UX Design Interview process: Tips on how to crack the #ux Job interview

now the biggest misunderstandings people have is hey if i have to become a ux designer all i have to do is i have to do some research and all that's it no silent not talking with anyone no asking any questions after 48 hours bang and there's no textbook way of doing this like multiple companies follow multiple different ways but i'm telling you a general process which a lot of companies follow desperation doesn't work in two places one finding a date or finding your partner finding a company where you want to work with willingness to learn if you don't know about it [Music] okay now let's talk about job interviews yeah of which i also gave a small idea about right i told you this story about ux job interviews it's not about that swimwear it's that there's a queen over there a lot of rajas came right and then they're trying to that is not how ux design works it's about the compatibility between the company and the person it's about finding the right kind of match right you might be a right match for a company let's say some zepto right you might be the right kind of a match for a company called zepto but probably you're not the right kind of match for swiggy and probably you're the right kind of match for amazon right it's about the match we'll go backwards from what happens in a ux design interview process right the kind of people they are actually looking for and how is it that you can be prepared for them let's say the first thing is as a fresher ux design as a beginner ux designer your first job what is it that you are expected to do let's talk from there right and then let's go back to what is it that they do to hire these people and always that you can prepare let's go backwards from there so as a fresher ux designer what you are expected to do is the first expectation is that you go and work with existing or senior ux designers you might say hey what you're joking or what like what simple things are telling but this is very very important let me tell you as i told you compare the company is hiring you they are not going to do it like a swimwear it's not like that 280 cutoff for iit therefore your qualifications not like that since ux design role is a lot ambiguous role and they also know that you do not have experience it is very very important as a beginner ux designer to go and work with those people who are like a little bit experienced it will be seniors in the company so that you understand the right perspectives for going and solving problems in the company you know you might say hey obviously you work with seniors what is there to learn from this so one of the biggest things which is very very important which you should note down is therefore they look for something called as your willingness to learn one of the biggest qualities which i really totally insist to my students and they carefully showcase this in their interviews and they get hired because because because because because more than anything else from freshers what they need is is this person willing to learn or not if they are not willing to learn if they just consider themselves you know what i am an expert you know i know all these things what what sorting i can do let me tell you a lot of these people get rejected because that's the problem people think i need to showcase that i am an expert in a call which happens in an interview which happens hiring for refresher you don't have to prove that you're an expert you need to prove that you are willing to learn whatever but there's a small trick over here let me let me also explain that i'm not saying hey you know what go and say hey i don't know anything yeah i will nothing i know whatever you teach i'll consider you as my baba i'll consider him as a god i'll do whatever that's not what i'm trying to say what i need to show them is this is the potential at which i can perform this is what i have learned but i need to understand how is that i can apply all these things when actually perform them in real life and that is the kind of mentorship i'm expecting from you and i'm willing to learn each and everything going to spend every part of my energy going to learn these things you need to showcase this you are willing to list remix to learn is one of the most important qualities which you need to show when you are applying for your ux design roads then what happens these people are bigger than ux designers coming back are expected to go and aid the senior designers or the management or the leadership in making those things which are not really very much impactful i'll tell you how right let us say there is an existing system let's say there's an existing design system right there is an existing problem which someone is trying to solve a very small part of the problem which they are trying to solve which with some existing elements you go and try to solve you go and get data from some of the senior people who are there and try to solve this problem and do it in a very quick manner assisting the person who is already solving bigger problems in the company right so what does this mean this is usually what happens okay i'll talk to those situations where the company is only hiring for one designer you are the first designer for the company where i'll talk about those cases a little bit later all right but the second the first thing is you are working with these senior stakeholders and the next thing is the kind of work you do right so what happens over here is you need to showcase that you know the ux design process and you know what kind of process to apply at what point of time right like i told you in the fan example you would not hire a person who just completely removes whatever small you just have to clean the fan nose that will remove the fan that is the only process right that is very important over here they need to trust you that you know the process and you have the judgment to go and say that given this problem i will be using this part of the ux design process over here to get results very very important point it's not about going and applying the entire ux design process because you learnt it in your workflow when you build your portfolio no it's about understanding having the maturity that what part of the process should i apply given this small problem to me so therefore going backwards from this that is what they actually look for when they want to hire this beginner ux designer what they try to do is they go and look for this do they have understanding about multiple ux processes multiple steps in ux process and do they have proper reasoning for what they're trying to do so that they will simply not do that blindly but try and solve put those relevant steps to so that they can aid the senior ux designers when they actually get hired so this is one of the second points that is you know their design process and you know what to apply where and why and then what happens is this one of the one of the biggest most important points please carefully listen as a beginner ux designer or in any job role for that matter forget ux design any job role you will be involved lesser in strategy and you'll be involved more into execution let me explain what does this mean a senior ux designer sitting in the same company tries to involve more in the strategies which needs to be done let's say you are trying to solve the problem let us say a fashion app let's say myntra right and you are trying to understand how to filter between multiple sizes of products that's the problem you're trying to solve the senior ux designer involves more in understanding and trying to get data about the strategy about how to apply filters you will basically bother more about how to execute that over there what exact kind of filters do i put over there what exact results will people get over there is what will involve more about so what does this mean this means that you need to showcase the skills that you can go and deliver results that means you're not just a person who'll only think think think think think think but you are someone who can get to the results that means now the biggest misunderstandings people have is hey if i have to become a ux designer all i have to do is i have to do some research and all that's it i don't have to make screens i don't have to make that ui and all no you need to learn ui you need to build those screens you need to deliver results your users are going to use screens your users are not going to read your research reports you got this so therefore execution is very important and that's what is expected from you how is it that you are showcasing the potential that you can drive results which means can you make those screens can you analyze the research can you go and build architectures can you go and present insights on the usability testing can you do all these things can you drive those things to the results is something which you are judged for as well which you need to clearly note down you got that right so please please please clear this misunderstanding that i'll only write about how i think and i can be hired it doesn't happen now we have discussed one of the biggest things which beginner ux designers do so let's talk about the interview process what happens when they hire a ux designer right so what happens is the first thing all of you can also note down these processes which happens and there's no textbook way of doing this like multiple companies follow multiple different ways but i'm telling you a general process which a lot of companies follow so what they do is obviously they'll first ask you to submit your resume and portfolio right why what is this resume what is this portfolio resume is nothing but a brief description about what you are what is what are the kind of projects you have done what like right for my childhood what is that you have done what kind of skills do you have so that they can understand whether you are the right fit for the company or not and then there is this portfolio right which is nothing but the kind of things which i spoke about right how did you showcase the whole thought process about what kind of problems you solved right as a beginner so they'll ask you these things so the company what it does is they look at your resume and portfolio and say oh okay possibly this this person is interesting to talk with so let me go and talk to this person and what happens is a lot of designers get rejected at this stage only because clearly when we see their portfolio fully formulas no reasoning nothing clearly we know even if you talk to that person it will be one hour waste of time because they will not be able to give any answers we know that right so biggest mistakes do not follow formula portfolios do not let it be a small problem let it be only few steps in the process be genuine do whatever is what you have learned and what you want to showcase just don't go and follow formulas one of the biggest things right so first thing is portfolio screening it's called portfolio screening right then what happens is let's say they have decided that hey you know what this guy's resume is good this guy's portfolio is very good what i'll do is let me go and have a talk with them this round is called as phone screening yeah note that down phone screening what does it mean having a phone call with you trying to understand who you are what they do is one of the biggest questions they ask first questions they ask in the phone screening round and multiple stages of the interview is hey can you please tell me who you are why did you get here why are you into ux design can you please tell me your story therefore one of the biggest things which you need to do is build your story understanding who you are how is it that you are fitting in ux design what skills do you already possess is some of one of the biggest things you need to work on so your answers are prepared awesome great like hey awesome very good you can see your portfolio over there i can see some of the works which you have done and i can also see that you have a great potential so come on let's start the interview process so what happens is then the next step it can happen in a physical location or it can happen online as well doesn't matter but the next step is called as portfolio round please note this term portfolio what is this what happens in this round a bunch of people in the company let us say senior ux designers head of design probably sometimes product managers developers or all these people they sit at one place and they say hey please showcase your portfolio and go through what is that you have done we want to see and understand your thought process and we want to understand your potential it is a presentation about what is it that you have worked on so what happens you need to present what is that you have done to a bunch of people in that round they'll probably ask you very minimal questions right but they're only trying to understand you so what is the takeaway which you have to do over here what you need to do is you need to prepare a presentation of your portfolio you need to prepare about the kind of story you want to tell about the case studies that you have worked on which can be best done if you make a video of it so some of the things most of my students what they do is the whole portfolio what they have done they make a video of it they make a five minute video of this entire project which they have done so that what they can do is they can start by showing this video to the people in the portfolio around you know overall summary of the entire thing which they have done clearly indicates what they have done right and they give the remaining let's say probably it's around one hour they give more than 50 minutes so that people can ask questions about the individual aspects in their portfolio so first take away is if possible try and make a video of the work which you have done that's the first point here the next point here is very very very important again is please just don't go blindly with your portfolio prepare with the kind of questions people might ask about your portfolio and there is no formal way of doing it very very clearly i'm telling you if you go and buy heart your answers and go and give you over there they'll show you the door what does preparation mean you prepare in a heartful manner you know everything what you have done simple you are truthful to what you have done anything they ask you you just go and explain about it you have a reasoning for everything you have done that's it that is what preparation means let us say i'll just show you this something like hey why did you i can see that you have divided them into uh two different kinds of people or three different kinds of there's some explorer strategist and sprinter i can see that but why did you divide them into three parts so what you can do is you can go and look and get this that oh they're trying to ask me that why is it into three parts how do you answer this question very simple if you have done it yourself if you are very genuine about it if you know the reasoning about why is that you divided them into three different categories or three personas you will be happily able to answer it and that is what is the most important thing they will try to see how genuine you are about this very very important point guys how genuine you are about whatever you're trying to do and if you don't know something very very very important if you don't know something please do not go and bluff don't say uh you're just don't make up answers over there hey you know what at my level i couldn't figure that out i didn't know about it but since you're asking it looks like it's a very important thing to have so can i know more about it i'm willing to learn more about it willingness to learn if you don't know about it don't showcase your willingness to learn it is expected that you will not know everything they are not hiding for god's they are not hiding for experienced people even from experienced people they don't expect that you know everything they are hiding for freshers so do not them saying trying to say that oh yeah there is a reason don't make a person they'll immediately catch you showcase your willingness to learn admit that you don't know about it and you are willing to learn about it so we spoke about what happens in the portfolio around then what happens is there will be multiple rounds of interviews okay individual people will take in multiple rounds of interviews but what you need to understand here is everyone will go into your projects and try to ask multiple questions about what you have done right same thing what you've done in the portfolio around in an individual level people try and go and ask you the questions that'll happen but next part comes after these interviews happen what happens is one of the biggest parts what happens some companies do it in this way and the some comments do another way i'll tell you what some companies do is they go and conduct something called as a white boarding session okay note this one please note this one again what is this white boarding session say hey you know what we understand your portfolio and all these things which is great you have done all that but what we want to do is we want to get a taste of how you can perform given a new problem given a fresh problem how is it that you will do and take your decisions so you want to conduct this whiteboarding session they'll give you a whiteboard they'll give you a problem they'll give you some time probably some like half an hour 45 minutes or probably one hour and they'll say how is it that you will solve the problem it's not about making those high-end screens and all that a whiteboarding session is all about going and putting your thoughts out and showcasing how is it that you will follow a design process and move the project that's it all you have to do is completely put down your thoughts speak out your thoughts right little like a mad person like if you're a mad person you'll be like only thinking and like you know on the road if you see someone who is like just talking to themselves you'll probably consider them as mad right that's exactly what you will do in a whiteboarding session you will keep talking to yourself huh i understand that these are the three types of people who can come but what happens if there is a fourth kind of a person uh probably what we'll do is we'll scope it down to these kind of three people if the other person comes probably will wait in the next version so therefore i'm going ahead with these three you are just trying to think out everything what you are trying to do that's it whether they ask whether they don't trust your time to think everything so that's one of the most important things of doing a whiteboard session you want more clarity about it i have made a full-fledged video on whiteboarding session you can check it on my youtube channel anyway what some other companies do is once they have this initial phone screening round they also have this thing called as giving you assignments they'll give you a design assignment and they'll give you a stipulated amount of time they'll give you like some around 48 hours of time or they'll give you like sometimes they give you five days of time and what they want you to do is they want you to go and solve the problem in that limited amount of time you have and let me tell you what they do over here it is very very important that you go and understand that based on the time you have over there you only do that much to understand what can be done at the best level very very important guys a lot of beginners make mistakes over there they think oh i have two days time but i have to showcase everything i know about your exercise in the two days time they fail to deliver and they don't submit their assignments no this is not what companies are looking for what they want to do is they want to see how is it that you will utilize this 48 hours how is it that you will do the best best thing possible in these 48 hours so therefore one of the biggest tricks while going and solving for your assignments is giving them a plan about how you are approaching the problem a lot of designers don't do this they don't plan they just want to be perfectionist they want to do everything and they fail that's the first thing have a plan the next thing what you'll do over here is communication in the assignment a lot of people they do this given an assignment silent not talking with anyone no asking any questions after 48 hours bang one end climax like bang they will show like hey this is my result no one of the biggest mistakes people do because when you're working in a company this is not how it works you will take a problem you'll talk with the stakeholders you have some doubts you'll take those inputs you're doing something you're stuck somewhere you'll talk to people you're continuously in communication when you're actually doing real projects then why is that an assignment you're trying to take everything and only show the result at the end of the 48 hours you don't have to one of the biggest secrets you need to go and make sure that every few hours you update them about what you have done what are the doubts you have and if they don't reply you also write down if you don't reply to me i am going ahead with these assumptions please note this down you need to write down what is the what are the assumptions you will go ahead with some of the questions which you have and what is that you have done every few hours if it is a 48 hour thing if it is a five day thing probably every day you will keep updating them communication is one of the very very very important things which you are judged on while you are going and doing the design assignment and then what you do in the design assignment very simple if you have learned the ux design process if you learned about the multiple processes if you know how to use what where you will easily crack this you don't have to worry about that and then what happens after all this happens they finally have a judgment about what kind of a person you are right and then obviously thing comes is your salary negotiation yeah one of the most important things which happens in interview how much how much how much but let me tell you one thing one trick a lot of designers when they approach these companies what they do is they go and talk about salary after the end of the process because the company obviously will talk then only they'll wait for the entire they'll do their assignment they'll do everything they'll put their portfolio spend their two weeks in the end they'll talk to the company and talk about salary and the company will say hey you know what we thought we'll give eight lakhs package for this and then you're like oh my god i did all this for that money right so let me tell you guys please start your salary discussions your expectation right in the first call in your first phone screen please set your expectations hey you know what i think i have the potential to be at this range if you are hiring for that range probably let's take this process forward if not let's not take this forward but you might ask me hey how will i know my range how is it that i can be so confident that i will not take this forward what yeah you can tell hundreds of things this will happen if you have a good mentor okay we'll get back to how do you get there right but please note down that you set your salary expectations you set your understand your value and set your expectations right in the beginning please don't painfully go and do all this process in the end understand that the max they can pay is some eight likes or whatever and don't get into this trap but then comes the point that hey now let us say i'm there let's say they're willing to pay that they're in the good range which i really want to ask how do i negotiate my salary you need to understand how is it that the company is a good match for you this is a very very important thing you need to make the company realize that you are trying to understand the company not the company understanding you all that is already done you got this they have look at your portfolio they've all they've made an assignment all this is great but in the salary negotiation you are trying to understand the company their culture whatever it is and you are trying to understand the value they have to give you and let me tell you you do that they will understand that oh god we have to not miss this candidate because this person is looking for the right kind of things in the company therefore let them let me retain this person one of the biggest tricks you need to understand the company in your salary negotiation not the company trying to understand you because definitely what they'll try to do is trying to push you towards the lower end thing hey you know what you don't know all these things you still need to learn a lot hey you know what we can only give you this much they'll try to do that but the more you try to go and understand the company that is when they'll realize that oh we don't have a very good experience senior designer oh we don't have a proper design system okay come on uh i understand right you got this you got this dynamics the company always will try to overpower you in that round the only way to overpower them and tell you that hey you know what i am much more qualified than what you can actually afford right the only way to do this is to go and understand what the company is trying to do and whether that role is fit for you or not this trick i mean i call this a trick but this is the most obvious thing to do anyway but yes this would be called as a trick because a lot of people don't know it right this thing you do i'm telling you your salary negotiation round i am telling you a lot of my students they message me hey you know what i'm going to this interview um hey anadeep i want to ask this i said no this is your value you can ask this one and they're like shocked like what do you mean this 2x of what i think i am valuable for and let me tell you they do this and they get it also the reason being the company also understands their value so i'll close this with saying that please do not be a desperate person when you go and look for you know when you go and do your interviews please do not do that desperation doesn't work in two places one finding a date or finding your partner finding a company where you want to work with in these two places desperation doesn't work it'll give you very bad results so please don't show your desperation you follow all these things you go with you know whatever is the right match for you i will go whatever is the most compatible thing for me i will go and work over there i am not desperate that some job i'll get something i'll do it will spoil your career please don't get there thank you for that [Music]

Channel: UX Anudeep

Views: 63,012

Keywords: UX design interview, UX design interview process, UX design, Design systems, Design system, Card sorting, Usability testing, UX portfolio tips, UX portfolio review, How to make UX design portfolio with no experience?, UX design portfolio, UX portfolio, UX job interview process, UX interview tips, Whiteboarding, Whiteboarding session, UX assignment, UX design assignment, UX case study, How to present your case study, What is whiteboarding, UX interview process

Id: 9wSu-3mGATQ

Length: 24min 12sec (1452 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 30 2022