Switching careers in your 30s: where do you even start?

You are not starting over, think of it as repositioning from quantitative marketing to mixed methods UX research. In months 1 and 2, set a 5 hour weekly block to do three things in parallel. Book 10 informational chats with researchers, ask what artifacts they ship, how teams are structured, and what they look for in junior hires, and try to shadow a session. Build two small studies on real products, for example a heuristic review and five usability tests on a public app, plus a short generative study for a nonprofit or an internal tool that is not confidential. Write a research plan, screener, and discussion guide, run sessions over Zoom or Lookback, analyze with affinity mapping in Miro or FigJam, and deliver a one page readout with insights, recommendations, and next steps. Take a focused course on research methods or statistics for UXR if you need structure, but skip pricey bootcamps that mainly teach UI unless you want the network.

Months 3 and 4, turn those projects into two to three concise case studies with problem, method, sample, findings, impact, and what you would change next time, then start applying to UXR, Product Insights, or Research Analyst roles. Package your background as a strength with an opener like, "I am a marketing analyst who turns messy user and product data into clear decisions, and I am formalizing that in UX research with hands on studies and stakeholder readouts." Outreach script for practitioners: "Hi Name, I am moving from marketing analytics into UX research and admire the work you did on X, could I ask you 15 minutes for three questions about your path and the artifacts that matter in your org?" Keep your day job safe by doing all exploration off hours, using non employer data, and framing any internal asks as helping your current team, for example, "I would love to run five quick usability tests on our dashboard to reduce support tickets, I can handle recruiting, consent, and a short readout." Red flags to avoid include bootcamps that guarantee jobs, portfolios with made up personas and no raw data, running studies on your employer product without permission, and only testing with friends who mirror you. Months 5 and 6, iterate your portfolio based on feedback from hiring managers, practice a 30 minute case walk through, and track applications in a simple spreadsheet so you can follow up weekly.

First two weeks are intel gathering, schedule ten to twelve conversations and extract what success looks like in their org, then pick one narrow problem and run a five person study with a clear decision at the end. Weeks three to eight, run a second study in a different method, package both into case studies with problem, method, findings, impact, and what you would do next. Weeks nine to twelve, publish the portfolio, start targeted applications, and ask your new contacts for referrals and critiques. Keep your job intact by doing all work off hours, keeping it on personal devices, and saying you are upskilling when asked, not jumping. Red flags are any bootcamp that guarantees placement, any project without real participants, and any case study that does not state a business question. Outreach script can be simple, a short note that you are moving from analytics toward UXR, you admire their path, you want to ask how they framed their portfolio and interview stories, and you will keep it to fifteen minutes.

Honestly the first few weeks aren't about courses, they're about ears. Block three coffee chats a week with UX researchers, designers who do research, or even PMs who commission it, and ask what artifacts they actually ship. You will hear the same handful of deliverables come up and that is your syllabus. Take notes like a court reporter because those phrases become the headings in your case studies. Meanwhile, pick two problems you can study without permission, like onboarding confusion in an app you use or how people choose a plan on a pricing page.

Use the skills you already have and triangulate, pair a small dataset with a few interviews so it feels like mixed methods. One of my better portfolio pieces started as a quick "why are people dropping at step three" and turned into five think aloud sessions, a funnel dive, and a before and after recommendation that saved support tickets. Keep your day job safe by scheduling sessions before work or at lunch, using PTO for anything heavy, and never touching company data or tools for your demos. Bootcamp only if you crave structure and mentorship and it does not promise jobs, otherwise a targeted course on research methods plus a critique group will get you there. Script wise, something simple works, like a short note that you are in analytics exploring UXR, wish to learn how they framed their portfolio and would appreciate fifteen minutes, and you will happily return the favor.

Treat your portfolio like our chaotic family photo drive and you will stay sane. Make one master folder with a naming pattern and a single doc that tracks every artifact, date, method, who you talked to, and the punchline. Keep a spreadsheet for outreach and applications with columns for status and next action, then actually update it so you do not double text people. Version your case studies like V1, V2, and stash old drafts in an Archive folder so you can steal good lines later. To avoid job drama, put all work on your personal laptop, do sessions at lunch or after hours, and keep your calendar honest with holds that say focus time.

Oh absolutely, torch eight years because sticky notes look cool on walls. Buy the priciest bootcamp you can find, wear a black turtleneck, and start every sentence with user centered to impress your toaster. Slap together a portfolio of lorem ipsum wireframes and a case study about redesigning Netflix for dogs. Then act shocked when hiring managers do not applaud your vibe. Or, wild thought, keep refreshing your LinkedIn endorsements until enlightenment hits.

Start tiny and scrappy and make it fun or you will stall. I recorded my first think aloud in a closet because the neighbor was blasting techno and my cat kept walking on the keyboard, and the audio was still good enough to cut into a tidy case study. Grab a real task from a real app, bribe two friends with pizza, then do one cold recruit at a cafe and you suddenly have a story. I learned more moderating one messy session where I spilled coffee on my laptop than in weeks of reading. Take one solid methods course to learn how to write an interview guide and synthesize, then build two projects around it and boom you look like a researcher.

You can do this, but the market will not clap for you. Research roles got thinner, and a lot of teams push the work onto designers or PMs when budgets tighten. Your analytics edge helps, yet you should expect long stretches of silence and rejections before traction.