Shane Lee from Ireland 🇨🇮 started as a UX Designer at Lative Limited in Dublin, Ireland 🇨🇮

HOSPITALITY TO UX

Shane Lee

What’s your career background?

I dropped out of Art College to pursue a career in music, which lasted 10yrs, I fell into hospitality to make ends meet and ended up managing bars and restaurants for 8 yrs. After starting a family I eventually fell out of love with hospitality due to work/life balance and decided to jump into the Car Hire industry just in time for the Covid epidemic to hit With Covid devastating the industry I decided to find a career with a good work/life balance and that would not be affected by Covid.

What interested you about UX? 

I had toyed with the thought of returning to full-time education to reskill for a new career, but the thought of doing a 4 year degree while supporting a growing family did not appeal. I had some background in design through my short spell in college so I always had an eye and an understanding of good design, and when I discovered that through an intense part-time bootcamp I could have a well paid job within 18 months in UX, I jumped at the opportunity.

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

When I started my bootcamp with CF I had a different mentor. I was never involved in a mentorship before so I had no expectations. The first mentor was fine and was there to help with any questions I had, but there was no drive behind his advice. Luckily for me the mentor decided to leave CF and I was given Valentin as my new mentor. Changing mentors midway through a bootcamp was not ideal, but from the first day I spoke to Valentin I knew I was onto a winner. The difference between the 2 mentors was night and day. From my first chat I had with Valentin I was re-energised and had a clear focus on what my end goal should be. The thing that I love about Valid is that he is there for you as a person. Yes, he will guide through any difficulties you are having with the course, but his overall goal is to focus you on getting what you want from the course, and that’s a job.

Did Valentin help you to get a UX role? 

Valentin helped me with putting my portfolio together,and he prepped me for searching for jobs, applying for jobs, and interviews. After 4 months of trusting his process I was offered a remote UX designer position with a start-up company based in Barcelona.

Would you recommend Valentin as a mentor to others? 

Yes, yes yes. Valentin is part life coach, part tech support, and part career coach. Overall he’s a great person and I miss our weekly 60min chats.