What questions get asked in UX job interviews?

Hi all,

There are quite a few people asking about how to prepare for a UX job interview. One of many things we can do to prepare is consider our responses to a couple of the most commonly posed questions or interview activities. This is both a chance to articulate and rehearse a bit, but also gives you confidence that you know yourself and that you know what you want.

But what are those questions? If you’ve been through a job interview for a UX position, I’d love to hear examples of things you’ve been asked!

Here are a couple of ‘Getting to know you’ questions from our Get Started in UX ebook to kick things off:

  • How long have you been in your field?
  • What is your interest in user experience design?
  • What other things have you done in your life that influence how you do UX?
  • How do you stay up to date in UX?
  • Where do you look for inspiration?
  • What five words would you use to describe yourself?
  • What do you find is the most difficult thing about doing UX?
  • What do you love most about UX?
  • Which websites or products do you most like or dislike, and why?
  • Are there any usability experts you follow? Who? What do you think are their strengths and weaknesses?
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How do you personally define UX?
Why do you want to join our team?
What do you look for in a UX role?

Are questions I’ve been asked :slight_smile:

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This is a great thread! Keep going…:grinning:

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Here is a google sheets you might find useful. Needs updating.

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Here are the topical questions we ask college/entry level candidates:

Problem Solving
What is a recent project that you were challenged by, and tell us how you approached the problem?

User Focused / Empathetic
What does it mean and what does it take to be a great UX designer?

Passion
How do you learn and grow your knowledge and expertise?

Communication
Walk me through a piece of work you are proud of and how you arrived at the final solution.

Team Collaboration
Describe how you have encouraged other team members to agree with an idea or action you have suggested.

Confidence
Describe a time when you changed the way something was being done because you felt there was a better way to do it.

We also dig around with a few questions designed to see how teachable a candidate is and how they stay on top of industry trends, etc.

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The one I’ve noticed shows up time and again is something along the lines of "Tell Me Your UX Process." It says a lot about a UX’er-- not only about how much they understand the process of UX design, but its value to the team at different steps in design and develop process. Personally, I stole a page from Smashing Magazine and refined the “game board” to make it fit my own preferred process. It was nice to have a visual guide for myself when I was on my first phone interview and was asked to field that question, and it was a great way to show that I was an effective whiteboarder when it came to the in-person panel interviews.

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Here’s a good list of questions for research positions.

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Awesome! Following this thread.

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:raised_hands: If I said I love you, would that be too forward?

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haha, nope! We encourage that kind of behaviour around here.

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WOW!! I’ll be looking in Sept, so this is great! thank you ! thank you!!!
chris

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