We love a bit of context in UX writing, so here’s one for this upcoming essay: I’ve been in the workforce for 13 years, with the last 6 years as a senior writer in big tech.

I’m really happy where I am in my career now. I’ve never had ambitions to climb the corporate ladder as up till this point, I only wanted to earn enough to be comfortable. It’s great that I can now afford the nicer things in life, but there’s still a nagging feeling that I need to start planning for this inevitable yet uncertain event called The Future.

Money is not the end goal – freedom is.

Based on my current financial situation, I’ve come to terms with the fact that having full-time employment is still the safest bet towards financial freedom.

Then comes the question of what I can do to stay employable. Being happy where I am and choosing to remain where I am is at odds with every business in the world where everything is about earning more and spending less. It’s tiring and I wish it wasn’t this way, but I don’t see any other alternative in this capitalistic world.

I just want to earn enough so I can walk away from this marathon of a rat race!

The big dream is to have enough retirement savings so that I can go freelance without any financial worries. And the sooner I can do that, the better. But I have a long way to go. I need to earn and save a significant amount before I can even think about a comfortable semi-retirement.

Where do I go from here?

So back to my present situation: I’ve been a senior for a while, and the only way for me to earn more is to progress up the UX writing ladder. There are 2 career paths that writers can take: craft or people management.

For now, I want to hone my craft skills and focus on being a better UX writer. There’s still so much more to learn and get exposed to.

So I did some reading and digging into what it really means to be successful as a UX leader in the corporate world.

These reads really helped me think deeply about my career:

Mike Steib’s talk at Google: his career manifesto, which helped young professionals think about their career paths, went viral amongst Googlers
How to become a senior designer: Yutong Xue’s account on how she forged a path towards being a design leader at Meta
A successful UX leader is a creative leader: Jade Goldsmith on the importance of knowing one’s purpose as a UX writing leader at Booking.com

Everybody wants to earn more and we all want that promotion. But how do you really prove your value to the business? For UX professionals, it’s mainly about demonstrating the impact of our work, and proving that we can earn more and spend less for the business.

Of course you also can’t be an asshole while achieving that. Your co-workers need to like you. But I’m not going to rub shoulders with those in leadership just so that they know my name, and I’m not going to facilitate a workshop just because it proves leadership skills. That’s awfully superficial and gives me the ick.

I want to work on things because I believe it should be done. So in order to convince myself, I need to dig deeper into my day-to-day work and understand my role in this corporate environment. Because if I can’t explain that well to myself, I’ll continue to wander around aimlessly.

So this is how I plan to start working more purposefully:

Step 1: Set the intention

The smaller the scope of work, the clearer things will seem. It’s easier for me to only focus on my team’s goals and draw clear boundaries around that.

But senior UX writers are expected to do that well, and also be able to see things on a higher level. And the further back you pull, the harder it’ll be to see things clearly.

This brings me to the conundrum that many of us in senior UX positions face: how do we fulfil both the tactical and strategic work at the same time? We need to fix the mundane issues and also think about how to solve bigger business goals.

First, it’s important to acknowledge that a UX writer’s opportunities is dependent on a myriad factors, some of which are not within one’s control. If a company has a top-down leadership style, having a UX writer bring up anything that’s beyond what the PRD has scoped out will be seen as a hindrance. If a PM reaches out to a UX writer to update a language-related bug in an error message, it’s also not the right time to bring up ideas on ways to improve the end-to-end customer journey.

The reality of being a UX writer is often different from what’s listed down on paper. Unfortunately there’s no set checklist to tick off for career progression, which causes some frustration among those wanting to advance quickly. But to me, it’s a matter of sniffing out opportunities. Since big tech companies move fast, change quickly, and have many teams with ambiguous scopes, it takes time – we’re talking years – to even understand how things work.

Step 2: Do the homework

To think strategically, I must first know the following at the top of my head:

What the company goals are
What the business unit’s goals are
What the team goals are
How the projects on the team’s roadmap achieve the goals listed above
What my line manager’s goals are
How my day-to-day work achieves all of the goals listed above

Only then can I see the bigger picture and identify the problems worth pursuing, and how, as an individual contributor, I can help the business earn more and spend less. That’s what strategic thinking means for a senior UXer.

This poses a complex, open-ended, but endlessly interesting puzzle to solve. I might get laid off before I can solve anything impactful, but hey, I’ve got nothing to gain but more knowledge if I try. Since layoffs are the new norm anyways, it makes sense to dig deep into every corporate role and understand UX’s role in the business.

Step 3: Make time to think

I’ve also decided to create some quiet time in the morning to either do deep work or let my mind wander and reflect on random work things. By abstaining from checking Slack messages and emails until lunch time, I can stop myself from starting the day on a reactive mode and getting swept away by the endless list of tasks.

While I constantly need to reach out to colleagues to discuss work, I’ve switched from sending messages out whenever I think of something, to noting that thought down first and sending that message out in the afternoon if absolutely necessary.

Since I’m a morning person and my mind is at its clearest and most active in the day, I’m hoping this new routine can bring more clarity and purpose to my work day. It’ll either be the catalyst of brilliant ideas, or just piss my colleagues off. Either way, I’m willing to take that chance!

Screenshot from an animated summary of Cal Newport’s famed book *Deep work*

Step 4: Ask for regular feedback

While the feedback loop is formalised within the company, I do think it’s also helpful to ask for honest, off-the-record feedback from colleagues regularly. Be it after wrapping up a project, after some disagreement, or on a monthly cadence with your line manager, these conversations can provide insights into what I did well and how I can improve.

So these are the 4 steps I’m starting with. I’ll figure things out as I go along, and I’ll be back with another post when I have more self-learnings!

Until then, don’t forget to let your mind wander!

Creating a path towards further career development