I interviewed a user experience designer, who currently works at VMware Inc. in Palo Alto, California. VMware is a worldwide company, providing various products and services for clients, like workspace management, server software, cloud management, etc. She has worked as a user experience designer for designing admin software for four years.
For this interview, I primarily focused on how to succeed to gain a UX job.
Here is my thought and summary of the interview:
- Expertizing in one specific area is important because the hiring bar for a UX/UI/Product designer has risen significantly over the past few years
There are more and more people from different fields would like to take a part in UX field. Thus, to enter the UX field and to be competitive in this market, you have to expertize in one specific field in UX, such as programming, visual design, or research. Those people who only have general abilities but not expertizing in a specific area are more likely to be replaced by others who have more solid skills and knowledge.
2. Demonstrating a refined portfolio is a must.
If you would like to concentrate on interaction design, you should not only have a refined process but also show the very solid projects’ outcomes, such as polished visual, mature interaction flow, even end-to-end motion. You could just show two or three projects you are very proud of, but each of the projects should be exquisite.
3. When interviewing a UX/UI project, telling a good story of your work is essential.
Storytelling ability is part of competences as a UX/UI designer. During the interview, a hiring manager would like to see what challenges you solved and how you solve them, but when talking about these things, you should introduce the background of the work first, so the listener could follow your thinking and logic better. Then, tell what actions you took and how the outcome was.
UX field is more and more difficult to enter; even an internship is also harsh to find. Having good storytelling skill is critical, but those hard skill sets are important as well. Most importantly, expertizing in one specific area in UX field is the key to survive in this competing environment.