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UX Design Interviews: Design Challenge? Get paid.
If you are interviewing for UX/UI or Product Designer jobs, chances are you will be asked to do a design challenge, also known as a case study, as a final step of your interview. I’m here to tell you that you can, and should, be paid for that work, especially if the topic of the challenge is closely related to the product of the company.
In my 7+ years as a product designer I have completed design challenges as part of the interview process both unpaid and paid, and many more unpaid than I’d like. I have been there designing a pointless pizza delivery app, submitting after 2 hours of unpaid work, just to get an automated rejection. I have also been offered 2 hours of paid work on a design challenge up front, presented to the C-levels and was offered the job. That, as well as having been a hiring manager myself, is how I know we all can do better. Let’s see how we infuse more respect for your time into an already grueling interview process.
Design Challenge Formats
Design Challenges, or case studies, can also be called white-boarding exercises if they are in the form of working on a problem for an hour in real time with your interviewers collaborating with you. This often takes place during an onsite, virtual or in person. If the problem is not related to the company’s work, I tend to let that…
