Today we’d like to introduce you to Faith Killingbeck
Hi Faith, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hey, I’m FAITHK – a designer & artist who loves to craft up a dang good story. I primarily work UX/UI Design, and also in Acrylic painting. Outside of the 9-5, I love the outdoors, & my cute little family which consists of my husband & dog.
From an early age, I loved the art of putting something together and making beautiful things. At the time, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to be—I jumped around from wanting to be a CSI agent (probably from my countless hours spent watching Criminal Minds) to wanting to be an Interior Designer, to then wanting to become a full-time blogger, to then landing in the Tech space. I knew I wanted to somehow land in the design space.
While going to college for a few years, I was a full-time student & working full-time as well. I didn’t come from wealth and did not have my parents’ support to help me through college – I was on my own. As you can imagine, I was tired, worn out and decided I needed a change. I decided to drop out of college and pursue a certificate in UX/UI Design from a BootCamp.
Now, I think the industry currently is flooded with people who either have been laid off or are just fresh out of a BootCamp. There is a stigma around people who graduate from a BootCamp as such, but I believe you get what you put into it and no matter what people say, you can do it and break into the industry. I started applying for jobs pretty early into the program, as my goal was to land a job within one month of graduating. This was quite an impossible task! As lots of other students who had graduated prior to me, had still not found a job.
As I felt the clock tik each day, one week before my 1 month mark I got an email from a company that had reached out a few weeks ago but I had missed it. I ended up interviewing with them and landed a job! Now, if you don’t believe in God totally ignore this line, we can say a higher power, whatever, but I believe that his hands were in it. Since, then, I’ve worked at this company for almost 3 years.
What am I up to now? Well – I recently got laid off about a week ago. So, I am of search of a new role. While it’s been a really stressful week, I’ve been painting and creating digital art in my spare time. A joy, I lacked in my last company as I lost a lot of creative freedom at my last company. Moving forward, I’m excited for what’s to come, staying optimistic that things will turn and I will land someplace that offers a little more creativity to work with.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
OH MAN! Is there such a thing as a smooth road? When I graduated from the UX/UI Design BootCamp, the uncertainty was scary. The likeness of me landing a job was slim. I applied to almost 300 jobs and only got 3 interviews from that batch.
In addition, the industry is highly saturated and trying to find a job is insane. As stated in the last question, I recently got laid off due to the project I was on being bought by a larger company and thus, leaving the agency I was at no other choice but to let people go. So, I find myself in another season of life where it’s not a smooth road, it’s a bumpy, rather rough road and I’m totally not sure what is going to happen! Exciting yet really scary. To be continued I guess?
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I love creating and building designs that are backed up by good research. If you don’t have good research, how do you know what users want? You don’t and you end up building something based on assumptions. Outside of the 9-5, I love painting (primarily acrylic) and digital art. I am a creator at heart, but love the challenge that UX/UI design brings to my life. I love creating websites and designs that are bold, colorful, and loud.
I’m most proud of my new portfolio that just launched! I truly believe it’s my best work and expresses the creative outlook I have in all my work.
What sets me apart from others? I’m not afraid of bold colors.
What do you like and dislike about the city?
THE MOUNTAINS OF COURSE! I also really like how clean our city is. Dislikes? Sometimes the people can be rude and there is a hard beauty standard in Utah that you don’t really find anywhere else and it excludes a lot of people.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.faithkcollections.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/faithkcollections/
