Laura Szumylo

About

I'm a UX strategist with 7 years in the field, though I didn't come from a traditional design background. I started my career as a professional photographer, then moved through small business ownership, healthcare admin, and marketing before discovering UX design and realizing it tied everything I'd done before into this new path. I've mentored more than 200 aspiring designers and career changers over the past 5 years. I want you to feel comfortable bringing your best effort, asking the tough questions, and not being afraid of being wrong. I'll meet you wherever you're at and explain things however you need it, whether that's examples, talking it through, or showing you.

How I can help

For the past five years, I’ve mentored over 200 design students and career changers, helping them understand not just what to do, but why. I use real-world scenarios to help mentees build the strategic thinking and problem-solving skills they need to apply UX beyond the classroom.

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A hard problem I've navigated

I learned about UX design through GMA. I turned on the TV one morning getting ready for work, which I never do because I'll get pulled into a program and forget I need to leave. They were interviewing a guy talking about all the different skills and attributes this job required, and as he named them off, I realized I was checking almost every one of them off in my head. I had two minutes to get out the door, and I still didn't know the job title. They cut to commercial, and by the time I had my second shoe on, they were back and had put his name and UX designer on the screen. I wrote it on my hand and walked out the door. At lunch I looked up some free online courses to see if this was genuine interest or just an escape from a job I didn't like. After completing those courses I was excited to learn more. I decided to book a two day UX design workshop to really test if this was something I wanted to do. At the end of the second day, the woman teaching the class asked where I was working as a designer. I told her I wasn't, that I was still figuring out if this was the right path. She told me she'd taught the class for fourteen years and that I was one of the best students she'd had, and she encouraged me to pursue it. About a year later, I enrolled in a bootcamp while working full time. Once I completed the course I decided I was going to freelance instead of working for a company. I've now been freelancing for 7 years.

Expertise