I had a UX design interview today

Water Cooler
#1

It was scary, I found it hard to get my words out, the nerves where out of control but I managed to do an okay job… I think.

The first 40 minutes was a formal interview and as I spoke my brain was racing faster than I can speak and I can talk pretty fast so it was like a verbal machine gun going off.

We went through my printed CV that they hadn’t seen because recruiters send over formatted CVs so lesson learned, always send over a nice designer CV as well. And then we looked at my portfolio.

The portfolio was only two projects, that I had recently completed; a dashboard redesign and a class room timer. I structured each project into:

Project summary
Problem
Thinking
Research
Challenges
Solutions
Deliverables
Summary of what was done and learned

This seemed to go down well. This was then followed by a Challenge where they wanted to see my process. I sketched, made notes, tried to understand the brief and then did a couple of things I had learned in workshops and courses to try to show my final idea.

This was followed by a Q/A and I’m feeling good about how it went! Fingers crossed.

Have you had any interview experiences recently? If so share some insights and let me know how it went.

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First User Experience Designer Interview!
#2

I’ve been able to line up an interview or 2 a week for the past few months, which is also to say that I have not been able to land a new job.

They all “seem to go well” more or less. I can usually get to a 2nd or 3rd interview (might be a portfolio presentation, whiteboard test, or a talk with the team). I usually consider it lucky if I get feedback, though frequently the feedback seems too idiosyncratic to be useful. I’ve been focusing on UX Architect and Interaction Design positions. (little background: started in 2013 as a developer; since 2014 I worked across Project Management and UX, particularly IxD in a digital marketing and development agency).

It’s been an interesting experience and produced a lot of learning opportunities - but the bulk of it feels like non-productive work. I’m not a professional job-applyer. What does feel more productive is networking to create a design community for my city, aside from the sporadic theme-based meetups. So while this feels more productive, it’s quite different from my IxD work. What to do with such a community is a question I hadn’t yet seriously approached. I have 50 some members with not much to say :smiley:

1 Like
#3

What would you say you find it easiest to speak about? Do you have anything that you feel forced talking about?

I only ask because I come from a background in Design/Front-End Dev and found myself doing a lot of generic design work as well a small amount of front end code. I ended up building a passion for UX and also love designing User Interfaces but couldn’t sell myself as this, I would always lean on the things I had been doing in work; code, email marketing etc.

I think it’s important to find the things that interest you enough so you can talk about them easily. When ever I would talk about code I would seize up and stumble but when I talk about design the passion shows.

They seem to like passion. So I guess my question is, was there anything in the interview that seemed forced? If so you probably need to focus/find something more suited to your interests and passions, do a couple of portfolio pieces and then talk your heart out about it.

Another thing that they seemed to like was that I just wanted to grow and learn as much as I can.

I hope that helps you land the next one!

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#4

Nice one @kieronkevan – good luck.

The best advice I’ve read about handling an interview is to think of the interviewer as a client, not an employer.

From the other side of the fence (someone that interviews a lot of people) my advice would be to admit your nerves, be human, and speak from your heart. I’m much more likely to hire someone that I can connect with on this level.

4 Likes
#5

Thanks for this. I think that is spot on.

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#6

I GOT THE JOB!!! My UX career starts in two weeks. I’m looking forward to sharing the journey and learning as much as I can about the different aspects of User Experience.

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#7

That is AMAZING! I’m so pumped for you! Nice one.

Looking forward to hearing how it all goes.

#8

Everybody faces this kind of situation. When we become nervous, sometimes we make mistakes or we face hesitation. But, a pool of confidence should be with us. Your interview story is nice. Force doesn’t matter if we are confident.

1 Like
#9

I think the confidence shines through the nervousness if you know what you’re talking about and have the passion. I’m looking forward to getting started and keeping you all updated.

2 Likes
#10

Hey everyone, I wrote a more detailed story about this experience. https://link.medium.com/JfXzBtwRr6
I hope my experiences can help some of you in your job search!