UX Interviews: 10 Mistakes to Avoid (That Are in Your Control)

Sometime back I made a video for the UX interview series on things that get designers rejected during the interviews, but focusing on the aspects that aren't in their control. In this video, however, I'll follow up and cover the things that users experience, UX research and product designers like you can easily affect. The 10 mistakes I'll breeze through are super common and as a UX team and hiring manager, it saddens seeing how many people leave some things to chances. This is a must for any designer or user researcher who wants to optimize their chances of getting into UX or that next design role.
UX Job Interviews: 4 Things That Lead to Rejections (That are Out of Your Control): • UX Job Interviews: 4 T...
🙌 If you like this video, you'll definitely like what comes next;
SUBSCRIBE to this channel and don't forget to share, like, comment: / @vaexperience
👕 UX design and user research themed merch by yours truly: / vaexperience
📩 Get my latest (BEST) updates delivered to your inbox: updates.vaexperience.com/
🚀. I started this channel in 2018 to upskill my design team on user experience methods, rapid UX prototyping, service design, and more at a scale. Gladly the material I use is also relevant for other people across the globe (like yourself).
🧔 Who am I: UX research and design team manager, experience design lead, strategist, and design educator. I love complex services, enterprise UX tools, human decision support and AI tools.
👋 Get in touch: quickest option - @vytautasalech on Twitter; also - [e-mail]. Note I try to respond to every email, however, given the time constraints it might take a while. The shorter and more specific the query the quicker the response!
#uxinterview #uxdesign #userexperience 🎒 Coursera UX courses: imp.i384100.net/dakRLQ

[@vaexperience]

Which takeaway you found the most important and why?

[@sitinurbaya6157]

Asking the interviewer if they have any reservations. It is very scary but like you said - potentially very powerful. Thank you for the video.

[@cc221424]

put subtitles please

[@erickjonesttt]

The fact that we need to prepare for soft skills as well.

[@lokmanedaoudi3118]

Please don't stop making videos, you can't imagine how straight to the point and helpful you are.

[@AMsexton7]

Just want to say that I've been following your channel since I started studying UX. Finally got my first UX job thanks to your many tips on portfolios and interviews 🎉thanks!

[@vaexperience]

Amazing, congrats 👏

[@Rodrigooo54]

maan, that is some really valuable content. thanks for spreading this information, really appreciate it.

[@silviastroie1632]

Thank you - you are so helpful and clear and I greatly appreciate and enjoy your content!

[@Katie-rf5vx]

Thank you for your videos, seriously! I’m a entry level junior and I’m looking for work right now, and you’ve made me realise I need to re-do my whole portfolio

[@llu2736]

Your tips are really on point. thanks for sharing!!!

[@gomajohn1072]

subscribed and watched for years, just wanna say please continue the UX videos. you explain well, the enthusiasm is felt, and the variety of topics are helpful. on a more personal question, what's the story and designs of your tattoos? a video about that? : )

[@erickjonesttt]

Parts: 01. Preparing Bare Minimum -> 0:50 02. What do you actually want to do? -> 1:46 03. Preparing only for the technical interviews -> 3:01 04. Overcommunicating or undercommunicating -> 4:29 05. Winging the answers -> 5:43 06. Not having any questions of your own -> 7:26 07. Focusing on interviewing over trust building -> 8:25 08. Behaviours and attitudes -> 9:26 09. Not covering the gaps -> 11:15 10. Not UXing the UX interview -> 13:53

[@Monika-tu8rp]

Thank you!🙏🏻

[@laurenrosslee3514]

Excellent content & advice! I wonder if you have advice for those transitioning into UX from a graphic design background? I have 7 years of design experience and recently completed a few courses in UX but I’m having rather a hard time managing my expectations of where I would fit in(jr/mid/sen) and how to portray my experience without the interviewer disregarding my background? I hope this makes sense.

[@mirabelle0101]

I really love your videos and appreciate the high quality. If there’s one thing I would like to hint at: „there is nothing bad about pausing!“ 😃 to me it often feels like you are rushing through the valuable tips. Hearing them for the first time, it sometimes feels a little stressful to follow - which is super sad, coz your content is gold! Just one humble opinion. 😊

[@vaexperience]

Cool thanks for the feedback

[@DhanashreeDama]

why does this guy have only 71k subscribers?

[@dimitarhristov9231]

Hey V, great video as always. Much appreciations! I just want to mention a recent interview of mine, where I eventually thought that everything went well and in 3 days I received a rejection. During the interview they just asked me questions about me to just kind a get to know me. Than some questions related to how my work process looks like. I mean questions that I definitely expected and had prepared for. There was one question related to my portfolio cases, which was "Is any of these cases a real project, like for a real client". Where I was like super transparent and said no, like only conceptional cases, although some of theme might be also considered as a real world project/problem. (like the case for "Vodafone"). And than, as I said, I received an Email with a rejection. I followed up with another Email and asked for some sort of a feedback, so I can understand what went wrong, what I have missed. And than they send me back a quick feedback, which was "We are looking for someone with more work-experience in UI/UX, but you have definitely a lot of potential and we believe that you will soon find your dream job as a UI/UX designer"

[@Omnitrix8]

That's the problem. Breaking into a UX design job is REALLY hard. They tend to prefer seasoned individuals with actual projects. 😔😔😔😔

[@dimitarhristov9231]

@@Omnitrix8 Yeah I agree. Now I was wondering that probably it's a good idea if I can find some real clients and work on some projects as a freelancer, so that I can get what they are looking for. Otherwise.. any other ideas ? :D

[@Omnitrix8]

@@dimitarhristov9231 ummmmm... You might want to try applying as a junior UX. Otherwise, there look for a graphic design job. Some employees tend to look for people who have the basic UX design knowledge.

[@Hiandres16]

Hey men, I’m loving this series, can you do a video on where to find jobs as a junior UX/UI designer in the U.S.A?

[@hel_9155]

Try to check the website "indeed"

[@chrismail]

I’m not sure if you have covered this subject already, but I think many people would find it useful if you covered live UX tests/case studies in Interviews. It’s freaking me (and many I know) out to be judged live in Figma like that, and thinking while being observed (2 hours).

[@EmirManrique]

I love your accent!

[@antonchernyshev4746]

Hi! Thanks for the video! I've been working as a designer for 7 years and feel like my portfolio is weak. I have only 3 projects I'm ready to show which didn't have an ideal design process, sometimes we skipped the testing phase and just discussed mockups with the team. As a result, many recruiters reject telling they've found a better match. How to deal with that situation? Regarding the showing excitement, after hundreds of rejections it goes away and it's hard to show it, what would you recommend? Thank you!

[@vaexperience]

Make projects, document them, keep learning and doing UX. You know what's lacking - get after it. You can do a lot of self directed work to practice and show the missing skills. You also need to reflect if the next opportunity is right in terms of those gaps. Your portfolio should show the work you can and want to do in the next role, so realistically the progression will be slow. Consider if 7 years in one place? or less in any other place that will no help you continue growing. I always say to pick the opportunities that will be long term focused, as the ones that are comfy today will definitely not grow you as a speciualist and thus will keep your portfolio the same too.

[@razvan.design]

Off-topic question here: I was wondering what camera you use for recording your videos? Thanks!

[@vaexperience]

Is it good? 😀 Canon eos r

[@razvan.design]

@@vaexperience ​Oh man, that sounds expensive. Yes, the quality is perfect. 👌

[@njengathegeek]

These are golden tips,

[@iamborapark550]

Hi! Can someone help me understanding with "Do you have any reservations?" What does it really mean? Is it for asking time for the follow up? Thank you all!

[@thinkpositive3667]

Which is more important? UI or UX? I'm more of a UX guy with heavy emphasis on research (in fact, I don't like doing UI).

[@annasun9248]

Please begging for the story telling template!!!

[@mim.r4499]

Answering this question how I would face a situation which needs convincing someone (usaully at higher hierarchy level) that it may work better on a longer-term to do so....and not so...why is that difficult? Because no matter how advanced your communication skills are and how good your idea is, the wrong person at right job sucks, specially at higher level. He/she will not stay professional and take it at personal level.I have some negative experience and still haven't learnt how to solve it. Cos if you stay quiet, your performance and the entire team's performance can bi negatively impacted, and if you try to solve it with facts at professional level, nevertheless, 1. "You" get problem because your manager or...sees it as an unnecessary conflict, 2. The problem will be not solved! What do you think how we as junior or mid-level designers can face someone who want us only as tool, not brain?! ;)

[@Fran43CG]

I would say... work on proving that your design works by setting up a usability test of A/B test even if it's with 5 people. Analyze, report, present your findings. If it's THAT important for your design, show them, not only tell them. That way you have proof. Do what you have to do to get the point across.

[@dorothybyzewski9279]

When it comes to portfolios,do you have to present them in your interview?

[@vaexperience]

Depends. Often you will have to in the technical part of the interview

[@dorothybyzewski9279]

@@vaexperience thanks for the info I will keep that in mind

[@bishtmahesh1]

How to connect with you?