Design UX/UI Interviews Have Become Too Much A Monster

Stop asking yourself how to better prepare for an interview, and start asking yourself what it is you’re actually going to be able to care about, for years on end.

It’s official; people have come to expect UX and design interviews to be a mother of a process. Well, it’s your career right? Yes, but if it’s truly your career, you’ll have a lot of insight into your future position without even speaking to someone at the desired workplace. The level of detail the job description holds, is the best place to start. If a recruiter, HR manager or the like, can’t answer your poignant questions about the vague bullet points of the description, it’s likely they don’t have a working knowledge of what you’ll actually be doing. Getting past these people is difficult and frustrating, and seemingly getting worse.

So who is to blame? For the racks of questions, interviews, culture fits, constant probes of knowing who you are, what you want on your life journey, what you like to do on your 8 company paid holidays, wether or not you post food instagrams or ones of your Fitbit results, and less of how well you think, and how much technical terminology you can cohesively slap into a great thought that shows your clear proficiency and investment in your career?

Let me tell you: the bullshitters.

Now, there’s two types of bullshitters. The ones applying that don’t have a strong enough working knowledge and the ones talking to candidates that know zero about the job duties you’ll be performing. Bad design managers who “don’t have time” to hire, tell their HR to screen candidates, when in reality they’re flipping the entire point of hiring people on its ass. It’s likely you won’t want this job anyway, since the clear neglect of feeling responsible for hiring the right talent, will probably bleed into how well they pay attention to the awesome work you could do for them. If you’re truly unfortunate, this same neglect that is placed on their hiring process bleeds into their technical proficiency, and you’ll really be in a world of hurt.

You see; design has purpose, intent, and a driven desire to make people’s lives better. If you’re lucky enough to catch an employer that shows you these same values in a job description or interview then you’re lucky. Hold on to it. If you have not found people like this- start looking, I think you’ll find your spirits will be lifted once you can easily see through the layer of bullshitters that you have zero desire to be a part of.

For the rest; I’d like to offer a bit of advice. This is for the ones who truly care about the career they’ve chosen (rather than fallen into) but seem to be torn down by people not replying and not understanding, or not having clear answers. I feel you, just know- 70% of the time it’s all because they aren’t paying attention, it’s not you, it’s their force of habit. The level of bullshit they have to sit through is so thick they bypass great candidates, blindly, with judgement too critical for the time they spent formulating it, and quite frankly, have gotten used to. This is the monster, and this has to stop. This can destroy companies.

First off- don’t take interviews just to take them. Do you know how tiring that is for the employer?!

Practice for interviews by being genuinely nice to your barista instead of texting at the counter, or calling your freaking Mom more often to ask how she’s doing and what she’s experiencing in life.

Practice your technical skills by reading books, articles and talking to your professional peers about their process and experience, if you’re not doing this then you’re already behind. Interviews aren’t a way to “practice” people skills & they never should be. If you’re not truly interested, then chances are you’re not going to end up working there anyway.

Think about it, imagine having gas stations that are only full service. (Jersey, gross) Imagine you don’t know if they have your fuel type; and instead of being able to READ the sign at the station you have to wait in line to talk to the attendant before making your decision. Life isn’t full of endless time to bullshit, people would eventually run out of gas waiting. (As we have been witnessing more recently)

If it’s only salary you’re after rather than helping good people make good products, it’s certainly not worth wasting a company’s time because you don’t think you get paid enough at your current job. You are taking opportunity away from someone who is genuinely interested, that’s selfish.

If you’re a hiring manager or recruiter who can’t seem to “find the level of talent that you need” start by asking yourself how much you actually know about the job, because after all this IS your job.

Interviews are for answering the questions you don’t know about the employer so you can determine if you’ll be a good fit. This also means you’re accountable for knowing who the employer is before interviewing, and in reality, you can be accountable for all published information about them. If you don’t have time for this, then they should not make time to interview you. You would, in essence, be bullshitting.

Secondly- good companies employ teams of people with a true working knowledge of the job to select and screen their candidates. From visual to code, to shipping a product to handling any relationships you’ll be responsible for, these are the teams that yield the best hiring results. Their process can be as little as one 45 min phone interview and one to two in person (but longer) portfolio or panel review(s). This is ideal, good employers know the value of the interview.

These are the people who will actually read EVERYTHING you type on your portfolio or blog. They will care about what you have to say, because they know the bullshitters don’t realize what they say about their work matters the most. You want to work for these people. The bullshitters could care less.

Lastly- Don’t expect to have to be put through Dantes 7th circle before you can score your dream job or even a great job. It’s naive to think a job is a dream job before you actually hold the position, so you can stop that too. If you have self worth and know that you’re going to be successful because you care deeply about what you produce then you SHOULD NOT have to go through much to prove your worth to a company. It should come naturally. They will be able to see it, and feel it because of the way you present yourself.

So please, exude proficiency and less bullshit. If you aren’t as proficient as you need to be, become proficient before you waste anyone else’s time. (On both sides of the process)

The world can not run on bullshit. Investing in an employee is a valuable process and there is no time to waste. Be true to what you want to work on and understand the value of your time. Together, the employment process can get better and less bullshit-ier if we decide to not stand for these unnecessarily drawn out processes, because of employers inattentive behaviors. It’s too tiring for both sides of the field, and finding talent is no game, kids.

Employers will realize the influx of bullshitters, those who don’t value their professional development, but it takes time. You can start speeding this time up by not expecting to sell your soul in layers of interviews simply to find a job to help a company achieve their goals.

“You will never gain anyone’s approval by begging for it. When you stand confident in your own worth, respect follows.” — Mandy Hale