How to Get a UX Design Job: Create a compelling portfolio, submit a stand-out application, and ace the interview to land your user experience dream job
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You can disable a lot of the default WordPress theme features that make your website confusing or clunky. For example, some WordPress themes have hover states on blog post thumbnails or portfolio thumbnails with a slew of icons that don’t make sense. They look pretty and they fill up the space nicely but what’s supposed to happen when you click on them? If you’re confused when you first see something in your theme, your site’s visitors are going to be confused, too. Read through the theme’s documentation and figure out how to turn off features like that.
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Google Yourself
Have you googled yourself lately? Or ever? You might be surprised by what you find.
Several years ago, one of my coworkers was trying to find the Skype userid for another coworker so she could chat with him about a project they were both working on. Imagine her surprise when she googled his name and saw on the very first page of search results a Whistleblower 9 news report about how he owed $134,000 in back child support payments on seven different children and was wanted by the state of South Carolina. And there was no doubt it was him because his mugshot was right there in the article. Oops.
When you’re job hunting, people will google your name. They want to see if you’re really who your resume/portfolio represents you to be. Luckily, you have some control over the search results,
Feeling Lucky Today?
Ok, so let’s take the plunge – go to Google and enter in your name. If you have a Google account (Gmail, Google+, etc.) and are already logged in, you will also need to switch to a public view so that you’re seeing unfiltered search results (Google personalizes your search results based on your profile). You can do this from the search results by clicking on Settings (right under the search box) then “Hide Private Results.”
What do you see?
Does somebody else with the same name as you dominate the first few pages of search results? (And do they have a mugshot?)
Does your name only pop up in random 5k race results or a high school reunion blurb?
Is there something negative associated with your name on a website you have no control over?
Are crickets chirping on the search results page (along with a link to ancestry.com and public records websites)?
You can fix it.
No, you can’t delete things that are on other websites. You can try contacting the person who owns the website and asking them to remove the content, but if that doesn’t work you’re pretty much out of luck. Google won’t remove anything from their search results unless there is a valid legal reason to do so (like identity theft – view Google’s Removal Policy). But here’s what you can do – you can create positive new content that pushes down the outdated or third-party content to the second or third page of results. Not many people are going to look beyond the first page or two of search results, especially if they’re just trying to get a feel for what you’re all about or find you on social media.
Tips
Make sure you reference your name the same way everywhere. When I got married a few years ago, I was referencing myself about four different ways online (maiden name, married name, maiden + married name, married name with middle initial) and it diluted my search results.
Be consistent across all the social media profiles you create. Use the same name, email address, location, job description, etc. so that it’s easy for people (and Google) to see that all your online profiles are related to the same person.
Take advantage of cross-referencing. Most social media sites allow you to link to other social media sites from your profile.
Think about how people will search for you and include those keywords in your profile. If you have a common name, someone searching might include your city name to narrow down the results, for example (“John Smith Atlanta”), so be sure to include that keyword in your profile description.
Buy a domain name and create your own website
Domain names are cheap – $12 or so a year (even less if you pay for multiple years at once). And your name in a domain name is one of the most powerful things you can have in terms of controlling search results. When you search for my name in Google, my website comes up as #3, right under LinkedIn and Facebook.
Some of us are lucky because our names aren’t very common. I was able to buy both my maiden name and my married name with no problem. I also snapped up my husband’s name and both my kids’ names. You’ll have to get creative if your name is already taken. If the goal is better Google results, having some form of your name in the domain name is better than a company name, but either way make sure your name is prominently featured throughout your website’s content to help with search engine optimization.
Also, do yourself a favor and set your domain name to auto-renew so you never have to worry about it again.
Create a LinkedIn profile
LinkedIn is a very high authority site in Google’s eyes. My LinkedIn profile is currently #1 in my list of search results.
You should have a LinkedIn profile already if you’re job hunting! Fill out your profile as completely as you can, and customize your public profile URL (which means your name would appear in the link, like this: www.linkedin.com/in/yourname, versus a long line of gobbledygook after the LinkedIn part). Having your name in the URL will help its rankings.
Make sure your profile is set to be visible to the public.
Create a Twitter profile
Create a profile, add a photo, and link to your website. It’s okay if you don’t tweet. I’m hardly ever on Twitter and it still shows up on the first page of my search results.
Create a YouTube channel and post a video
YouTube ranks really high in Google search results (not a big surprise since Google owns YouTube). And YouTube’s own search engine is the second largest behind Google, so it’s worth it to get some video content on there if you have something to share.
YouTube is currently #9 on my list of search results. Like LinkedIn, you can also claim your own custom URL to match your name.
Other Observations
Pinterest and Instagram photos show up high in the search results if your name is part of the photo’s title or description.
My WordPress sites, even the half-baked ones or ones with passwords, show up all over page two of my search results since my name is listed as an admin or an author on the site.
Even though nobody uses Google+, if you have a Google+ profile it will rank high in the search results.
All of this is handy info if your goal is to populate the top page or two of Google search results with positive and current information about yourself and push other stuff down.
Follow Through
Your search results can vary wildly while you’re busy making changes to your social media profiles and working on your own website. It’s fun to see your efforts pay off and it doesn’t take Google long to find the new content and rank it.
A few other tips:
Create an alert on your name. You can easily do this at Google Alerts. That way if your name pops up on a website anywhere, you’ll be notified via email. You can also create searches on your email address, phone number, etc.
Keep your social media profiles updated across the board if you move, switch jobs, etc.
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Preparing for the Interview
My friend Mandy Linton, who is the UX Director at a major insurance company, shared with me her process when she’s filling a role. “I read the resume, do a Google search on their name, then go to LinkedIn and finally Pinterest. I do this with everyone I interview,” she says. “Everyone. If they pass that screening process, then it’s a phone interview with me, then with one or two of my senior folks, then if they pass all that, they come in for a face to face visit with the team.”
Screening Interview
Rock-n-roll! Your resume and portfolio caught the attention of the right people (and your Google results and Pinterest boards didn’t scare anybody) and now they want to do an initial screening inte
rview. This is typically done by a recruiter or someone in the HR department and only lasts 30 minutes or so. They probably aren’t going to ask you difficult user experience questions, they just want to determine whether or not you’ll be a good fit, when you’d be available to start, what your salary requirements are, etc. They may ask for some clarification around the skills you listed on your resume. They’ll also tell you more about the company and the role.
How to prepare for this interview and any follow-up interviews
Research the company like crazy. Look at the company website (duh), Twitter feed, LinkedIn and Facebook pages, YouTube videos of product demos, Glassdoor reviews, and anything else that comes up in a Google search. Read the company blog to find out about new products or features they’re rolling out. Read client case studies to understand clients’ needs and business goals. Figure out who their competitors are. Research is one of the most critical things you can do to prepare. You need to walk into that interview and show them that you know what their company is all about and that you’re interested in what they are doing.
Find the company’s mission statement. It may be on the careers section of their website. Some companies, like Amazon, take their internal values so seriously that the way you answer value-related questions may count more than anything else.
If you know the names of the people you’ll be interviewing with, look them up. Check LinkedIn (use the Private Mode feature so they don’t know you’re stalking them), Facebook, Medium, Twitter, anywhere you think they may have a presence (obviously Google will help you with this part). If you find something or someone (like a hobby or a mutual friend or former coworker) in common with them and it comes up naturally in conversation, great. If it’ll come across as too creepy/contrived, don’t mention it but use that info to help you understand their personality and motivations a little better.
Go back through the job posting and take it apart line by line. What might they ask you about? What specific skills are they looking for? Do they mention any tools by name (like Sketch or Axure)? You can anticipate a lot of what they’ll ask you by deconstructing the job posting.
If it’s a phone interview, make sure your sound is good. If you’re using your cell phone, plan to talk in a quiet room where your connection doesn’t blip in and out. Make sure your phone is charged. Use good headphones. Have your finger ready to hit the mute button. Put all the barky dogs away. I have 11 dogs so this is an issue for me.
If it’s a video interview, set up and test the area ahead of time. I like to sit at a desk in my bedroom with a clean dresser and plain wall behind me (I’ll put a plant on the dresser for a little pizzazz). Make sure your microphone sounds okay and you look good on camera and there’s nothing distracting around you. I always recruit my daughter to help with this. She’ll test with me on Skype and Google Hangouts, and we’ll reverse places so I can see what she looks like sitting in front of my computer in my room.
If you’re going to be sharing your screen, sanitize it ahead of time. Close everything on your computer other than your email, browser, resume, and portfolio. Hide your browser’s bookmark bar. Empty your cache. Disable notifications.
Have a copy of your pretty resume and PDF portfolio pulled up. Make sure they contain the same content as the ones you sent when you applied, assuming you customized them for this job.
Create a cheat sheet with different questions and answers on it. If it’s a phone interview you can have it right on the desk in front of you. If it’s a video interview you can tape the most common questions & answers up in front of you on a wall or chair or something. It can just be index cards or Post-it Notes with bullet points to help prompt you. (Sample interview questions and design exercises will be covered extensively in the next chapter).
Remember, they think you’re qualified. Otherwise they wouldn’t be interviewing you. Whenever you get nervous, remind yourself of this.
Technical Interview
If the screening interview goes well, the next step is usually a technical interview with a UXer (perhaps even the hiring manager) who will quiz you on your UX knowledge and walk through your portfolio with you. This will probably be on the phone or video with a screen share.
You will be asked specific questions about your process and what tools you like to use. You can also ask them questions about the team, the project you’d be working on, how everybody works together, etc.
Behavioral Interview
After the technical interview may be a behavioral interview with someone else in the company to see if you’re a culture fit. This is when they’ll ask those “Tell me about a time when…” questions.
Have a list of examples from your past ready to go and use the STAR approach to help you structure replies to each question.
Make sure you study the company’s mission statement and anything about their culture you can get your hands on. If one of their values is “entrepreneurial spirit,” find ways to talk about your own entrepreneurial spirit. (However, if you have no entrepreneurial spirit, please don’t pretend you do. You want to be yourself as much as you can so that you don’t end up getting the job but hating it.)
…And Beyond
If you make it through all of these interviews, you’re doing great. At this point, they’ll probably have you talk to other members of the team, both UXers and stakeholders like a product owner or a business analyst or an engineer, and of course you’ll talk with the hiring manager.
In my experience, it takes at least three phone/video interviews (including the initial screening) before they’re willing to bring you in for an in-person interview. In-person interviews cost them a lot of money and employee time. For my current job, I did all my interviewing over the phone or video, and was hired sight-unseen (except for two video interviews). The first time I stepped foot into the office was for orientation. This is happening much more often these days.
In-Person Interviews
If you’re invited to an in-person interview, be prepared for either back-to-back interviews all day long and/or a panel interview where you sit in a conference room with a lot of other people and present your portfolio and/or work on a design exercise. The company should pay for all of your expenses, including airfare, transportation, hotel, and food. Some companies have you pay out of pocket and then reimburse you after you fill out an expense report.
Bring your laptop or tablet (fully charged) with your portfolio on it. Bring two printouts of your portfolio, too, just in case. Print out several copies of your resume as well.
In 2012, I interviewed in person at a company in San Diego. They gave me a design exercise to work on five days prior to the interview. Here’s what the schedule looked like on interview day:
9:00 – 10:00am
Hiring Manager & Team: “Job Talk”
This was 13 UX people and me in a conference room. They grilled me on my experience and then had me present the results of the design exercise they gave me (essentially a heuristic review of their existing checkout process and wireframes to show how I’d improve it).
10:00 – 11:00am
11:00 – 12:00pm
12:00 – 1:00pm
1:00 – 2:00pm
2:00 – 3:00pm
Brutal. But’s it just for one day, and if you practice answering all the common interview questions and walking through a couple of case studies from your portfolio ahead of time you’ll be ready for most of what they throw at you. The one question that fazed me during this
interview was when one of the Senior Interaction Designers asked if I might be too conservative for their company (my last few jobs were in financial services and I was dressed in a skirt and blazer for the interview, while the rest of them were in jeans and t-shirts). Anybody who knows me would have laughed out loud at that “too conservative” comment. I guess I should have worn something that showed off my tattoos, and maybe dropped an F-bomb or two.
But that just goes to show that I should have done better research into their culture. If I had, I would have probably found some photos of their happy employees at work, wearing their jeans and t-shirts. Then I would have worn nice jeans with the blazer instead of the skirt.
I got the job anyway.
“Practice” Interviews
Consider interviewing for positions you’re not that interested in. You won’t be as nervous because you won’t care as much, and you can get first-hand experience answering questions like “So, tell me about yourself” and seeing what else they come up with.
Plus, each company has a different interview process. Some do all phone interviews, others use Skype, others use Google Hangouts, others use more obscure video conferencing software (like appear.in). The more experience you can get with this stuff, the better. You’ll get good at sharing documents, finding the mute button quickly, and figuring out which camera angle makes you look the awesomest.