Design a UX resume that will get you hired

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