Ігор Вишневський Work 22 July 2026, 09:00

“I didn’t know it was so much easier to get into IT before.” Junior UI/UX Designer whose viral post about a “slave-owning” job was shared on Threads — about the challenges facing juniors in 2026

Many stories have been written about the thorny path of finding a job for juniors in recent years, including on our website. But recently one of these stories went viral — Junior UI/UX Designer from Lviv, Oleg Banera, told on social networks how a recruiter from one of the largest Ukrainian IT companies voiced «slave-like» conditions, unacceptable even for those young specialists who are willing to work almost for free for the sake of experience on their resume.

Oleg’s post then garnered thousands of reactions, but all the discussions mainly concerned the «cringe» vacancy, while the personal situation of the author of the viral post remained, in essence, behind the scenes.

Juna-seeker’s table: 108 submissions, six interviews, zero offers so far

If we talk about classical state education, then I graduated from the Ukrainian Academy of Printing, Faculty of Publishing and Polygraphy. In my state education, the topic of design was touched upon, but it was not basic. If we talk about education specifically as a UI/UX Designer, then last year I completed a six-month course at Beetroot Academy.

My professional background is still small, but I have managed to work on two freelance projects.

The first is a redesign of the pages of the Ranok publishing house. And the second is the page of the American company Pride Dynamo from Texas, which deals with energy solutions. By the way, this work was given to me by my teacher from the course, which was quite pleasant for me as a beginner. After all, he has many students and he could offer it to anyone else.

I’ve been actively looking for a job since about January. It’s very difficult, because I feel constant pressure and competition from all sides.

I keep a table — where I apply, what the status of the vacancies is, what I’ve been told.

As of now, the table contains 108 submissions — these are vacancies that I responded to. I calculated that 29 companies refused me, and 61 companies «stayed», that is, did not respond and simply «disappeared from the radar». Another part of the submissions is in the waiting stage, pending.

In total, out of these 108 applications, I had six interviews, two of which were technical. By the way, the first interview turned out to be quite a success. It was at the very beginning of my search, and I thought — cool, I just started looking for a job, and already the first interview is some kind of feedback on my person. But it turned out that the recruiter or HR simply did not pay attention to my experience. They were looking for a person with at least two years of experience. I do not have these two years, so this interview ended very quickly.

How much is it normal for a June to earn?

When my post on Threads went viral, my friends suggested that I leave my CV in the comments. It’s a pity that I didn’t think to do it earlier, and posted it the next day. However, even so, one person, probably a recruiter, wrote to me and asked to provide his portfolio and CV. She passed them on to her colleague, but then she replied that they were looking for a midwife, not a Juna, so that was it. No one wrote to me again.

Another person wrote, who is also looking for a job for June, and asked what I was thinking about all this time, how long I had been looking for a job, and where in general I was looking for a job. We just talked to her.

As for the post itself, which everyone is talking about, it was actually written in a fairly neutral way and I didn’t mean to throw stones at anyone. I just felt this pressure and the difficulty of finding a job. But I thought, damn, maybe the market is like this now, they often offer this, and it’s normal? So I decided to ask people, but it went viral.

Overall, if it weren’t for this wild condition about refunding the money, I think the offer would have suited me, despite the very slow salary increase.

Return earned salary in case of dismissal. Aitovites discuss viral post about Junior UX/UI Designer vacancy. Luxoft confirmed that the vacancy is theirs but denied that they have such conditions

As I recall, you have to work for over two years to reach the $1,500 level, and by two years you’re mostly getting $500-800. In my subjective opinion, that’s a bit too little for someone who’s trying, developing their skills, and not slacking off. But given the current situation, I might be okay with that.

Due to the fact that there are so many people like me who graduated from the courses, it is very difficult to feel competitive without at least some systematic experience in the profession. The supply is much less than the demand, so, accordingly, companies offer such salaries. But in fact, this is the norm — earlier there was a popular post about which IT workers started with what salary, and I did not see the figure there more than $500. Maybe one or two wrote $700, but no more.

I understand that the starting salary for a Jun is around $500, so I look at it normally.

In general, until a certain time, I didn’t know that it used to be much easier to get into IT. I didn’t know this, actually, until the courses. But I have many friends my age who work in IT — developers, designers, QA — and they all said that it’s difficult now, but possible.

Before the courses, I tried to research this issue, but I didn’t research it properly. I just went to sites like Djinny or Work.ua and looked at how many vacancies there were for UI/UX Designer. What’s more, there were 50-60 of them. I thought that this was normal, and at least something should come out. But that’s where my market research ended, because I was more interested in the design itself, not the situation — how to develop in the profession and get some skills. I devoted my time and attention to this.

IQ test and «left» test. Other «cringe» cases

At one company, when I applied for a job, the first thing I had to do was take an IQ test. I’ve never seen anything like that before. Honestly, in my subjective opinion, an IQ test only shows how well you do IQ tests, but it’s not a reflection of your skills at all. Well, of course, it tests your general «smarts», but I’m not sure that it’s normal to just throw IQ tests out of the window like that. So for me, this moment definitely seemed strange.

There was another case where the company sent me the wrong test. They discovered this after I had done it, so I was then offered to do another one. That was also quite «cringeful» on the part of the company, but as I understand it, it was just some kind of automated mailing using a certain service, and maybe there was a small glitch, so I didn’t worry too much about it.

In general, regarding recruiters, I don’t think I can formulate any systemic complaints or talk about any specific patterns in their behavior, but, of course, I would really like to always receive at least some minimal feedback, which, unfortunately, doesn’t always happen.

If out of my 108 reviews I received 29 responses, even if they were negative, I think that’s good. In general, it’s ideal when they also explain the reason for the rejection.

It’s bad when you’re ignored, but on the other hand, I understand that there can be several hundred responses for a junior position right now, so it’s impossible to respond to everyone. Recruiters simply may not have time to handle such volumes.

All the platforms that can be used should be used.

Since I am very motivated to find a job, I use everything I can. First, I have already «waved» to all my friends who work in IT, to see if they have any vacancies for designers. Second, I use all possible platforms — Djinni, DOU, Work.ua, Robota.ua, Happy Monday, Indeed, Just Join IT and others. I also searched for all possible vacancies on LinkedIn, doing research on companies and writing directly to recruiters. I also went directly to DOU, took a list of top companies and went to their websites, looking at vacancies. Wherever I can somehow offer myself, I try to do it.

In parallel with the search for a job in traditional IT, I also monitored vacancies in the miltech sphere. It would be cool not only to develop as a specialist, but also to help defense companies. But on the most popular platform Lobby X, there are much fewer vacancies in the field of design than for developers.

In addition, there are questions about vacancies specifically for Juns. Defense companies make serious products, and serious products require serious specialists. Therefore, I have practically not seen vacancies for Juns — at least three years of experience, or even more. I also did research on the websites of companies in the miltech sphere, but I did not find any open vacancies for the position of Jun designer there at that time.

AI and Junkies: Using the Situation to Your Advantage

I certainly believe that the rapid development of AI has a significant impact on the current situation, in particular for Juners, but this impact is not as clear-cut as some see it, and it is very difficult to isolate it. After all, there are many other different factors — an overheated market, plus it is summer, which is traditionally a less successful time for job searching. Because, for example, six months ago, when I started this path, there were much more vacancies.

It is clear that now, along with a huge list of new AI models, tools specifically for design functions are also being released in parallel — for example, Stitch from Google or Claude Design. Many companies are trying to somehow optimize their work, and designers can also fall under the reduction due to artificial intelligence. But still, in my field, everything is plus-minus, just like in IT in general.

In addition, I noticed a trend that vacancies like AI Native designer have begun to appear. That is, the company immediately declares that it is looking for a person who works mainly with the help of artificial intelligence tools. Such consequences of the development of AI cannot be ignored, they are on the surface.

Drawing a website at Claude Design is one thing. But developing an interface and coming up with the architecture of an application for a large enterprise is a task not only for AI, without human vision it is quite difficult. But, in fact, we should not forget about the cost of tokens for AI either — so there is another question: what is cheaper for IT companies, AI or human labor.

Even if AI has a global impact on the market, there is still no talk of excluding humans from these processes at the current stage of AI development. This somewhat unhealthy hype needs to be waited out.

In my opinion, it is impossible to ignore artificial intelligence. But it should help, not replace. Moreover, in many routine tasks it really helps a lot, and if you don’t know how to use it, then you will simply be less competitive with those people who can. After all, they work faster in general.

Ultimately, I wouldn’t say that AI is ruining the profession, but it does create certain difficulties. Against the backdrop of these difficulties, the conclusion suggests itself that you just need to know how to use it.

About self-improvement and motivation to try again

The fact that I’ve been looking for a job for six months means that not only is the market difficult, but I also need to be more competitive. Accordingly, I spend a significant part of my resources on this. I improve my knowledge of Figma, because it is also updated. Artificial intelligence tools are updated, which I need to keep up with. After all, I’m still just a Jun, not some kind of omniscient person, right?

I am very grateful for the meaningful feedback after tests and interviews, especially technical ones. This is very valuable, because when employers tell me where my weaknesses are and what needs to be improved, I definitely work on it. This helps a lot.

Of course, I’m also open to freelance projects if someone I know offers them to me. But I don’t look for projects on large platforms like Fiverr or Upwork. First of all, at the initial stage of my career, I would still like to work in a company and develop in a product environment, rather than be an independent specialist. Moreover, really good freelance projects are also relevant for people who have a lot of knowledge and experience. So if it’s difficult for young people to find work in some conventional outsourcing company, then I think it will be even more difficult on a freelance basis.

As for self-motivation, of course, there are moments of spiritual decline. Especially when you’ve passed an interview, and then even a technical interview, and it feels like everything went great, and then you get rejected. This really hits your motivation. But personally, I have a wonderful girlfriend who supports me in this matter and motivates me. By the way, she also works in a design company and does research.

My motivation is very strong. Ever since I started to get interested in product design and found out what it is, I simply can’t see myself in any other field. I can’t imagine myself in any other position, and that’s all. Despite all the difficulties — the ongoing war, the minimum number of jobs and the difficult market, as well as the high competition, I will make as much effort as necessary to find a job. No matter how long it takes.

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