UK design market still feels brutal, say senior designers

A Reddit thread of UK UX/product designers — including a 7-year senior facing redundancy — describes a slow, competitive market. It's anecdotal, not survey data, but worth reading against your own experience.

A recent Reddit thread among UK product and UX designers, including a senior with seven years' experience facing possible redundancy, paints a tough picture: fewer roles, longer processes, more competition even at senior level. It's one thread, not a survey — but it echoes what a lot of job-hunting designers are already feeling in slow response rates. Don't treat it as proof the whole market is closed, and don't panic-apply to everything either. Use it as a prompt to sanity-check your approach: are you sending a generic portfolio broadly, or targeting fewer roles with tailored case studies? Talking to people actually job-hunting right now beats reading one thread for signal.

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