design a ux resume that will get you hired
DESCRIPTION
In this talk I illustrate with examples common pitfalls in UX resumes and give you insight into what the UX hiring manager is looking for. I show you how to make your resume truly stand out—not by expounding on your design philosophy or visualizing your career as an infographic—but by listing concrete accomplishments that demonstrate your business value.TRANSCRIPT
Design a UX resume that will get you hired
Kim Bieler • UserFocus 2014
Yawn.
OMGWTF!
Hard truth #1
UX resumes are just as bad as everyone else’s
Who is reading my resume?
What are their goals?
What’s an effective deliverable?
Our process
1. Resume
2. Phone screen
3. Interview
Can you talk to your experience? Whack job or reasonable human being?
Do you seem qualified to do our job?
Our process
1. Resume
2. Phone screen
3. Interview PROVE IT!
Design a UX resume that will get you hired
will get you to the next stage of the process
All your resume has to do is get me to call you
Hard truth #2
Rejection
85% rejection rate
Reasons to reject • Typos • Inconsistent typesetting • Sloppy design • Lousy portfolio • Poorly designed
portfolio website • Too many pages • Poor grammar • Bad writing • Same bullets for every
job
• Objective doesn’t match job description
• Cover letter is for a different job
• No job descriptions at all • Job hopping • Out of state address • Career stalled or
regressing
The hiring manager is looking for reasons to reject you
Hard truth #3
Reasons to reject • Typos • Inconsistent typesetting • Sloppy resume design • Lousy portfolio • Poorly designed
portfolio website • Too many pages • Poor grammar • Bad writing • Same bullets for every
job
• Objective doesn’t match job description
• Cover letter is for a different job
• No job descriptions at all • Job hopping • Out of state address • Career stalled or
regressing
Sloppy
Poor communicator Risky
Not interested in the
work we do
Poor design skills
Top performers
self-directed
strive to be better
emotionally mature
build trust
integrity & ethics
take responsibility
Bad hires
expensive
more work to manage
drag on team
hard to get rid of
less productive
It’s better to reject than to hire poorly
Hard truth #4
How will this candidate perform on the job?
Behavioral interview questions:
Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior
Yeah, but can you do the job?
NO
NO
NO
OMG, NO!
The more you try to be creative, the more chances you have to get it wrong
Hard truth #5
Only the first page counts
Hard truth #6
Ahem.
What does it take?
Phone screen
Wireframes are not an accomplishment
Hard truth #7
Accomplishments:
What you did and how well you did it
Designed wireframes
Designed wireframes
Designed wireframes that met with stakeholder approval
Designed wireframes
Designed wireframes that met with stakeholder approval
Designed wireframes that won approval from a difficult stakeholder
Designed wireframes
Designed wireframes that met with stakeholder approval
Designed wireframes that won approval from a difficult stakeholder
Won over a difficult stakeholder by designing detailed wireframes for every screen and state
The 5 whys technique so-whats
Benefits to the company:
1. Increase revenue 2. Decrease costs
Designed a mobile booking app that brought in $1.2 million in new sales.
Created a clickable prototype that helped us win a $60,000 project.
Increase revenue
Increase revenue • Increase subscriptions, membership, users • Faster task completion • Increase conversions • Repeat business • More/better referrals • Easier cross-sell / up-sell • Improve Net Promoter Score • Faster sales cycle • Increase downloads • Faster to market • Good press, glowing reviews, industry awards
Led a workshop for government employees that received an A+ satisfaction rating.
What you did + how well you did it
Increased conversions by shrinking the checkout process to a single page.
Decrease costs
Proposed a new site architecture that eliminated 18 resource-intensive screens.
Spent $380 to create an on-site test facility, saving us $17,000 a year.
Decrease costs • On time, on budget, within scope • Fewer iterations • Process improvements • Templates, pattern reuse • Fewer bugs and escalations • Use open-source tools • Fewer screens to design and write • Bring work in-house • Reduce support calls • Improve data entry accuracy • Better communication
What you did + how well you did it
Identified several easy-to-fix usability issues by conducting a quick heuristic review.
Created personas that helped UX and developers focus on user goals.
Some closing thoughts…
Better presentation means you’re more likely
to be evaluated on your true skills and merits
and find a job where you’re valued and challenged.
Let’s raise the bar
Thank you! Kim Bieler • @feadog