UI/UX Role Interview Preparation
Check out this link and this link for the full YouTube videos that I watched to come to these conclusions.
So. The semester comes to a close, and this might be the final post! I wanted to leave with ideas of how to move from design thinking into a design career, so I watched videos from a couple experts to get into the hiring mindset. I’d like to present two important takeaways from the ideas in these videos and connect them to my own hiring experience outside of the fields of UI and UX.
Firstly, both videos made it very clear that interviewees need to be able to get into the mindset of their interviewers. A hiring candidate can most easily be successful if they can figure out not only what their interviewers are looking for, but also how their responses will be interpreted and processed by their interviewers. This can mean some pre-planning homework if you can figure out who is going to be in the interview room with you ahead of time to understand what drives these people and what they are looking for.
Making sure you understand your interviewers leads to being able to see through their questions and understand what they are truly after. If they ask you why you want to work at the company, they are really asking what you think you can bring to the table to add value, not how working at this company will better your career or your life. If the interviewer asks about one of your projects, they aren’t particularly interested in your project. They are more interested on how you problem solve, work with others, and how well you can communicate.
Additionally, asking questions through your interview is absolutely required and is one of the most important parts of the interview for a number of reasons:
- Interviewers can gauge your interest in the company based on your questions
- You can gauge whether you want to pursue a career at the company if you ask culture-based questions
- You can understand how your interview is going if you ask questions like “what are you looking for in an ideal candidate?”
- You can understand what type of people your interviewers are better and how they might be interpreting your responses through the responses to your questions
Based on my prior interviews, I can speak to how important asking questions during the interview is. My potential employers have always been more interested in me as a candidate and more enthusiastic to talk to me and respond back to me quickly if I’ve taken an obvious interest in the company through questions like “why do you like working here?” and whatnot.
At the end of the day, interviews are tricky because what’s not explicitly spoken is more important than what is.