A few advanced tips for UX/Product Design behavioral interviews at tech companies

I’ve been on both sides of many UX and Product design interviews over ~10 years and in the process I’ve gotten plenty of offers and rejections both (too many of the latter!) from lots of tech names you’d probably recognize. I’ve picked up a few tips along the way that I often find myself giving out when I’m asked for advice by those trying to land similar roles. A lot of this applies to engineering, product, etc roles but I’ll be focusing on the lens of a designer.

The value of these tips is more than just what they provide in interviews, too.

They can help you understand what to consider when it comes to your own performance and making decisions in your work, and should ultimately paint a picture of what differentiates good designers from great.

First, the basics:

Most hiring cycles include multiple (~2–4) behavioral interviews, each intended to test for one or two specific “competencies”. Interviewers will be looking for specific anecdotes from you about times when you demonstrated these competencies in your work. These competencies usually aren’t a secret. For the biggest companies you can find them posted online if your recruiter isn’t already pointing you towards them. Some of the more common ones might be…