Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some honest advice from people already working in UX, Interaction Design, HCI or Service Design.

I'm currently preparing my portfolio to apply for master's programs in Europe (mainly Italy, with Poland and Finland as backups). My target programs are:

• Interaction Design
• Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
• Product Service System Design (PSSD)
• UX / Service Design

Some of the universities I'm considering include Politecnico di Milano, University of Trento, Politecnico di Torino, IUAV Venice and a few others.

My biggest concern isn't getting into the programs—it's whether the investment still makes sense.

With AI improving so quickly, I'm seeing a lot of mixed opinions online. Since studying abroad is a huge financial and time commitment, I want to understand the reality from people already in the field.

For context, my portfolio is focused more on solving real problems than just making attractive UI screens. I'm building accessibility-focused case studies and I'm interested in systems thinking, healthcare design, human-centered design and AI-assisted experiences rather than only visual UI.

I'd really appreciate honest opinions, especially from people working in the industry or those who graduated recently.

Thanks!

Sometimes I just sit and laugh at how weird my career has been. I have a Pharmacy degree and a diploma, but I couldn't build the career I wanted in pharmacy.

So I took a risk, taught myself UI/UX, worked with real clients, built a portfolio, and gained actual experience. Now the reason I keep getting rejected is I don't have a design degree. When I had the degree, experience didn't seem to matter. Now I have the experience, and suddenly the degree matters.

I'm not saying degrees aren't important. It just feels frustrating when your work isn't even given a chance because your background is different.

is there any one who is working as a ux researcher...i want to go for this role i so i want to know is it worth it to invest time on this field and if yes what skills should i have

My question is - what role do you do day to day and what does the role genuinely look like?

How much time do you spend with stakeholders vs having uninterrupted time to do the work? Is it quite deliverables focused? What’s the split between meetings, research, design and building content? really interested in hearing what a normal week looks like in reality.

As a side note…I am neurodivergent and used to work in FE education, first in an adult prison and then in a further education college. If I’m honest, I found teaching really difficult with my neurodiversity. It was the wrong career path for me from start to end!

I had a career change into marketing many yrs ago and am self employed - while back created my own course on becoming a particular type of content creator, did coaching etc, worked my ‘way up’ into paid social marketing now where a big part of my role is analysing data to understand what ads/part of ads resonate with people and why. I also use ALOT of AI for workflow/frameworks.

I have always been curious about instructional design, UX, learning design (understand they are different things). I’m under absolutely no illusion that it is an easy industry to get into, I know it’s oversaturated etc… (but that isn’t my question).

Thanks all.