Collective

We’re a worker-owned agency that designs, builds and supports websites for organisations we believe in.

Becoming The Apprentice

My journey as the first Junior UX Design Apprentice, to join the team at Agile Collective, began at the start of March 2022, a feat I am undoubtedly proud of. A few months before, I saw a job ad for a design position in the company and thought, “Design? Yeah! I can do that”. It’s the one thing I know I do well. However, joining Agile Collective opened my eyes to a whole new world - UX Design.

I’d heard about UX/UI design before, seen multiple job advertisements for experienced UX/UI designers, but I'd never looked further into what that meant. I would describe myself as a ‘smooth brain’ coming into this industry and now, just a month in, there are so many lines of information that I’ve taken in, I feel like a walking cheat sheet of a (starter) UX Design quiz.

As a newcomer to this industry, the team felt it was important for me to gain an education in all things UX, with their support I am currently studying at the UX Design Institute, where in 6 months time I’ll have a UX Design diploma. My favourite aspect of this is that I get to learn everything from the ground up, share this knowledge with my fellow designers and work in an environment that allows me to put everything I learn into practice, so it’s a win-win.

Desktop monitor showing the UX Design Institute learning platform. A Mac screen is shown in the corner displaying a section of Rae's Agile Collective team page.

The roles I’ve had before have stretched far and wide into varying industries but nothing has been quite like this. There’s a huge sense of community, learning is highly encouraged and there are multiple opportunities for growth. In my first month, I have attended client meetings, been introduced to different stages of the design process and logged my first billable hours with a user research session! 

 

Initially, alongside a general excitement about starting a new job I was super nervous about what it would be like to work on something I know very little about, but the encouragement I’ve felt from the team has really put that at ease. The most important thing for me is that I wake up in the morning and look forward to starting my working day, gaining new knowledge and feeling really grateful that I was given the opportunity to be a part of it all.

Meet the Authors
Back to blog