Nour Khoury from Lebanon 🇱🇧 started as a UX Concepter in E-Commerce at Jochen Schweizer mydays group in Munich, Germany 🇩🇪

ARCHITECTURE TO UX

Nour Alkhouri

What’s your career background?

I have a Bachelor degree in Landscape Architecture and have worked in this field for 7 years – 4.5 were in a large international firm and 2.5 were in a small firm in Germany. I always enjoyed the overall design process from research & analysis to concept and development, but unfortunately realized pretty quickly that these only make up a small portion of what tasks a L.A performs in a day.

What interested you about UX? 

After a lot of deep soul searching, I realized I want to work in a career that helps people, makes a difference and genuinely caters for them. I started writing down all my strengths, weaknesses, interests and dislikes and quickly realized that UX fits this role perfectly. The design process is largely focused on the elements I enjoy, it highlights the user’s needs and caters for them, and one of my favorite perks: No more subjective decisions. This means all decisions are backed by data and research that cant be argued against, so I don’t have to worry about catering for a client with questionable taste.

What did you like about Valentin as being your UX mentor? 

From day 1 I felt like I was blessed with having Valentin appointed as my mentor. As a new student, I was very nervous about my career shift and had doubts in the back of my mind. My first call with Valentin, I remember seeing someone that is overflowing with positivity and so focused on making me feel comfortable, brave, and ready for whatever is next. He turned my worries into excitement. I am an individual that likes to plan ahead and takes calculated moves, and Valentin immediately gave me a game plan. He made sure this was always about me, my goals, and my journey. It was never about finishing the course, on the contrary, it was about building my future and preparing me for a great start.

Did Valentin help you to get a UX role? 

I risk sounding like a cliché, but Valentin is one of the main reasons I was able to get my first UX job. This was always part of our game plan: our goal was not to finish the course, but instead to prepare me for real life situations, design challenges, interviews and exceeding all this and making sure I don’t just land a job, but I maintain it and thrive in it. Valentin offered me advice and assistance way beyond what his role required him to. He advised me to have a side project with a real life situation and a real client to have a true experience. With his guidance, mentorship and feedback, this design challenge has helped me land numerous interviews and has given me confidence in how to approach any question thrown my way. On top of that, he has always been available and flexible with his schedule and has often gone out of his way for his students.

Would you recommend Valentin as a mentor to others? 

Always. In fact, I have already recommended over 3 students to change mentors and specifically choose him. I also have been able to connect with 4 other students of his and we always exchange advice and notes based on what Valentin has told us. It really goes to show how much we value his feedback and how he has created a sense of community between us. Whenever we have good or bad news, there is always someone saying „what would Valentin say or do“ and then we would take into consideration all his advice. I genuinely believe whoever gets appointed with Valentin, has won a mentor for life. Or at least Valentin is stuck with us for life!