When I started writing about my unemployment experiences, I wrote about relating surviving unemployment to punk rock. Talk about cringe-worthy. I now realize that trying to get a UX design job in a field such as finance or healthcare doesn’t have much to do with punk rock, at all or…

I’m not a huge comic book reader, but with the few that I have read it’s been easy to recognize a pattern: superheroes in the beginning of their stories do not recognize that they are anything remotely special. …

It’s a paradox that many companies do not understand: creativity and innovation is not something that can be controlled at the touch of a button. …

What’s worse than being the only UX designer in a company? Being one of two UX designers in a company. The answer could also be: Being one of twelve UX designers in a company. I find it ironic that people who have developed special skills in collaboration are also the…

One way I have tried to get over unemployment was to teach adjunct at a local university, as a way of giving back to my community while earning some money to help out my self-esteem. This was, and is, no way to get rich. …

One thing that has prevented me in the past from asking friends for help is feeling like some kind of damsel in distress. This type of thinking — that I’m some kind of delicate flower that needs saving — has really done a number to my self-esteem over the years. …

It’s very strange talking now about the pre-pandemic job interview process in the DC area. Most of the time, you were on the phone with a recruiter first. Once you passed the recruiter screening, you had another phone call, this time usually with the company’s hiring manager. Only after at…

The Jonestown massacre happened when I was eight. Many of the victims came from the original People’s Temple in Bay Area, so for me this was all local news, and an ongoing story at that. It is so much more than the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid” for me. If you…

If you have been a UX designer for any length of time, you may have had a recruiter call you about UX design positions at companies where they are just starting to invest in UX. If so, you have heard things like “you’ll be the first UX hire, but you…

A big reason why I am writing this series is to let other people know that getting laid off multiple times can and does happen. I have also had chronic depression for most of my life. Because of this, I know that depression tells you that you are the only…

If the Commonwealth of Virginia is known for one thing, it is funny place names. …

Years ago, when walking in an indoor space was considered a healthy thing to do, I was doing my lunchtime walk in what I call “the fancy mall”, or Tysons Galleria, the local home for Prada and Chanel and the brands that aspire to be just like them. I was…

Every weekend, I (still) get the Washington Post and I save the Second Glance puzzles for my husband. If you’re not familiar, those are the photo puzzles where you have to guess the 12 edits in the second photo. Most of the time, he gets 10 or 11, then gives…

For years I have been watching birds. I originally got into birdwatching as we live on the edge of a woodsy area and we got some very colorful visitors. …

One of the things I love about living in the DC area is that you never know if the boring office building you pass by every day is the site of something that in a few years will be historically monumental. For example, in 1988 some monkeys escaped from a…

I remember the first time I got laid off. I was in my early thirties and I was starting to get the gray hairs that I knew were on their way to taking over my head. At the time, I thought I could get by putting expenses on credit cards…

Not even five months before I was laid off, I had the good fortune to be in Paris for the third time in two years. I had always wanted to see Paris when I was younger, but I did not go for the first time until I was forty-six. Up…

I could recognize what was happening, in the way my boss changed his tone with me the last couple of days. I could feel it in the way I was driving out of my neighborhood to work and all of a sudden I realized that I forgot the glasses that…

Every morning, I log into Duolingo to practice my French. I always begin my daily lesson by working on my previous mistakes, because you get rewarded with double points on Duolingo by correcting your mistakes. Beginning to learn something by first focusing on my mistakes does not come natural to…