I started my career as a Graphic Designer and worked on various companies. After 6 years of experience, I though of taking a career shift. I know UX was the fancy term among the designers at that time and it has job of high package. I was little skeptical about the UX before, because it requires lot of user interaction, Being a introvert myself, I tagged as not suitable for the role. later I realized, I can't grow any further than Senior Graphic Designer and according to industry I'm already overpaid for my role. I had to change my role I wanted to move further.
I decided to jump into to UX by any mean. Since I don't have any prior experience I thought I would take a formal training on that. I search on the internet and contacted several institute but nothing seems to be satisfactory for me. Than I call a CEO of a startup, who provides UX related service. He suggested me to take HFI course. I told him its too expensive and I don't know how much useful the would be. He cleared, its a perfect course for my experience and I wont regret for it later. That gave me a confidence and register for the course immediately. It was 1.2 L at that time and I took personal loan to pay for it.
It is a 10 days course, conducted on a decent 3star hotel. The course was good and I had realized it is the perfect role for me. Though I was not a social person, I found it is interesting to talk to user and understand their needs and put my brain to identify a solution. The usability testing part has lot of formalities and need lots communication skills to conduct, which I'm still learning But otherwise the course was very useful and I had landed in a job where the monthly salary equal to the entire course fees. Nice deal right?
I felt like I just started my career. Now I'm practicing it for a last one year. My designs are more reasonable and logical than before. I can understand the user problem and provide better solutions.
Yes! forgot to mention, HFI exam is very tough to clear. I had failed on both the 2 attempts, May be I would take it again next year. But That didn't stop my career growth, I got the knowledge I required for the job.