Ah, Patience

When first-year college students walk into their opening classes, they arrive full of excitement — everything is new: the campus, the people, the subjects, the energy. But once that initial rush of curiosity fades, they quickly face a reality they hadn't quite anticipated: even though they're studying what they chose as their future profession, they'll have to sit through a long list of required courses they have no interest in. Yet going through them is necessary. That foundational knowledge — even the unglamorous parts — prepares the ground for the more complex, specific, and exciting material still ahead.

The professional world works the same way. The path to genuine professional maturity requires the patience to move through one stage at a time, extracting every bit of learning along the way. When UX/UI Designers join a company and start their careers, they should expect that they won't immediately be doing only what they love. There will be obstacles, tasks they dislike, answers and direction that take too long to arrive, colleagues who inspire them and others who frustrate them. This process is necessary — and it can't be rushed.

The Jump Phenomenon

As UX/UI recruiters, our daily work involves evaluating professionals across different levels and backgrounds for a wide range of roles and company types. In short, we start with portfolios and then move on to LinkedIn profiles. And as we've discussed before, building a clear picture of someone's profile across both places is always full of surprises.

But there's something we've been noticing with increasing frequency that stands out: when reviewing LinkedIn profiles, we keep seeing career jumps. Professionals change companies and, despite having worked somewhere for a very short time, they level up quickly. For example:

Company X — UX Designer Junior | Jan 2019 – Dec 2019

‍Company Y — UX Designer Mid-Level | Jan 2020 – Dec 2020

‍Company Z — UX Designer Senior | Jan 2021 – Present

This is a serious problem: careers being rushed. In a simplified definition, a senior professional is someone who can solve complex problems independently and guide less experienced team members. For a UX/UI Designer to do both of those things well, they need real experience built over years — having faced a wide variety of challenges across different contexts, including not just processes, but above all, people. This is why soft skills build far more professional maturity than hard skills ever can.

Genuine seniority simply cannot be reached quickly.

And to be clear: this isn't about talent or effort. There are plenty of Junior and Mid-level UX/UI Designer portfolios that are excellent and full of evidence of strong competencies. What we're talking about is lived experience — the accumulation of invested time that generates maturity. As Warren Buffett once said: "No matter how great the talent or efforts, some things just take time. You can't produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant."

Looking at the most common causes of this phenomenon, here are the three we see most often — and how to handle each:

Inflating Your Self-Definition

Question yourself deeply about your actual professional maturity. Getting this wrong means you don't truly understand your own role — and that deserves your full attention. Do an honest analysis of your profile: what are you genuinely capable of delivering right now? One of the most effective ways to find out is to ask the professionals around you how they see you. And when you do, ask for radical honesty — and be ready to receive criticism without pushback.

Being Hired Under the Wrong Definition

Many companies, due to a low level of design maturity, end up creating job openings that don't reflect their actual needs. As a result, these roles come with inconsistent, impractical descriptions — or requirements that don't match the seniority level they're supposedly hiring for. Candidates who accept these roles often assume that being hired means they have the competency and experience the title implies. That's not always true. In the medium to long term, the experience they haven't yet accumulated will start to show — and by then, the consequences for their career can be significant. When considering a new role, pay close attention to the quality of the job description and understand what the company is actually looking for — so you can be honest about your maturity and get placed at the right level.

Mistiming Your Self-Labeling

The title you declare as your current role should reflect where you are right now — not where you want to be. If you're genuinely unsure about your seniority level, the best move while that question remains unanswered is simply not to state one. On your public professional profiles, list your function (e.g., João Silva, UX Designer) and let the evaluation process reveal your maturity to the hiring team.

Conclusion

Changing companies shouldn't dictate the pace of your growth. It's essential to understand each moment of your career clearly, to self-assess constantly, and to take a broader view of the professional path still ahead — mapping it so you can truly make the most of each stage on the way to seniority. Don't wait for job titles to define your growth. Instead of being led, lead yourself.