?>
Skip to content

Breaking into UX: Career Insights, Networking, and Mentorship

How do you break into UX, build a thriving career, and even teach the next generation, all without a formal UX degree? Meet Ricardo

In this episode of UX Spotlight Series, Nate sits down with Ricardo Ramirez, a seasoned UX Designer, UX Consultant, and Continuing Education Instructor at York University in Toronto, to explore his self-taught journey into UX and the strategies that helped him succeed.

You don’t need permission to learn—start where you are.” – Ricardo Ramirez

He shares how he got started, leveraged networking, and embraced mentorship to transition from a software developer to a UX lead and instructor.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • What led Ricardo to build a career in UX without a formal design degree.
  • Why networking is the key to opening opportunities in the field and how to do it right.
  • Common challenges UX designers face when selling their point of view to stakeholders 
  • The power of mentorship and giving back to the UX community

Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.

Nate Brown

Nate Brown

Nate is an accomplished account manager for many large enterprise-level companies in the North American region. With multiple years of experience collaborating with research teams to maximize their research in the Userlytics platform, Nate possesses key insights into why some research projects lack substance and others produce valuable insights. His favorite part about working at Userlytics is building lasting relationships with his clients, even in a remote setting.

Schedule a Free Demo

Ricardo Ramirez

Ricardo Ramirez

Ricardo is a Service Designer and UX Consultant with over 10 years of experience driving digital transformation and innovation across diverse sectors, including for-profit, non-profit, and government organizations. His expertise spans Service Design, Human-Centered Design, UX Research, and Strategic Design thinking. Leveraging these skills, he has successfully led multidisciplinary teams to create seamless, end-to-end experiences that prioritize user needs while balancing business and technical constraints.

Learn More

Let's get in touch!

  • Userlytics Facebook
  • Userlytics Instagram
  • Userlytics X
  • Userlytics LinkedIn
  • Userlytics YouTube

Popular Resources

Mastering Moderated User Testing
Blog
February 24, 2025

How To Do Moderated User Testing

Take your moderated user testing interviews to the next level with these essential moderation techniques to uncover deep user insights.
Read More
Webinar
March 10, 2025

Continuous Discovery: From Theory to Practice

Learn how real-world product teams apply the continuous discovery framework, overcome challenges, and make smarter product decisions.
Read More
The state of ux in 2025
Whitepaper
March 5, 2024

The State of UX in 2025

Discover 'The State Of UX In 2025' report: Key insights on UX research evolution, roles of product managers, and future trends.
Read More
podcast breaking
Podcast
March 20, 2025

Breaking into UX: Career Insights, Networking, and Mentorship

Want to start a career in UX? UX Designer Ricardo Ramirez shares his self-taught journey into UX, how to do networking right, resources to get started, and much more.
Read More

Ready to Elevate Your UX Game?