The UX Education Lie That Cost Me Years

20 Jan

I spent $6,200 on UX courses and bootcamps.

None of it helped me pass content design interviews.

For years, I thought the problem was me …that I wasn't confident enough, wasn't ready yet, hadn't practiced enough. That explanation was convenient because it kept the solution in my control: just try harder, prepare more, get better feedback.

I believed that story because I had done everything the UX education industry told me would make me hireable.

I Did Everything the UX Education Industry Recommended

I took a $1,200 UX writing course. Then I enrolled in a $5,000 UX career bootcamp.

This wasn't casual spending. This was money that should have gone toward keeping my family fed. Every dollar I put into those programs was a dollar I couldn't spend on groceries, on bills, on anything else that mattered.

I followed the curriculum, completed the assignments, and trusted that if I did the work, the results would follow.

On paper, I was doing exactly what the industry recommends.

My work was improving. My roles were changing. Externally, things looked like they were moving.

Interviews kept falling apart anyway.

Why UX Courses and Bootcamps Didn't Hold Up in Interviews

None of it held up in content design interviews.

That disconnect was infuriating. Not confusing…infuriating.

I understood the work. I could explain my decisions clearly after the interview, on my own terms. I could articulate why I made certain choices and what tradeoffs I considered.

But in interviews, something kept collapsing.

The more I tried to fix it, the worse it felt. I started believing I had made the wrong choices. Wasted money my family desperately needed. Trusted a system that promised preparation and delivered something else entirely.

The shame of that hit differently than professional frustration. This wasn't abstract career anxiety. This was real money I couldn't get back, spent on something that didn't work.

What made this worse? Nothing in the UX education ecosystem explained the gap.

If UX courses and bootcamps worked the way they implied, they would show up in interviews.

They didn't.

The Portfolio Problem I Didn't Understand Yet

Eventually, I stopped trying to feel more "ready" and made a decision that didn't look impressive on paper.

I took a $1-per-hour content design job for a small business.

Not because it was aspirational. Not because it was safe. But because I finally understood what interviews actually reward.

That role gave me something the courses never did…portfolio work I could stand behind. A case study built around constraints that forced real decisions. Strategic choices I had to defend without theoretical safety nets. Work that had to hold up under scrutiny without me filling in the gaps.

At the time, I didn't fully understand why this mattered.

I just knew it was different.

What Finally Survived Content Design Interviews

I presented that work as a portfolio case study.

That's what landed my first role as a senior content designer at bp.

What frustrates me most isn't the money itself …it's how long I spent blaming myself for a structural problem I couldn't see. The shame. The regret. The belief that I had failed my family by trusting the wrong system.

I thought interviews were testing confidence. They weren't.

They were testing whether my portfolio could prove my thinking without me in the room doing damage control.

The courses taught me how to think like a content designer. But interviews don't care what you know. They care whether your portfolio can show that thinking without you there to explain it.

If your case study looks polished but doesn't explain your judgment, you end up doing all the explaining verbally. And that's where interviews collapse.

Because hiring managers can't tell if you're describing work you actually did or just filling in what's missing.

That gap (between looking prepared and being hireable) is structural, not personal.

And it's why so many capable, intelligent people keep fixing the wrong thing. They seek better interview feedback. They collect more credentials. They assume they're not ready yet.

I did too…until I saw what actually survived evaluation.

Preparation and Evaluation Are Not the Same Thing

That realization didn't arrive as a dramatic breakthrough. It arrived slowly, after I had already crossed a line I didn't fully understand at the time.

I'm careful now when I talk about UX education, portfolios, and content design careers.

Not because learning doesn't matter.

But because preparation and evaluation are not the same thing…and confusing the two quietly costs people years.

Roxana Shirazi

Roxana is the founder of The Content Design Co., where she helps writers become confident content designers with strategy-first skills, portfolio proof, and the clarity product teams are hiring for.

After years of being overworked and underpaid as a writer, she learned that more hustle was not the answer. Better positioning was. By showing her thinking through strategy and case studies, she went from overlooked to in-demand, partnering with brands like Google, bp, Citi, and Meta.

Today, she runs high-touch, human-first programs that guide writers through doing the work so they can build real proof, grow confidence, and step into well-paid roles without burning out or selling out.