Happy August! I hope this email finds you well on a summer Friday. Quick note on the UX Bootcamp Survey - I still need your help. We're aiming to get to 100 responses to do a full share out. After submitting your review of a UX bootcamp experience, you can see a summary of all other (anonymized) responses. Give it a shot and thanks in advance for your help :) 

Here's this week's curated reads and thoughts from UXBeginner. 

⚡️UX QUICK HITS OF THE WEEK

• Growth.Design has  comic-book style onboarding case studies that are fun and immersive to read. I enjoyed reading this case study on Superhuman, a super-exclusive and hyped email startup.
• Jared Spool walks through the 3 essential components of any UX strategy: the improvement to the users’ experience, the benefit delivered to the organization, and the resources required to achieve success.
• OneRoom is a startup that helps livestream...funerals. They make it possible for everyone to be included at one of life's biggest events. Read their story on Wired.com. I think it's a beautiful product and noble mission. 
• 🛠Tools: Before AI takes away our jobs, it's going to make them much easier. New tools and experiments like Components.ai help generate design faster than ever before. For designs made by humans, check out this set of Paaatterns that's free for download. For designs made of only butts, check out Buttsss, a series of cheeky animations made free by creator Pablo Stanley. 

📖UX CAREER ADVICE 
"Stay close to money." Ever heard of the phrase? When I was a business student, I heard that those who work with money, or are close to money, tend to make the most money. (Think bankers, sales and business development). 

This is just as relevant when coaching students transitioning into UX.

If you want to get a job in design - but you're from an unrelated field - find ways to get close to the product. 

This means being in a position to influence the product. That might look like... 

• Content and copy that goes on the product
• Code that gets embedded in the product, or
• Marketing that gets consumers to use the product

On a weekly basis, people write into UXB asking "How can I transition into UX as a [ role ]?"

Even as an accountant, marketer or, there are ways to close the gap between you and the product.

That might look like offering to review & edit the copy on landing pages for a product. Or interviewing the sales team on how the purchasing flow can be optimized. Is there technology or process you can help implement that can make the user journey better?

Regardless of your existing role, being ridiculously helpful is the easiest way to get close to the product and earn trust at a company, which then allows you to do more UX-related things.

The beauty of it all is that almost anyone can do this.

"But what about the users?" To develop UX skills at your current company, you'd want to get closer to the users.

That might look like offering to help customer support, conducting research or testing the product. Any way that you can talk to or glean insights from the users can add to your UX toolbelt.

This thinking and process can turn into many people's first UX case studies.

So if you're wondering how to translate your existing job into UX experience, get close to the product, and get close to the users.

Are you a marketing dabbler and web designer? That's right, I've never seen a role with this title before either, but Collective2 is a fun startup brand that charges customers for strategies. They're looking for a web designer with a sense of humor, apparently. Probably wins the most entertaining remote UX job post of the year.

Newsbank provides research to universities and other public . institutions. They need a UI/UX designer to redesign their much-outdated interface.

Komoot is one of the world's most popular hiking and cycling apps, and they're looking for a Web Designer who can develop layouts and code interfaces. 

TM is a digital agency with a remote Product Designer role that demands collaboration and client interaction. If you have agency experience or look for it, hit up this tight-knit agency.