VanUE

Hiring UX | From salaries to skills

February 26 · 5:30 PM
VFS

TIMING

Networking: 5:30pm to 6pm

Event start: 6pm sharp (note that doors will lock after 6pm) to 7:30pm

DETAILS

How much is UX talent worth? What are companies looking for in a 'UX' person? What are the skills that matter? How do you find, hire, and keep a UX professional?

Last fall we asked the VanUE community to participate in the Work and Salary Survey. (Nope, not the IA Institute one, but a survey just for us Canadians!) This survey captured information on demographics, work experience and positions, and compensation of UX professionals across Canada. The goal for this survey was to gather up-to-date information about the state of user experience jobs to help all professionals understand the UX market and opportunities in Canada.

Now the time you've been waiting for has finally come. Answers have been tallied, numbers have been crunched, and Laura Ballay and Meghan Deutscher from Periscope UX will share highlights of the survey results.

Following the salary survey presentation, Gordon Ross from OpenRoad will facilitate a discusson of several senior UX professionals on the topic of finding, hiring, and keeping UX designers. The panelists come from a range of industry and professional backgrounds, but are all responsible for hiring user experience talent. They will be discussing their shared and unique challenges of managing UX staff against the backdrop of the salary survey findings.

Panelists:
Representing the following types of organizations:

Chris Ryan, VP Interaction Design and Usability at Vision Critical
Chris Miller, Director of Brand Services at Cossette
Blair Neufeld & Dominique Bohn, User Experience Design Team leads, BC Gov
Boris Mann, Managing Partner, Full Stack

Speakers:
Periscope UX is Laura Ballay and Meghan Deutscher, two User Experience and Interaction Designers based in Vancouver, BC. With their combined 20 or so years of design and usability experience and Masters degrees in Interaction Design and HCI, they provide a full range of user-centered design services to clients in web, mobile and software.

Join or login to comment.

AHMAD KHOUDARI

Although I enjoyed parts of the events and appreciated all the efforts to make it happen, I think there is a major issue in the survey that has not been addressed yet nor alluded to. The one thing this survey should have made is to establish a clear distinction between freelancers and full-time employees. I am pretty sure the hourly wage differs significantly between the two groups, some individuals also belong to both groups.
For someone who is considering to move into the UX world, this report provided me with lots of good input. yet, I am still confused about the annual average salary its stating.
Other than that nice event. so thanks.

0 · February 27
Anna Macaranas

Very informative and insightful for someone who recently graduated from a MSc in design research. A bit of a debbie downer in terms of what that means in terms of landing a UX job in Vancouver and being a UX professional in Vancouver overall.

0 · February 27
Paul Hibbitts

Thanks to everyone involved for a very informative presentation and discussion!

0 · February 27
Selma Zafar

Thank you everyone for coming out to the event. We did experiment with also having it available through a webinar - there were a few technical glitches, but we are hoping to streamline this more for next time. Apologies for those who tried to login and listen and were unable to.

Here is the link to the slideshare for the salary survey: http://www.slideshare.net/uxdes...

0 · February 27
Joffrey MOUGEL

Very interesting event.

0 · February 27
Shawn Mabey

Big props to Laura and Meghan for all their effort on managing and reporting on the survey. I appreciated them sharing the context behind the questions and lessons learned along the way.

The panel discussion was insightful and provided a good cross-section of the industry, from the start-up world to the public sector. Thanks to the panelists for taking part.

1 · February 26
Julien

I so appreciate Meghan and Laura's efforts at conducting the survey, and all the people who responded. The presentation and panel discussion were a wealth of information for me as I start my path in this career.

0 · February 26
Mahshid Zeinaly

I think the questions that you posted were more interesting than the answers that I got from the survey. The survey was interesting but it was something to spend half an hour on. I would say 10 minute maximum would have been enough. I do not think knowing the details about the survey adds any value to my knowledge. Also it would be great of you invite people who are more interested and involved in hiring UX. I personally do not think having two people from gov sector was necessary.

0 · February 26
Gavin Maguire

Very informative. Looking forward to seeing what the next industry review looks like.

0 · February 26
Sean Foo

I'd love to see this streamed also. I've paid but commitments mean I likely can't make it down.

If someone can ask this question for me - what's a great value proposition for a UX designer to join a co-founding team? :)

0 · February 26
- View all 4 replies
- Sean Foo
  
  I've changed my RSVP to "no", whoever gets my spot hope you enjoy it :)
  
  0 · February 26
- Mahshid Zeinaly
  
  Thanks Sean, It now shows that one spot left, but there is no RSVP icon!
  
  1 · February 26
- Mahshid Zeinaly
  
  Thanks. I am in :)
  
  0 · February 26
- Sean Foo
  
  You're welcome. If you took any notes send them my way! I'm more interested in a UX designer as a fellow co-founder than hiring.
  
  0 · February 26
Gordon Ross

Also, the presto starts at 6pm PST, 30 min from right now.

1 · February 26
- Cindy
  
  Does anyone have the link?
  
  0 · February 26
Gordon Ross

It is going to be. Selma has Goto meeting setup, the URL will be posted shortly.

0 · February 26
Cindy

I guess this isn't going to be streamed :(... Can one of the organizers share the survey mentioned (the Canadian one) as well as the slides and any key points that were raised?

0 · February 26
Cindy

Any chance this can be broadcasted for live streaming? I'm in Toronto, and I am hiring and it has been a difficult process. I would love to listen to this talk and discussion!

1 · February 20
- View all 4 replies
- Selma Zafar
  
  hi Cindy, we are exploring options with VFS. Stay tuned!
  
  0 · February 20
- Cindy
  
  HI Selma, Thank you. I hope you can swing this... even Skype at the minimum would be helpful!
  
  0 · February 21
- Cindy
  
  Any update on this? If not, perhaps I can see if I can utilize my company's tool?
  
  0 · February 25
- Cindy
  
  Can someone give us an update please? Even if its a no-go, it would be good to know!
  
  0 · February 26
Laura Cortes

Yey

0 · February 25
Daryl Hatton

Claiming the last spot - the site won't let me pay and respond properly - email sent to Darren to hopefully fix it.

0 · February 25
Alex Hermosillo

Hey, where is the best place to post a job.

0 · February 22
- Sogol Assadbeigi
  
  Linkedin in my opinion... unless its a smaller job then craigslist
  
  0 · February 25
anna

Yes, I'm keen for having notes emailed out or live streaming - what a gift this would be as I'm unable to pop over from Victoria.

0 · February 21
Darrell Houle

Sounds fun.

0 · February 21
Darren Gibbons

Hi Rowan & Rafael,

Could you try again? I've made some changes to our Paypal settings - lets see if it helps things.

0 · February 18
- View all 3 replies
- Rowan FB Hodge
  
  Just received a more different error:
  
  The PayPal site is currently experiencing technical difficulties with our credit card processor. We are working to solve this problem as quickly as possible. Please return to the PayPal website later to complete your transaction. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
  
  I'm happy to bring a fiver to the door and will try that and see you there!
  
  0 · February 18
- Rafael Perez
  
  It worked for me. thanks
  
  0 · February 18
- Cheryl Chung
  
  It worked for me too. Thanks Darren!
  
  0 · February 18
Rebecca

On Friday (and again today) I was trying to add a guest to my RSVP and received the same error message as Rowan. I was using the same card I used to purchase my original ticket early last week. I also used the card several times over the weekend without any issues, so it's definitely not the card.

0 · February 18
Rowan FB Hodge

My error message read as follows:

The card you entered cannot be used for this payment. Please enter a different credit or debit card number.

But not 3 minutes prior to trying this on my first attempt, I successfully used the same card to purchase something else on PayPal -- so I'm pretty confident it isn't my card.

Can I pay at the door?

0 · February 18
Darren Gibbons

Sorry about the problems - not sure why Paypal has been failing for some people but not others. I've filed a support ticket with Meetup.

In the mean time, if people could share the specific error they're seeing it will help us track down what's going on.

Thanks!

0 · February 18
Gillian Lo

Hi! I've trouble paying with Pay Pal. Is anyone else having the same problem?

0 · February 15
- View all 4 replies
- Rafael Perez
  
  Same thing here... I'll try again tomorrow.
  
  0 · February 16
- Gillian Lo
  
  Hi host! I tried many times but Pay Pal keeps rejecting my credit card. Is there any way I can register and pay in person? Thank you!
  
  0 · February 16
- Rowan FB Hodge
  
  Same problems here, three days from my first attempt, still not working today.
  
  0 · February 17
- Lynne Polischuik
  
  Hi, if you're having issues with payment can you be more specific? Is PayPal simply declining your payment attempt when you hit 'Submit' or pay, or are you not able to get to PayPal at all? If it's a declined payment issue you may need to contact your card provider or Paypal itself. It does appear to be working for others. VanUE typically doesn't accept payments on-site.
  
  0 · February 17
Shawn Mabey

Worked alright for me yesterday.

0 · February 15
Ben Skelton

I just registered and it worked for me!

0 · February 15