Career Conversations: From Bootcamp to Success

At surface value, the journey from your first day in a boot camp to landing your first paid gig as a UX designer can feel like an insurmountable task… sort of like climbing a mountain! Join UxinAtx and General Assembly, from 6:00-7:30 p.m CST, to hear what these amazing panelists have to say about the journey.

You can find the featured Panelists Bio’s below.

PANELIST BIO’S:

Alexsis Venable, Senior UX/UI Designer; Before diving in the UX world Alexsis started off on a sales team where she interacted with a lot of customers and the problems they faced with the interfaces. That is where she found UX solves a lot of problems and decided to take a course in design which then lead to taking the UX/UI bootcamp at the University of Texas Austin. Upon graduating she has worked as a freelancer designer, contracting designer and as a UX intern for a consulting agency in New Mexico. Currently she is working as a Senior UX/UI Designer at spotlight sport group.

David W. Ciccocioppo, Sr. UX Designer; Former Advertising Creative Director who has found an inspiring new life in the world of UX/UI Design at vAuto.

Bonica Ayala, UX Designer; is a queer, LatinX creative and two-time national Skee-ball champion based in Austin, Texas. She currently works as a UX Designer on the IBM Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) team. She focuses on improving existing UI patterns through cross-collaboration, research, and design thinking. When she is not in front of a computer, you can find her swimming in rivers or playing her new favorite sport, Pickle-ball!

Arielle Moore, Associate UX Designer; is a former singer and music teacher based in Salt Lake City, Utah. Upon completing The University of Utah’s UX Bootcamp, she worked as a freelance UX Designer and is now an Associate UX Designer at O.C. Tanner. She strives for continuous growth and looks forward to exploring new disciplines in the UX realm, including illustration and gamification to make things more fun for users. Outside of her work, she is happiest when she is in the mountains or on a kayak.

Rita Almusa, UX/UI Product Designer; Rita is a native Utahn who now lives in Austin, via Jordan, Seattle and San Diego. Before becoming a UX Designer, the former singer/songwriter/piano player launched a successful e-commerce Beauty company, called PearMint. Last year, she completed the UTA UX Design Bootcamp and found her dream job at IBM, where she gets to work on User-Centric Research and UI Design. When she is not designing away, she enjoys traveling with her husband and their 6 yr old son.