I'm finishing up my psychology degree this year and have become really interested in UX. Everything I read says the fields are connected, but I'm worried my resume will just look "academic" to hiring managers. For those who made a similar pivot, how did you translate theories and research methods into tangible UX skills? What's the real-world value of a psychology UX background versus just doing a bootcamp?

That's an excellent and very common concern. Your psychology background is a huge asset, not a gap. The key is framing it correctly. You already understand the core of UX: how people perceive, decide, and behave. In the real world, this means you can champion user mental models, design ethical experiments to test cognitive biases, and argue for accessibility from a neurodiversity standpoint—things bootcamps often gloss over. The practical application comes from learning the tools (like Figma) and processes (like sprint planning). To see how these academic principles directly map to day-to-day design decisions, from Gestalt principles to building trust, I'd recommend this solid overview on psychology UX.