My Background

Despite formal training in financial management and banking, my heart always belonged to design. As a 35-year-old product designer with 14 years of experience, I've carved an unconventional path to my current role as Senior Product Designer at Kinetik. There, I collaborate with cross-functional teams to create experiences that precisely align with user needs while embodying our brand's distinct identity.

My journey spans continents—from Palestine to Egypt, Turkey, and soon Taiwan—reflecting my determination to pursue design excellence despite limited access to traditional education pathways. My passion has always been in the design field. Despite facing challenges in joining traditional design schools due to complex circumstances in my country, I was determined to pursue my dream.

My Challenge

Transitioning from finance to design without formal training presented formidable obstacles:

  • Educational barriers: Limited access to traditional design schools in my home country
  • Knowledge fragmentation: Design resources scattered across countless platforms and articles
  • Skill validation: Difficulty proving my self-taught expertise to potential employers
  • Continuous growth: Staying current with rapidly evolving design standards and practices

Finding My Solution

After years of piecing together my design education through disparate online resources, discovering Uxcel transformed my learning journey. I first discovered Uxcel on LinkedIn while browsing through my feed. I came across a post mentioning the startup and out of curiosity, I clicked on the link. From that moment on, my perspective changed entirely.

The platform addressed my longstanding frustration with fragmented learning: I had been searching for a centralized platform for UI, UX, and product design for a long time. The internet is flooded with articles, courses, and designers sharing their knowledge, but it never felt like enough. I needed a space where I could find everything I needed in one place.

What particularly resonated was how Uxcel combined comprehensive learning with practical skill assessment: Simply taking a course wasn't enough. I needed to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in the field and have the ability to identify areas where I needed to improve my skills. Uxcel provided exactly that.

Transformative Results

The impact on my professional trajectory has been remarkable:

  • Dream job placement: Uxcel has become a game changer for me and helped me to land my dream job in the design industry
  • Strategic job matching: The matching process was very thorough and the job you presented to me aligns well with my skills, experience, and interests
  • Professional satisfaction: I have been working with Kinetik for the past 4 months and I couldn't be happier with my experience
  • Meaningful impact: Together, we have made significant strides in developing a product that has the potential to revolutionize the CrossFit industry

Beyond job placement, Uxcel's certification program has provided crucial validation of my self-taught skills: I have decided to pursue a professional UX design certification because I want to further develop and validate my skills and knowledge in the field.

Strategic Professional Development

The certification delivers tangible benefits both personally and for my organization:

  • Professional credibility: Obtaining a certification will demonstrate my commitment to the profession and showcase my expertise to potential employers
  • Business impact: Having a certified designer on staff can improve the overall user experience of our products and services, leading to increased customer satisfaction and potentially increased revenue
  • Competitive advantage: Certification can also provide credibility and differentiation in a competitive market

My journey from finance professional to senior product designer illustrates how structured learning, skill validation, and strategic job matching can transform career trajectories, even for those without traditional educational paths. Through platforms like Uxcel that combine comprehensive resources with practical assessment, I've transformed my lifelong passion into a thriving design career that continues to evolve across global opportunities.