apply for two or three and seem to gain one without much effort.
Talking about this to one of the Career Advisors at the university, she told me I was suffering from Learned Helplessness and the exhaustive effort I was putting into finding a placement was causing me to compare my efforts with my peers.
At the time, I thought the reason why I wasn’t achieving a placement was down to myself being overweight, not coming from a “middle class+” background, and not being part of the “popular” crowd. On reflection, these presumptions weren’t entirely true and I wished I invested less in my applications and focused more into building up my own skills and interests that would be sellable for employment. Also, I would have questioned if the job culture and learnings promised from the application met with my goals and values.
Fast forward 9 years later, and I would be faced with a similar situation. It took me over 6 months after finishing my Bootcamp to find my first role in UX. At times when applying, I did feel like giving up and not sure if I was good enough in this field.
As I’m going through this reflection of past experiences, I want to offer advice to those of you who maybe going through a similar situation:
1) Don’t judge someone else’s situation. Yes, they may have “easily” got a UX role and social media sites make it look easy to compare someone else’s accomplishments to yours, but most of the time it is an illusion. They may have been through the same struggles as you, and yes they may have achieved the end goal of achieving the role, but are they happy in that role or achieving what they need to succeed in the role now?
2) Look to network with fellow peers who are in UX or roles you are interested in applying for. This can be done through searches on Linked In, boards like UXPA, and through outreach to other Medium writers (like yours truly). UX is a very sociable field and if you reach out to others requesting help, people will gladly give their time to support you on this.
3) Find a mentor or coach in this field who can help you out. Sometimes we are unaware of what the problem actually is when applying for roles and an outside perspective may take us in a new direction that we might have not considered beforehand.
4) Review hobbies and experiences that can help you to grow in this field. This can be key when applying for roles and provide a unique selling point for your application. Sometimes we focus just on the title of “UX Researcher” for example, but in reality what we want from a role and how can experiences or industries we’ve enjoyed in the past can be a powerful asset when looking for our next job role.
5) Keep learning and growing your skills in UX. Whether that’s making time to read articles, watch YouTube videos, take on voluntary projects or sign up for courses. UX is ever-growing and job applications should not stop you from continually learning in this field.
6) Take time to rest! What I mean by this is not sitting on a sofa and bingeing several Netflix series! Rather take time to be involved with hobbies or interests you enjoy outside of work. This will help the mind to push its efforts onto something that is not related to the job application task.
Through a reflection of these six points and explaining the effect that Learned Helplessness can have when applying for job roles in UX, I want you to leave with this closing thought: keep trying and from my experiences, tips from this blog post and support from great people, you will get your role in your role in UX. Keep your chin and keep applying 😊
Fancy a chat about all things UX and personal development? Feel free to book in a 30 minute chat with me with Calendly.
