Lesson 9: Your UX Career Flashcards
Operates as part of a team. Not responsible for all the UX of the project. Has a very clearly defined role. Will normally use a series of standards that have already been developed to carry out their role to a high standard. Focuses on a specific area.
The Specialist
Often starts as a ‘one-man-band’ for UX within a smaller organization. May be required to work as part of the graphic design team or even the development team as well. Needs a thorough understanding of all areas of UX, as they’re going to have a plan and execute the UX strategy.
The Generalist
“If this goes wrong, how much of the blame will I have to carry and will it affect my career?”
Accountability
“How much will this role challenge me based on what I know I can do today?”
Responsibility
“How big are the problems that I get to solve in this role?”
Impact
What to include in your portfolio:
• Communication skills
• Analytical Skills
• Active Listening
• Your level of experience- focus on the roles you’ve played and what project you’ve been a part of.
• Project relevant skills- you’re pitching for a job, your portfolio should show how you have the relevant skills for that job.
• Work highlights - what are the best quality pieces of work you’ve done? They belong in your portfolio
• An indication of your personal brand - some of your typical processes and techniques (in some detail)
Adapt your portfolio for your audience. -Different interviewers want different things. Different industries want different things. Make your examples relevant to them.
Build your portfolio in modules - it’s a good idea to keep similar components together in plastic inserts in a folder. You can then add/remove these easily prior to an interview as a way of delivering the exact portfolio you need for that project.
If you don’t have the right example, make one - Your portfolio should represent your skills, but if there’s an area you don’t have an example of - it’s OK to make one up as long as it’s clear that this is a hypothetical approach and not specific experience.
What’s your journey - Use your portfolio to create a user journey for using you. Tell a story; from inception to completion of a project. It’s also a good idea to show that you can learn from your mistakes in this journey.
What to include in your CV:
An introduction - what’s your name? How do I contact you? Links to your portfolio or website.
A checklist - you’ve seen the criteria in my advert; how do you meet them?
Your key selling points - what makes you different to the 500 other candidates whose CVs are on my desk?
Your experience - I don’t care about your Saturday job working bar at college. I do care about relevant experience; tell me what you can do and don’t concentrate on the time you’ve served too much.
Your education - again I want relevant. If you’ve studied “Become a UX designer from Scratch” at the Interaction Design Foundation, I want to know about it. If you’ve studied “Flower arranging” I don’t. Put down your degree (if you have one) and relevant professional qualifications only.
What to do before an interview:
- Conduct online research - read the website, any marketing material they may have, etc. Identify their competitors and learn about their industry in general.
- Conduct offline research - if at all possible go and play with some of their products (you can then talk about the UX of those products at the interview)
- Conduct research in your network - if you know someone (or if you know someone who knows someone) who works at the company, talk to them and get a good idea of what it’s like to work there.
What to do for the interview:
- Turn up about 10 minutes early (this gives them time to give you a coffee and find your interviewer)
- Dress appropriately (that means formal business dress - you can never, ever go wrong with a suit and tie)
- Wash and groom well before you go (you may go 10 days without a bath normally but your interviewer won’t be impressed and nor will they appreciate your 3-days’ worth of “designer stubble”)
- Wait to be offered a seat (or at least wait for interviewer to sit down before sitting opposite them)
- Listen to the interviewer’s questions and take time to think if you need to before answering them (I often say; “That’s a great question, let me just give that some thought…” to buy time to think).
- Use the opportunity to answer questions highlighting your own skills and advantages to the company. Don’t just answer the question in hand if you can get a little light marketing in at the same time.
- Ask your own questions at the end of the interview when offered the chance to do so. (If you need to - prepare some questions beforehand but DON’T ask any pre-prepared questions that have already been answered in the interview. That just shows you haven’t paid attention.)
- Thank the interviewer for their time and take their business card if it was given to you. (I once left the business cards on the table at a sales interview early on in my career - I’ve never been more embarrassed at an interview as I was when they pointedly asked if I wanted their cards).
After the interview:
Send a thank you note within 24 hours of the interview to your interviewer
Confirm that you are still interested in the position
Answer any questions that you didn’t know the answers to in the interview (showing initiative is a great way to distinguish yourself from the crowd)
UX Job Interview- Specific Advice:
Take hard copies (take several - some interviews turn out to be panel interviews) of your CV/Resume and take a soft copy back up just in case someone spills their coffee all over your hard copies
Customize your portfolio for the job and take at least one (or more) hard copy; if you have a soft copy take that along with some means of presentation (e.g. laptop or an iPad)
What to do during the interview?
When you’re interviewing for a UX position, you need to convey two stories. The first is the story every interviewee needs to tell: the one that demonstrates you understand the company, their industry and their products. The second is to tell the story of how your brand of UX will help contribute to building better products and how that will link to the bottom line.
• You can say, “Let me show you what I think…” and then grab your portfolio. If you’re lucky, you can start at the beginning. If the interviewer’s question was more specific, answer that question and then say, “I’d just like to place that in context of my overall approach to UX” and walk them through the portfolio from the beginning.
