After reading over 800 resumes and portfolios, I came up with this job hunting guide

The long-awaited UI recruitment interview summary is finally here. I have delayed this topic for a long time. As early as two months ago, I first came into contact with the task of recruiting new designers. From screening designer resumes - inviting interviews - interviews, I discovered many problems in this process and I also got deep feelings. I believe that this article will definitely be helpful to you who are looking for a job or preparing to find a job.

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Without further ado, let’s get straight to today’s topic: what should be our process for designers looking for jobs? No matter what you do, there is a process, and only with early preparation can you better seize every opportunity.

Summary of designer interview questions

Today we mainly summarize the following points about designers looking for jobs:

• Text resume preparation
• Portfolio Preparation
• About submitting resume
• About preparing for interview questions

Text resume preparation

As a qualified designer, we need to reflect our professional design qualities in every aspect and convey your personal design ability. The text resume is also a mirror of you.

We all know that we can tell who a person is by hearing their voice before seeing them. Similarly, when we submit our resumes, the company interviewers do not know your personal image and abilities in the early stages, and we need to attract the interviewer's attention through our resumes. Through a special resume, the interviewer will remember you and have the best chance of getting an interview.

Let me share the real situation of this UI recruitment. When the company issued the recruitment requirements, we received nearly 200 resumes from designers within one day. In a week, I communicated with a total of 837 designers, including online communication and resume screening. Our company's recruitment is not in the peak season. The recruitment requirements were not issued until May, and the recruitment is also urgent. We only need to recruit one designer and need to find the right candidate in a short time, so I will read all the resumes (text resumes, work resumes) within one day. Of course, I have an expectation in my heart when selecting talents, and I will strictly screen the resumes according to the recruitment requirements.

Some important recruitment requirements:

• The designer has good aesthetic taste (essential condition)
• Have B-side work experience (depending on the enterprise project)
• Have a deep understanding of interaction design and user experience
• Strong learning ability and communication skills (to improve work efficiency, leaders value this the most)

From many designer resumes, I have summarized the following pitfalls:

1. The resume style is consistent with the designer's temperament

Communicating and screening resumes with hundreds of people in a short period of time, so the resume is extremely important. An excellent text resume will win the favor of recruiters in a short time. Of course, since I am a designer myself, I can perceive the aesthetic ability of job seekers from their resumes and works more quickly. So as long as the resume is in the same format as a Word text, it will basically be passed at the first level here, because from his text resume, I can feel that this person is lazy and irresponsible for his own affairs, not to mention that he has a strong sense of responsibility for his work.

2. Your resume needs to be concise

For designers with more than 3 years of work experience, they already have the experience and have been exposed to many work projects and practice projects. However, when we are making a text resume, we need to strive for excellence, extract the essence of project cases and use accurate descriptions, so that we can show your value to the greatest extent in a limited space.

3. Resume information module division

Most resumes are written in text format, so it is essential to divide them into modules. As designers, we need to pay attention to the hierarchical relationship and intimacy of page information when doing any design. The four principles of design are not only reflected in design work, but also in text resumes. Each module displays a type of information, so that recruiters can grasp the important information at a glance. Don't let recruiters look for your characteristics in a haystack.

4. Highlight important information on your resume

The important information here is mainly about your unique characteristics. The common personal basic information should not be highlighted if possible. You need to highlight your personal strengths (summarizing ability, learning ability, achievements, skills, etc.), as well as your actual project experience (C-end/B-end), industry, job responsibilities, etc.

Take our company's recruitment this time as an example. Our industry is B-side project development, so we hope to find designers with B-side work experience. Therefore, as long as there are words like ToB or B-side system in the resume, I will keep a peripheral eye on it, and I will be interested in understanding the designer's portfolio. Regardless of whether there is a chance to enter the invitation interview stage, at least we have passed the screening. If our resume fails to retain the recruiter's eye in the sea, it means that it's a failure~~~

This is very important. I learned this after my own experience. So, I immediately revised my resume at home on weekends.

5. Prepare your resume on the recruitment platform

Compared with other positions, the resume of a designer is longer. Both the text resume and the work resume need to be carefully designed. At the same time, we need to complete our personal information on the recruitment platform. Just like the paper text resume, we need to be fully prepared and not perfunctory. It is best to attach a portfolio link so that the recruiter can view your resume and works. This will give you the opportunity to be actively contacted by the company.

Portfolio Preparation

The portfolio is the most powerful evidence of a designer's ability. Your ability, level, experience, personality, habits, etc. will all be reflected in your work and can be seen through by recruiters!

Similarly, I would like to share my real experience about this recruitment. Many job seekers will take the initiative to apply to the company they like and send their resumes and portfolios. This is also the current situation of most people. In my opinion, it is good to actively attack the company you like. However, many people do not seriously think about whether this company is suitable for them, and whether their experience and works meet the requirements of the company.

For example: Our company wants to recruit a UI designer this time. He or she should have B-side experience, good aesthetics, strong learning ability and strong communication skills. These are the most important requirements. When I was screening resumes, I saw that many of the applicants had no B-side experience or even UI works. They only showed graphic and brand-related works. Such works do not match the company's requirements, so I will pass them when I see their works.

1. The work must meet the requirements of the invested enterprise

Each company has different recruitment requirements, some tend to be C-end, B-end, graphic, brand, etc. This is related to the projects developed by the company and the company's goals. B-end companies will definitely focus on B-end experience, while graphic design pays more attention to aesthetics and innovation. Designers need to determine which direction they are aiming for when formulating their portfolios. If you are competent for B-end, C-end, and graphic design, then when choosing a company to invest in, you need to understand which one the company values, and then highlight the work in that area to let recruiters see that you meet their company's recruitment requirements.

If you have no restrictions on the industry, you can prepare several different resumes, each with a different focus. Grasp the key points and then cater to the needs of the audience.

2. Works need to be classified

The work classification here refers to the different types of works contained in one work, such as web design, app design, graphic design, illustration design, practice works, etc.

We need to give others an orderly experience, so that they can know what type of design your work is about. Another important point is to let others see at a glance what you are good at and what you can do. Without these work classifications, it is difficult for others to fully understand what you are good at in a few seconds when looking at your work. This increases the difficulty for others to understand you. After all, recruiters will not waste a lot of time on meaningless things.

3. The work needs to reflect the summary and thinking

More than 800 resumes will definitely make people dizzy. When you see different works at the same time, the difference will be obvious at a glance. For those with 3-5 years of work experience, our works cannot just show a few pictures with prototypes. We need to reflect our summary after completing a project and reflect your thinking process.

A person's growth is inseparable from his/her thinking process and his/her good habit of summarizing.

This experience also warned me that I must persist in summarizing and thinking, and my works must also reflect my own learning and actual work process. This process is not easy, but it also brings you growth.

4. The work needs to be high-quality

I also often receive many people asking me about how to make a portfolio? What works should be displayed? How many works of each category should be displayed? How to decide the order of works?

Works are the key factor to highlight your temperament and show your ability. A good portfolio is displayed in front of others, and they will be impressed before they see you. Good works must be carefully selected from our many works, and then displayed in the works through exquisite layout design. No matter which category the works belong to, we only need to choose the best works, as long as they are good, not the quantity.

After years of work, we will definitely accumulate a lot of design works. The later you get to the stage, the more you will find that the original design works will have some defects. We need to spend time to improve the original works and make them better before displaying them in the portfolio.

5. Your work should highlight your strengths

There are many types of design and many design skills. We often talk about illustration design, graphic innovation design, interactive experience design, modeling animation and other designs. In many companies' recruitment requirements, they will show several extra points options. If you are good at these, they will choose the more powerful extra points if your ability and experience are similar.

Therefore, you should also clearly highlight your strengths in your portfolio so that the recruiter can notice you at first glance.

6. Your work needs to show your learning ability

The condition of learning ability seems difficult to demonstrate, but it can be demonstrated through experience and works. For example, in this recruitment, I have seen many designers with more than 10 years of design experience, but their works are mediocre. They do not reflect their design ideas, the works themselves are not attractive, there are no design-related elements, no experience accumulation, and no design atmosphere.

Of course, I have also seen many design works by non-professional designers. On the contrary, the works of these non-professional designers look more eye-catching. Whether it is from the visual effects, work thinking process, prototype use, design elements and other designs, they reflect the person's aesthetics and learning ability in multiple dimensions.

We can also reflect our learning ability from our daily practice works. A person who loves design and has strong learning ability will improve himself through practice. Self-study, practice and experience summary will all demonstrate your learning ability well.

7. The work needs to conform to the current design trends

The design trends are different every year. There are many new design styles and design techniques every year. We will also update our portfolio according to the changes of the times and design trends, and always keep up with the pace of design.

The style of your work will reflect whether you are a designer who keeps up with the pace of design. If your work still uses old prototypes, then such work will lose points from the beginning. If your design style is old-fashioned, don't expect others to finish reading your work. Only beautiful works will make others' eyes stay on you.

Therefore, the style of your work must follow the pace of design, so that your work is more likely to be appreciated by others and gain opportunities for further success. Otherwise, your work will only sink into the sea.

8. The work needs to be authentic

A designer's work can not only show your temperament and ability, but also reflect your character.

During this experience, I also discovered that many designers even directly adopted other people’s works as their own achievements. Some directly took screenshots of existing online software APPs and inserted them into prototypes as their own works, without even retouching the pictures, showing obvious signs of crime. Some also directly plagiarized other people’s works on design-related websites and displayed them in their own works.

Although there are many design websites now and you can learn through many platforms, don’t be naive to think that others will not know about the stone you took out of the ocean. Don’t underestimate the development of the Internet. As people in the same industry, others are also watching you. If your work is not seen by people in the same industry, it may be difficult to be discovered and you can get away with it. However, it is best not to hold on to this fluke mentality.

Show your true self and let others see your strengths and weaknesses, but that should be the best version of yourself, not a stranger.

9. The work needs to be clear

Because the portfolios are so abundant nowadays, the file size is increasing. In order to compress the works, we often compress them to the requirements of uploading them on the platform, which causes the works to be over-compressed and become blurry. This is absolutely unacceptable. When you send the completed portfolio to the recruiter, they will see blurry works, which will also ruin your future.

No matter whether the work is exquisite or not, we must ensure that it is clear and visible. We can use less but better, less but clearer, not more but messy, more but blurry.

If PPT cannot display your work well and the file is too large to be sent, we can use the design platform to send the work to the design website, and then send the work link to the recruiter, so as to ensure the completeness of our work to the greatest extent.

10. Attach a link to your work on the recruitment platform

I mentioned earlier that we need to improve the text resume on the recruitment platform. Similarly, we also need to display the work resume on it. Some platforms support uploading work pictures, but they are not comprehensive enough. We can use the form of work links so that when the recruiter wants to know your abilities, they can quickly understand, instead of having to communicate with you and send your portfolio to get to know you better.

This also opens a door to opportunity for yourself. The company that actively seeks you out will definitely have read your resume and work and will contact you only if they think you meet the company's requirements. Such opportunities are even rarer and have a higher chance of winning, so you must present yourself better, consider the convenience of others and increase your own opportunities.

About submitting resume

The correct way to submit your resume is also one of the factors that increase your resume pass rate.

1. Invest in companies that match your work experience

I mentioned earlier that when making a resume, you need to highlight your strengths and make different versions of your resume. If you are competent in designing in different fields, then when choosing a company to submit your resume, you need to carefully understand the company's recruitment requirements and choose a resume that meets the company's requirements.

For example: if a company is recruiting people with B-side experience, then the portfolio should highlight the B-side experience works. If it is a C-side project and graphic aesthetics and innovation, similarly, only by catering to their preferences can you increase your chances. Blindly submitting in batches will be useless. That's why there are so many companies you have submitted to but no one pays attention to.

2. Learn to test the waters

When you are looking for a job, you may have just graduated or left your previous job. In either case, we will definitely feel unfamiliar with the current interview. After all, we haven’t been involved in an interview for a long time. Interview questions will change with the times, so when we are looking for a job, we need to learn to "test the waters."

Test the waters: This means submitting your resume to some companies that you would not be employed by. If you get an interview opportunity, you must go. The main thing is to understand the problems you will encounter in the current interview, summarize your experience, and practice your expression skills. Then, find a company you like for an interview. This will increase your chances of passing.

About preparing for interview questions

Resume preparation before an interview is a must for every designer. Comprehensive preparation also includes: understanding the information of the interview company, preparing for a self-introduction, preparing for professional interview questions, and preparing for questions. Only by being thorough can you not be afraid of the front line!

1. Learn about the company you are interviewing with

Before choosing a company, you certainly need to understand the company's basic information, such as when the company was established, the company's size, the company's development status, the company's main projects, the company's atmosphere, the company's development prospects, and whether it is what you like.

You can learn about this information in advance before the interview. If you feel that there is a big gap between this and your ideal, you can directly refuse the interview and save time for review.

2. Self-introduction preparation

The opening remarks of an interview usually start with a self-introduction. There are some etiquettes for an unforgettable self-introduction. You should focus on introducing your strengths and expressing your attitude that you are qualified for this company and this position. Don't introduce your name every year? How old are you? Where are you from? Where did you graduate from? And other less important information, because the recruiter can see this information in your resume. You need to emphasize the abilities that are not shown in your resume. Of course, the ability to express is also of utmost importance.

3. Preparation for professional interview questions

You will definitely be asked a lot of professional knowledge in the interview, so we must be fully prepared, collect some interview questions in advance, and sort out our own answer ideas in advance.

For example:

• Interviewer: Can you tell me about the UI design specifications?
• Interviewer: How did you solve the biggest difficulty you encountered in your previous work? Can you give a simple example?
• Interviewer: What is your greatest achievement?
• Interviewer: What are the current design trends?
• Interviewer: How do you feel about overtime?
• Interviewer: What is your career plan?
• Interviewer: How do you view your lack of experience in design-related fields?
• Interviewer: What is your understanding of user experience?
• Interviewer: What do you think is the difference between UI design and graphic design?
• …

4. Question preparation

In addition to the professional questions the interviewer will ask us during the interview, we can also ask questions about the company. After all, the choice is made by both parties, so we should also prepare some valuable questions. You can ask questions about information you don’t know about the company and questions you are concerned about, such as:

• Are there opportunities for promotion after joining the company?
• How many people does the company team have?
• How many designers are there?
• What does the post-employment work include?
• …

Today’s sharing has come to an end. I hope you will be inspired after reading it, and I hope it will be helpful to you who are looking for a job. Welcome to continue to pay attention!