How to become a UX/UI designer given my situation?

So, I have worked as Software Developer for 3.5 years now. My work has involved mostly Backend, Java. For sometime I worked on front end but I am not aware of the front end architecture etc.
I am a graduate in Computer Science.

So right now, I have a good salary in a big MNC. How can I become a UX UI Designer for a good company?

Are there some UI folks you can talk to at MNC right?

Hi there, Interaction Designer here 🙋‍♂️

Why do you want to become a UX Designer? How old are you? 🙂

So the best way is to study ux design at University. Because as UX designer you need time to develop your skills. Especially empathy which is the most important skill as designer. You need to be good with people. And if you want to work with user interfaces you need an eye for typography, colors, hierarchy and esthetics. Are you humble? It's not a job for people who have huge egos. Because it's not about them selfs - it's about the love for making it easier for the user.

Here is my advice find out what your strengths are.
https://gallup.com/cliftonstrengths...
CliftonStrengths Online Talent Assessment ...

And talk to HR that you'd love to get a Mentor from said field. Like doing an Internship every Thursday and friday.

And read some books
https://thisisservicedesigndoing.com/...
This is Service Design Doing

Feel free to ask me, i'm happy to help

Here some more books i recommend to get started in the field.

https://amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-...
How to Win Friends & Influence People: Dale Carnegie ...

https://amazon.com/Influence-Psycho...
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition: Robert B ...

https://amazon.com/About-Face-Essen...
About Face: The Essentials of Interaction Design: Cooper, Alan ...

And an amazing interface design blog
https://uxplanet.org/
UX Planet

https://youtu.be/ZT4WRRhacWk
🎥 Refactoring UI: Transistor

https://youtu.be/BMHUKij1yUE
🎥 Refactoring UI: Resolute

https://youtu.be/S6-q5BheEYU
🎥 Refactoring UI: Bad About

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Interaction design - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Service design - Wikipedia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Design thinking - Wikipedia

@N00bPancakes There is some tool available which let's you talk to other people in case of any mentorship needed. But as this is related to career I am not sure if it will be safe to talk to the people from company.

@heyheni Wow, this is something great you shared.
I am becoming more empathetic, I try to improve but right now I'm not bad at it.
Humbleness, yes I am pretty sure.
I want to become UX designer because I think I am more of a visual person. I like backend development but it's becoming harder as I am moving forward in my career. At my current company I was given a task related to UI and I had no idea about it before. I gave it a try and out of passion started learning it on the weekends. I made a great UI and got praised by Product teams. Then this other task I have. Related to Big data and cloud services, I literally cannot get out of the stress. I just think that I am more engaged when things are tangible.

@heyheni Thanks a lot for the great resources.

I want to know how can I transition, as I am a programmer do I need to restart just to start on UI development? I know basic javascript but do not have any hands on projects.

Make your problems visible by using mindmaps and diagrams on www.miro.com

Also you may get praise for your work by people that are not versed in design. Design is how it works and not how it looks. That's why you've ought to test your work on real people. Test as early as possible using prototype tools like
https://www.framer.com/
Here's a video about User Testing.
https://youtu.be/RyGFEmimwoM

And for your wish to switch just now because your current project causes you pain isn't a good basis to make a decision. I'd love to be a billionaire right now. But I can't i would need to make a 30 year plan.

So make a miro board and map all your resources and people that may help you to get there. Take that mentoring offer of your company and ask for a way to achieve your wish.
best of luck!

My two cents:

I know a lot of designers who were hired as Web Designers even though they don’t know web and just came from a Design background in paper/campaigns/whatever.

They don’t know what a modal is and they don’t know active/hover/visited states.

So in some ways - if you know web in general you have an advantage over those designers.

As long as you have a Design Sensibility.
But what’s key is having some kind of skill in at least one Design Tool. Sketch/Figma/ even just PS/ or creating svg icons

So while I’m totally agreeing with previous posters that you SHOULD really get a design education - If I’m being honest I can think of plenty of places where you could probably surpass a lot of the ”web design” team by just having solid web experience and some proficiency in their design tools

@jiraTicket Thanks 😊 I have actually tried Figma amd liked it. I think I will continue with that.

@heyheni Hey thanks :)
You advices are gold.

Im also having some jabs at it. Can somebody explain to me why Typography is so important? Without naming extreme examples.

For example why does Times new roman "suck" but fonts that have a capital I and lowercase l (L) displayed the same are considered "good" for the internet?

@jkommeren you may explain why you think typography isn't important? 😉

@heyheni alright good point. I think it's important for the reasons i can think of (readability, softness or hardness) like the i/l case I mentioned.

But here we are, devrants android app font on my mobile has the i/l thing. Even my banking app. I dont understand what could make this loss of functionality be more important than a style? Why not subtly adjust the font so it fits both purposes? (Or use a different one)

My design teacher told me i used horrible fonts. Sure, but he didn't explain what makes a good one. Can you?