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

by Lisa Murnan

  Design an alarm clock with only three buttons. (Google)

  Redesign a nutritional label. (Isobar, Oct 2017)

  Pick a specific portion of a ride scheduling app – i.e. scheduling a ride on a van – and whiteboard out the process for scheduling the ride and confirming your check in on the bus. (Ridecell, Sept 2017)

  Design a scheduling system for employees to adjust and view their shifts. (Processing Point, Aug 2017)

  Prepare and conduct a mock user interview. (Cox Automotive, July 2017)

  Design an app for a pizza delivery service. (Salesforce, May 2017)

  Design a 1,000-story building so that people can efficiently get out of the building during rush hours (lunch hours). (LinkedIn, April 2017)

  Solve for a person trying to find a location within a campus with multiple buildings like Google. The interface must be a kiosk designed as a digital receptionist. (EMS Software, April 2017)

  How would you design an elevator for a 1,000-floor building? (Amazon, Oct 2016)

  Most of these design exercises are 45-60 minutes long and are done on a whiteboard or paper. You’ll notice that the 1,000-floor building question comes up a lot (I’m assuming they’re talking about the elevator interface, not actually designing where it would be in the building). Don’t panic. It’s supposed to be a hard question. You’re not being judged on whether you come up with the right answer or not, they’re watching to see how you think, how you approach the problem, how you collaborate with the other team members, and how you take feedback.

  The best way to handle an exercise like this is to ask a lot of questions. Validate your assumptions. What is the elevator going to be used for? Is it only for people or will it be transporting something else? What are the business goals for this elevator? Do they plan to split the elevators up into banks of 100 floors or just have every elevator handle all 1,000 floors? Are there peak times you need to consider? Focus on user goals, too. What are the users’ needs and pain points? Maybe you even create some quick ad-hoc personas on one corner of the whiteboard.

  You can also talk about how you’d go about researching elevator interfaces if you were actually working on the project. You’re probably not going to have a chance to Google stuff during your whiteboard exercise, but if this was a real project we’d all be out researching really tall buildings and different elevator setups. We might even go downtown and ride a bunch of different elevators to experience it firsthand.

  Once you narrow things down to a solid set of assumptions and user goals you can start sketching. You could start with the user journey (versus actual screen interfaces), which could just be a linear set of boxes and arrows on the whiteboard describing every step of the user’s interaction with the elevator. Then you could add notes and questions under each step.

  For example, 1) User enters building and walks to elevator. Questions: What would the user expect to see? Up/Down buttons they can push? A security scanner they could run their phone or an ID card over to validate they lived/worked in the building? An indication of where the elevator is currently and/or how long it will take to reach them?

  Read Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things, it will help you understand how to design everything from doors to washing machines to web apps.

  Your Turn to Ask the Questions

  Remember this is a two-way street. You’re interviewing them as much as they’re interviewing you. Listen to their stories and how they deliver design feedback. Are these the kind of people you’d enjoy working with?

  Here are few ideas to get you started, but really, it’s going to depend on who you’re interviewing with and what the specific job is. Just make sure that you get all your questions answered, because otherwise it’s going to be like that reality show Married at First Sight.

  Can you describe a typical day or week in the position?

  What kind of access to end users would I have?

  How does UX fit into the Agile process here?

  What project or task would you want me to dive in and work on immediately?

  What’s the most challenging thing about your job (or the department or the company) right now?

  How would you describe the culture here?

  What differentiates good UX designers from ones who are really great, in your opinion?

  Tell me about the stakeholders (business, dev team, etc.) I’d be working with. How/how often would I be interacting with them?

  How is performance evaluated and rewarded here?

  What do people love about working here?

  What types of people are successful here and what types are not?

  When do you expect to make a hiring decision?

  Thank-You Notes

  Don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you to get custom note cards printed up and send hand-written thank-you notes to everybody you just interviewed with. Just send them an email. (Besides, by the time your snail-mail card got there, the position might already be filled.)

  Yes, sending a thank-you note matters. Not only is it the polite thing to do, but it shows that you’re still interested in the job after the interview.

  You don’t have to write anything elaborate. Just thank them for the opportunity and their time. If you and the interviewer talked about something during the interview that’s worth referencing, go ahead and mention that, too.

  If possible, thank each person you interviewed with (individually! No group emails!) within 24 hours of the interview. It should be pretty easy to figure out what somebody’s email address is – you may already have it in an email invite from your interview, or it’s obvious that the whole company uses a first initial + last name @ companyname.com format, or if all else fails you can ask the recruiter for it. You could also message them on LinkedIn (especially if it’s a recruiter who originally contacted you that way).

  14

  Money

  Salaries

  How much can you expect to make?

  Below are some UX designer salaries pulled from Justin Baker’s Medium article “2018’s UX Designer Salary Forecast.” Baker’s numbers combine 2018 forecasts with 2017 Glassdoor and Robert Half data.

  The higher numbers tend to be in cities like San Francisco (Silicon Valley) and New York, whose salaries often run one-and-a-half to two times higher than other regions.

  Junior UX Designer

  0-2 years of experience

  $45K – 88K projected starting salary in 2018

  Salaries at the top of the range generally go to designers who have done internships for a year or two and have a “comprehensive” portfolio.

  Mid-Level UX Designer

  2-5 years of experience

  $71K – 108K projected starting salary in 2018

  These are the most common UX designer positions available. These designers have real-world experience but they’re more affordable than senior designers.

  Senior UX Designer

  6-10 years of experience

  $84K – 160K projected starting salary in 2018

  Baker says one of the biggest trends for 2018 will be an abundance of senior-level job openings, as companies want designers who can jump right in and make an immediate impact.

  Principal UX Designer

  10+ years of experience

  $109K – 190K projected starting salary in 2018

  These are the old timers, like me. This is the highest level for an individual contributor. Principal designers are expected to contribute significantly to their product’s (and company’s) UX strategy.

  A few additional takeaways from the article that were really interesting:

  The design industry is projected to expand by 10% or more over the next five years. This is great news for us. Companies are finally recognizing that UX is important and that their customers expect to have good user experiences with their products.

  65% of UX designers are self-taught. In a 2017 UXPin survey, 2,675 UX designers were asked “What types of design or UX programs have you completed?” 65.38% of
them reported that they were self-taught. See? No fancy degrees or credentials required. You just need to jump in and start doing the work.

  Junior UX designer jobs will be in less demand, according to Baker. He says that companies are looking for more experienced designers who can hit the ground running, and that as a result many junior designers will end up becoming freelancers. As you read this, please don’t despair. That, my friends, is why you’re reading this book. There are junior level positions out there, and you’re going to be the most qualified and prepared to get them.

  Something else worth noting is that UX designer salaries tend to increase very quickly with experience. Jakob Nielsen says that UX designers can expect an increase of $5,700 per year of experience for the first five years of their career, then around $3,000 a year after that (figures are for 2017), so if you’re starting out in the $50k range, that number could look closer to $65-70k after just three years in the industry.

  Consulting Rates

  A former student recently emailed me to ask how much she should charge for some UI/UX consulting work and my reply was sort of like riding on a UX rollercoaster, because so much of it depends on the situation.

  Here’s my reply verbatim:

  I quote $100 hour for any type of UI/UX design work (too much trouble to differentiate it based on skill because I’m usually moving back and forth between different skills as I get something done). If they balk at that amount, I will work with them on it if it looks like it’s going to be a nice bit of work (like ongoing consulting vs one 5-hour project). But some people don’t bat an eye when I quote $100/hr, so I always start out with that. I’m also REALLY generous when I bill them for those hours – I might put in twice as many hours as I bill them for, simply because I want to do research that they’re not paying me for, or I want to work through a few different iterations of a design before showing it to them. That way when I do bill them they feel like they got excellent work for a fair price. (So technically, I guess I really charge $50/hr, haha).

  I did a lot of work for one client (he would contact me every few months for a couple of years) and after a year I lowered his rate to $75/hr because I was so familiar with what he needed me to do and it was fairly easy for me.

  For your situation, getting the experience would be really awesome because it could be something you add to your resume/portfolio/interview discussions, so I wouldn’t scare him off with too high a bid. Maybe somewhere between $60-75 an hour? If you had a good handle on what he wanted and could estimate reasonably well how many hours that would take you ahead of time, you could also quote him a flat rate (let’s say you think it might take 10-15 hours… you could quote him $500-700). Sometimes people get scared when you quote them an hourly rate because the hours can rack up really fast and their end cost is unpredictable. Each client is a little different.

  Note that the recommendation above was for some independent consulting work on a small project.

  If you’re getting hired through an agency to work as a full-time contractor at a company, the hourly rate will go down because you’re getting paid for lots of guaranteed hours on a regular basis. Even if you’re making $50 an hour, that’s really good money ($2k a week, over $100k a year, if you’re working 40 hours).

  I mentioned it earlier and I’ll bring it up again because it’s worth repeating – if you need more experience and projects for your portfolio, don’t get hung up on how much you’re getting paid. The experience itself is the payment.

  15

  If You're at a Standstill

  Do you feel like you’re doing everything right but still struggling to land a job? Is it taking longer than you expected? Are the rejection letters getting you down?

  Sometimes these things do just take time. You’re up against a lot of other applicants for the same jobs. It’s possible that you’ve been very close to being selected and are right on the brink of a breakthrough. Sometimes it really is just a matter of being patient and sticking with it.

  Other times you may need to tweak things.

  Try looking at all of this as a big experiment. A real-world usability test, where your “products” (resume, portfolio, etc.) are the things being tested. For some reason they are not converting, and we need to figure out why.

  Let’s run through what some of the problems might be.

  No interviews

  If you’re not getting any responses to your applications, or getting form rejection emails, then it probably has something to do with your resume, cover letter, and/or portfolio. Something about them isn’t compelling enough for you to get invited for an interview.

  Make sure your resume is focusing on accomplishments and doesn’t just sound like a laundry list of job responsibilities.

  Make sure your cover letter is not just your resume in paragraph format. Do your research on the company and make a connection between yourself and the company.

  Find ways to bridge the gaps between your experience and what the hiring manager is asking for in the job posting. Just because you weren’t called a UX designer in a past role doesn’t mean you don’t know how to do user research, for example – maybe you did a lot of user research as a product manager. But it’s up to you to call this out. The recruiter or hiring manager isn’t going to take the time to try to connect the dots between your resume and the job description.

  Make sure your portfolio is telling a good story about each project you worked on. Your case studies should include a lot of clues into your thought process and how your design evolved.

  Your portfolio should be easy to access and easy to read. You’re not making people click on little thumbnails to see some clunky slideshow modal, are you? Think easy. Think Craigslist vs iTunes. iTunes looks pretty, but it’s horrible to use.

  Get a friend or hire somebody to go through all of your documents and proofread them for spelling and grammar. Get a UXer (preferably one at a senior level) to read through everything to see if any red flags pop up (wrong use of terminology etc.)

  At this point, don’t be afraid to change things up. What have you got to lose? You could conduct your very own A/B testing using your own documents. Create two different versions of your resume – different looks, different tone, different wording. Send version A to one company and version B to another company (don’t send both versions to the same company!) and see which one gets a better response. Same with your portfolio – redo it. Create a different template. Try writing the stories in a different way. Try including different visuals.

  It may just be that you need more experience. You can have the nicest documentation in the world, but if you’re up against somebody with equally nice documentation and more experience than you, hiring managers are usually going to pick the person with more experience. Don’t let this get you down, though, just get your ass out there and get more experience. Experience isn’t some special talent that only certain people have – it’s just about doing the work. Seek out freelance, find a nonprofit with a horrible website and volunteer to redesign it, create a website or app that solves a problem that you’ve identified, find a Hackathon project to get involved with. Take action, baby!

  Interviews but no offers

  Are you getting interviews but not getting offers? Then it probably has something to do with how you’re answering interview questions, approaching the design exercises, or your interviewing skills in general.

  Write down every interview question you’ve ever gotten and your ideal answer to it. Practice answering each question over and over and over until it feels natural.

  Google “UX design exercises” and figure out how other people have successfully tackled them – there are tons of articles out on Medium, Quora, etc. that talk specifically about design exercises used in interviews. Practice whiteboarding some of the example design exercises mentioned in this book or in the articles you find.

  Are you immediately jumping to designing screens during the design exercise? This isn’t what interviewers want to see. They want
to see your design process in action, which should include a lot of up-front question asking and thinking around who you’re designing for and what will make your design successful.

  The needs-more-experience monster may be rearing its ugly head here again, too. It may be that you’ve nailed the application documentation (resume, portfolio, etc.), but when they bring you in for an interview it’s clear that you can talk the talk but not really walk the walk. Get more experience! Practice designing real things. Get feedback. Repeat.

  16

  Parting Thoughts

  If you’re ever feeling like a UX poser, remember these three things:

  There’s more than one way to design a user experience. This is not like math or spelling where’s there’s only one right answer. If you gave 10 UX designers the exact same project to work on, they’d probably come up with 10 different design solutions.

  As a UX designer, get used to being wrong. Even the best designs have usability issues, especially in their early stages. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat behind a two-way mirror during a usability test and watched test participants struggling with something I’ve designed. It’s humbling, that’s for sure. But that’s why we test, so we can identify issues and fix them in the next iteration. As designers, we’re often too close to our work to see what’s wrong with it, and we also forget that we know more about our website/app than our users do. What’s obvious to us is not necessarily obvious to them.