Interviewing your UX interviewer. 50+ questions to ask your interviewer… | by Jeremy Bird You’ve been there. We all have. You have just spent an hour being interrogated on everything from your design approach and defending design decisions to explaining the short stints on your resume. Then your interviewer turns to you and asks: “What questions do you have for us?” While it may be true that the interviewer questions to candidate questions ratio is often drastically one-sided (which is a whole other topic entirely), it is absolutely essential that candidates come with questions they have prepared beforehand. In the same way asking all candidates the same questions is important to evaluate each one fairly and as objectively as possible, having a prepared list of questions to ask interviewers helps candidates be deliberate and consistent in the way they evaluate one company against another. And, of course, most importantly, asking great questions helps you come off confident and experienced and stand out from the pack in the best possible way. How much does this position pay?
51 Great Questions to Ask in an Interview You probably already know that an interview isn’t just a chance for the hiring manager to grill you with interview questions—it’s your opportunity to sniff out whether a job is the right fit for you. Which means: It’s important to go in with some questions to ask of your own. What do you want to know about the position? The company? The department? SEARCH OPEN JOBS ON THE MUSE! To get you thinking, we’ve put together a list of key questions to ask in an interview. But when the inevitable, “So, do you have any questions for us?” 1-10 Questions to Ask About the Job First, make sure you have a handle on exactly what the day-to-day responsibilities of the job will be—both now and in the future. What does a typical day look like? 11-16 Questions to Ask About Training and Professional Development Think of each new job not just as a job, but as the next step on your path to career success. How will I be trained? 17-20 Questions to Ask About Your Performance 26-30 Questions to Ask About the Company
Crushing the product design whiteboard challenge | by Dan Shilov Setting the context by understanding problems in-depth The first step to any design solution is to understand the problem. Just like in your portfolio project summary slide you want to summarize the context: What is the prompt, what are you trying to solve for? At this stage, you may treat your interviews as stakeholders. When you wrap up: summarize key context points, tell your interviewers what you’re going to do next and ask if there’s anything unaddressed that they’d like to see. Narrowing problem scope At this point you might have more problems than you have time to solve for. This step is an opportunity (no pun intended) to demonstrate your product thinking by narrowing options to the critical few leading to outsize impact. Here are some basic frameworks: Alternatively you might also be asked to not think about constraints at all (e.g. unlimited engineering resources) and to create the best solution. Meaningful focus > diffused diligence Finally, beware of the curse of knowledge.
5 steps to master whiteboard design challenge | by Zhenshuo Fang It’s always exiting to get a call from the recruiter inviting you to an onsite interview. You get to see the office, meet the team, get a feel of the culture and show your work. It can also be stressful and a lot to prepare. There are plenty of resources online about interview questions, portfolio presentation, or even dress code, but there is one thing someone says that is impossible to prepare: the whiteboard design challenge at an onsite interview, where an interviewer give you a design problem and ask you to solve it right away. Last week in preparation for a UX event, me and my coworker, Shuo Yang, decided to demystify this topic for a group of junior designers entering the job market. Nothing else comes close in demonstrating how a UX designer think and behave than a whiteboard challenge. During the challenge, the interviewer is looking for following signs to show that you understand basic design principles and what it means to use “Design thinking”: Don’t be sloppy!
How to Use the STAR Method to Ace Your Job Interview You’re in a job interview, and things are going well. You didn’t get lost on your way to the office, you made some friendly small talk with the hiring manager, and you’re nailing your answers to the questions you’re being asked. Just when you start thinking you have this in the bag, you hear the interviewer say, “Tell me about a time when…” Your stomach drops. First of all, take comfort in the fact that we’ve all been there. What Is the STAR Interview Method? The STAR interview technique offers a straightforward format you can use to answer behavioral interview questions—those prompts that ask you to provide a real-life example of how you handled a certain kind of situation at work in the past. Don’t worry—these questions are easy to recognize. Tell me about a time when… What do you do when… Have you ever… Give me an example of… Describe a… Thinking of a fitting example for your response is just the beginning. That’s exactly what the STAR interview method enables you to do. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
How to Use the STAR Interview Response Method Do you struggle to give concise answers to interview questions? Are you unsure how to share your accomplishments during an interview without sounding boastful? What's the best way to let the interviewer know that you're the right candiate for the job? The STAR interview response method can help. STAR: Situation, Task, Action, Result STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action, Result. Read below for a more detailed description of the STAR interview response technique, and examples of how to best use it. What Is the STAR Interview Response Method? The STAR interview response method is a way of answering behavioral interview questions. Since past performance can be a good predictor of the future, interviewers ask these questions to determine whether candidates have the skills and experiences required to excel in the job. Examples of behavioral interview questions include the following: Some interviewers structure their questions using the STAR technique. STAR Key Concepts Create a List of Examples
How To Use the STAR Interview Response Technique When you land an interview, you probably feel a wave of excitement that quickly gets replaced by nerves. While your skills and qualifications earned you the interview, you still have to make sure to highlight them in a way that leaves the employer with a positive impression, and you have to do so with confidence and professionalism so that you stay top of mind. The good news is with preparation and a few important considerations, you'll be able to ace your next interview, and that's exactly what we'll cover today. I'm excited to introduce our speaker for today. Thank you very much, Brandy. Things you should do for the interview. Research the company. The Indeed company pages are a great place to find reviews from current and former employees about what it's like to work there. Now, it may seem like a no-brainer, but read the job description. And the other details might be that in the job requirements, certifications or training that you might have to have. And then practice your pitch.
DESIGNERCIZE 5 examples of unethical design interviews & how to navigate them | Dribbble Design Blog In this post, our friends at Sharpen.design shed light on how to spot an unethical design exercise during the interview process, while also offering some helpful language to use when it comes to responding to the hiring manager. “For your next step in the interview process, we’d like you to redesign our homepage as a test of skill,’’ a friend recounted to me, clearly uneasy about the ethics of the request. They were applying for their first full-time design role and really wanted to get hired, but they couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being asked for free work. Luckily, you’re not powerless if you find yourself in a similar situation. While usually unintentional, companies often ask for “spec work”, or speculative work, as part of design interviews. Making fair design challenges can be difficult for first-time or fast-moving hiring managers. 1: If spec work is requested While it might not have ill intentions, this qualifies as a request for free work. 2: Insisting on free work
Interview Prep for UX Design Roles with Adobe Adobe UX Designer (and Springboard mentor!) Karen Ko has a fascinating job: she works on the Creative Cloud Desktop application and Creative Cloud libraries. But a couple of years ago, she was just another applicant from a UX Bootcamp program. In our latest YouTube video, we asked her to answer some common UX Design interview questions. If you’d like to meet Karen and other Adobe UX/UI designers in person, come by the Springboard + Adobe event in San Francisco on February 19th. How did you get started in UX design? I had the intention of being in the healthcare field when I was studying in college. I just started looking around at what other jobs or careers were out there, and then I found UX design. What is your design process like? My design process is usually broken down into three parts. Before I start any project, I do a lot of research, and that depends on whether there’s a user researcher or not. What is a recent project that you were challenged by?
We Answer 11 Common UX Design Interview Questions Wouldn’t it be great if you could go into your next UX design interview knowing exactly what questions you were going to be asked? And, even better, knowing just how to answer them? In reality, it’s impossible to know what awaits you inside the interview room. Some interviews are more like a casual chat, while others can feel like an intense grilling. Different interviewers use different techniques, but ultimately, they all have the same end goal: to find out if you’re the right person for the job. In a UX design interview, they’ll be especially curious to know how you work, how you think, and how you’ll bring the value of design to their particular company. What might seem like simple questions on the surface can—and should—reveal a lot about you as a UX designer. Ready to dive in? Check out this video to see a real UX designer answering these questions, and watch the video below for special tips from senior UX designer, Dee Scarano! 1. Mike’s tip: 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
Interview tips - Google Careers Focus on data As you start to think about things you want to highlight in your interview, don’t forget to include data. This helps your interviewer understand not just your overall achievements, but how big of an impact you made. Let’s put it this way: What data can you provide that tells the story of your experience in terms of the needs of this position? The “equation” we suggest goes a little something like this. Accomplished X as measured by Y doing Z. Come ready with questions Next, come to the interview with your own questions. If you do these things we think you’ll be prepared to talk about yourself and about the position. Prepare for the day of OK, done — well, almost done. Make sure your space is ready for video If you’re doing a virtual interview, take some time to prepare your space.
How to prepare for UX interview design challenges Design challenges, or design assignments, are often the least enjoyable and most daunting for UX designers during the interview process. In this guide, get an in-depth understanding of how to prepare for your next design challenge. You can click to jump to each section: Types of Design Challenges The reasoning behind the design challenge is to get a greater insight into the applicant’s thinking process. White Board Challenge Time: 20 minutes – 1 hour Description: A whiteboard challenge is a design challenge that is usually done live in front of the interview team. Take-Home Design Challenge Time: Several hours or up to 1 week Description: The take-home design challenge may have a time frame of 10 hours+ to 3 days. Examples of Design Challenges: Preparing For A Design Challenge Admittedly, a design challenge can be nerve-wracking! Make A Game: Gather several of your designer friends and create flashcards with design challenges that you can complete in 15 -30 minutes. Guides + Articles: Related
Working Through Design Challenges in Product Design Job Interviews | by Tanner Christensen Originally posted on tannerchristensen.com Interviewing for a job can be stressful. For digital product designers there’s often added pressure of an on-the-spot design challenge: an exercise in which you’re tasked with walking through a design problem right then and there. I used to fear the problem solving part of a product designer interview. In addition to the anxiety these types of challenges would cause I struggled to understand the value of attempting to hack away at an impossible task—design an elevator for a building with an infinite number of floors—or something mundane and completely unrelated to what I’d actually be doing on the job—come up with a really interesting car stereo design. After a few years of experience behind-the-scenes and dozens of successful interviews I now look forward to design challenges rather than viewing them as stress-inducing, irrelevant, and ultimately futile exercises. Interviewers are looking for specific behaviors during these challenges: 1. 2. 3.