This is a review of the online course Career Kickstart: How to Get Hired—For Graduates by Gidi Heynens.

This is part of our series of reviews for online courses. This course is not specifically marketed at UX graduates, however, the material could be a useful introduction for newbies seeking a UX job.

Read some of our other reviews or see our full list of online UX courses.

For more information on becoming a graduate in UX, see our UX Degrees page.

Course Information

• Course Name: Career Kickstart: How to Get Hired—For Graduates
• Author: Gidi Heynens, former recruiter at ING.
• Hosted by: udemy
• Length: 35 lectures approx 2.5 hours of slideshow content.
• Intended Audience: Graduates. Not specific to UX. Could also resonate with general job-seekers, not necessarily graduates.
• What You’ll Learn: Tips and information around all steps of the job-seeking process, from the practicalities of resumes, social media, job searching, networking and interviewing, to a self-analysis on your own goals, personalities and needs.
• Assumed Knowledge: None.
• Price at time of review: US $49

Review

I felt that this course was a decent and holistic introduction to how a graduate could sell their skills to an employer and land a job. The course is not industry-specific, so should be approached as being a general introduction with generic information. However, it’s fair to say that many job seekers—graduate or otherwise—could benefit from the information in the course, as it does cover a lot of ground.

The pacing of the course is excellent and the material is well structured. The course is broken up into the sections of Self-analysis, Creating a unique personal brand, Job searching, Applying for jobs and Interviewing. It is easy to jump between sections, depending on what stage you are up to in your job search and/or what specific assistance you may need.

The primary downside of this course from a recruitment perspective is that the field of UX can be quite different to other industries, such as finance and law. There are comparatively fewer degrees out there for UX (thus fewer “graduates”) and it can be harder for graduates to break into UX without on-the-job experience than it is for other industries. So while this course doesn’t pretend to be UX-specific, if you decide to take the course, be mindful that it speaks generically across industries and is not directed at UXers.

There are also some gaps in practical information for UXers—for example, there is no information on how to create a portfolio. As an introduction to a variety of job search elements, the course is effective, however, some of the information may date quickly. As an example, best practice for resumes can change depending on the job climate and current human resources thinking. That said, this is likely to be true of any course containing recruitment advice.

Although I found the tips in the course were communicated very clearly on the slides, with effective use of screenshots, I did feel that the delivery wasn’t particularly interactive and lacked variety. Actually, let’s not beat around the bush here—there’s no excitement in the way this course is delivered, which unfortunately makes it pretty boring to sit through. The entirety of the course consisted of slides that used the same pokey graphics, and the same, monotonous voiceover. The course contained no video content, interviews, or anything else to mix it up. Which is a shame as the content is solid.

The Presenter

The presenter, Gidi Heynens was a confident and authoritative speaker, but as I mentioned above, lacked any spark in his voice. On occasions, I found his Dutch accent to be quite strong, and had to listen carefully at times to ensure I had heard everything correctly. However this is a minor criticism.

Pros

• An holistic and varied covering of both practical tips and self-analysis.
• Material was clearly communicated, well-paced, and logically structured. Easy to jump around between sections without losing continuity.

Cons

• Not specific to UX, so the material may be too generic for some.
• The presenter’s accent was sometimes difficult to understand, and the voiceover was monotonous.
• The content was very same-same, with little variety in the slide presentations.

Summary

• Content (how useful, up to date, practical, and comprehensive): 7/10
• Delivery (presentation style, pace, clarity, authority): 6/10
• Production (video quality, audio quality, editing): 6.5/10
• User interface (reliable infrastructure, usable interface, convenient): 8.5/10
• Overall rating: 7/10

Career Kickstart: How to Get Hired—For Graduates is hosted at udemy.

Note: This post contains affiliate links, so if you do decide to enrol in the course, we’ll receive a percentage of the sale, to help pay the hosting bills.