UX Research Lead at Meta
Maya's psych degree from Michigan was supposed to lead to clinical school. Then she discovered UX research mid-senior year — too late for the standard recruiting cycle. She joined Forkaia® instead.
A psych degree, too late for recruiting, and a passion she'd just discovered. Forkaia® compressed 4 years of UX experience into 6 months.
Forkaia® routed Maya to qualitative research tasks across 4 portfolio companies — usability testing, customer interviews, journey mapping. She built genuine research craft on real users, with real product teams.
She ran 16 verified research projects in 6 months. We taught her how to write a research brief, how to defend findings to a skeptical PM, and how to convert insights into action.
Pinterest hired her directly. The research lead later told us it was the strongest portfolio he'd ever seen from a candidate without an HCI degree. She made Senior Researcher in 18 months.
Meta recruited Maya 3 years in. She now leads a research team focused on younger demographics and is the youngest Research Lead in her org.
The research lead at Pinterest said it was the strongest portfolio he'd ever seen without an HCI degree.
Every stage of Maya's Forkaia® journey was tracked — from first signup to placement to where they are today.
Discovered UX research too late for standard recruiting.
Routed to qualitative research workstream.
Reviewer score: 89.
Across 4 portfolio companies.
Built research craft on real products.
Hiring manager: 'Strongest portfolio without an HCI degree.'
Top-quartile timeline.
Youngest Research Lead in her org.
Forkaia® doesn't just claim outcomes — we document them. Maya's journey produced a complete paper trail of artifacts, each verifiable through our credentialing system.
Maya's story is one of thousands. Forkaia® alumni are at Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Goldman, SpaceX, Anthropic, OpenAI, and 600+ other companies.
See all alumni outcomes →Every Forkaia® alumnus started exactly where you are. The platform handled the rest.