With the portfolio all designed to showcase your best work and CV locked in place, it’s time to get real — start interviewing with potential employers. I know it can be daunting to step into the real world finally, talk about your designs, and be judged by them. But in fact, it is a mutually beneficial process that helps you get to the other side with a sure footing.

It doesn’t matter if you are an entry-level designer who freshly graduated with no prior work experience or if you are a mid or senior-level designer who has cruised through products in diverse industries.

You cannot escape the interview process. There are many types of interviews and interview techniques, but it all boils down to figuring out one thing — if you are the perfect candidate for the job.

When it comes to a design discipline like User Experience or User Interface, you assess a candidate on two significant factors — their soft skills and technical skills.

Soft skills are to evaluate your emotional intelligence. It means the interviewer wants to understand how you approach a problem at hand or resolve an unexpected glitch, your determination, perseverance when tackling teams and clients, etc. Technical skills are to see your proficiency in using design software and techniques to deliver the solutions digitally.

I will take you through four stages of the interview process and the things you need to be prepared to face in each stage:

Stage 1 — Initial Interview

You receive this interview call when the company likes what they see on your resume and design portfolio. Either the HR or business head takes this one up.

At this stage, they want to ensure that you meet the minimum criteria for the role you applied for at the company. That includes questions revolving around:

Introduction

• The interviewer wants to know the person you are and your background. It would inform them of your areas of interest, regional expertise, and advantages.
• So mention where you’re from, talk about your educational experience, and one or two lines about your hobbies. If you made a career pivot, say what motivated you to do so. Talk about your take on why UX and UI are integral for any company.

Past work experience

• You can talk about personal projects if you’re a beginner. This doesn’t need to be in-depth. They want to know a little about the industry of your interest, the kind of causes that motivate you, and your general approach to solving any problem.
• You can talk about your favorite aspect and the most challenging part of the role. It lets the interviewer know if your interests and skill set align with the job description. (Tip: It’s a plus if you have read the job description thoroughly beforehand.)

Communication Skills

• The way you carry yourself and put across your points will inform the interviewer of how you would potentially communicate within their teams and whether your style aligns with the existing team.
• How you answer the questions will show if you can present the designs well to the stakeholders.

Salary Expectation

• If you have been working as a designer for a while, it is simple. You quote a salary slightly higher than the previous one, cause after all you have more experience than when you joined your last place. But if you are new, you must be wondering what salary to quote.
• Do not worry; you will figure out your worth along the way. For the time being, enquire with peers about their first salary or google the appropriate starting salary in your city.

Stage 2 — Technical Interview

The technical interview is the prelude to the Design challenge. Your performance in the technical round would land you the design challenge.

This round focuses on getting to know your approach to problem-solving in-depth, the technical skills involved in each stage of the design process, your adeptness in those skills, the software you are comfortable with, and your presentation methods.

Some sure-shot ways an interviewer will get this information out of you would be through:

Portfolio

• Arrange your portfolio to showcase the projects on top of the page, using the skills the job description demands. You can talk in-depth about your knowledge and comfort in carrying out the necessary tasks.
• Apart from that, pick one or two projects that best showcase your design thinking process and research methodologies and one or two projects that show your screen designing and prototyping skills.
• If you want to highlight other skill sets, do it in a section below these top two to four projects.

Process

• The interviewer will ask you to take them through each step to know how your brain works, aka your understanding of design thinking or a human-centric approach to design, and so on.
• It is best to explain the purpose of the research method for that product, the reasons for your approach to it, the challenges you faced, and how you overcame them.

Example

• If you have done a customer journey map, explain why you thought the best approach to finding the gaps in an existing design was to conduct journey mapping.
• Dive deeper into how you charted out the criterion of judgment for your map, how it aligns with your project goal, how you carried it out, and your conclusions.

Stage 3 — Design Challenge

If you have aced the technical round, you come across the Design challenge. This challenge has two parts — The whiteboard challenge and the design assignment.

Whiteboard Challenge

• They will present you with a problem statement on the spot. It is mainly related to the product they are currently working on or their current problems, which need a UI/UX Designer to solve. It requires you to think on your feet and develop a thoughtful yet straightforward solution.
• There is no right or wrong answer. They only want to assess your capacity to process information and use the theoretical knowledge of design thinking that you possess in the practical world.
• It is best to voice your thoughts aloud to show how you tackle a problem firsthand. You can request a paper or whiteboard to sketch out your ideas quickly.

Design Assignment

• This is a more defined challenge where they will give you a detailed problem statement with project goals, target audience, and design requirements.
• Typically you get 2 to 3 days for the assignment where you can take out one day to understand the product and industry, 2nd day for ideation and quick sketches, third day for the screens and UX deliverables.
• In such tasks, your thought process is mostly the area of assessment. So give more focus on the reasoning behind your design elements, flows, and features.

Stage 4 — Closing Interview

Congratulations!! If you get the call for your final round of interviews with the design lead or the CEO, you have landed yourself the job.

Again there are two parts to it — one is for you to talk them through your assignment where they question your design decisions, and the second would be to close the deal.

As I mentioned before, there is no right or wrong method to solve, so confidently present your design decisions.

Strengths and Weaknesses

• This is when they might also inquire about your strengths and weaknesses. That’s your chance to be your authentic self instead of giving a pre-cooked answer.
• You are human, and in a real-life scenario, you have your likes and dislikes, skills that come naturally to you, and skills that need work.
• So, instead of being conscious of your weaknesses, tell the interviewer the methods you adopted to overcome your shortcomings.

Your turn to ask the Questions

• There comes the point where you get to be the interviewer and ask them questions. Use this to ask them why they need a UI/UX Designer and the problem they are currently attempting to overcome.
• If you are a quick thinker, you can tell them how you can help fill the gaps and why you are an asset to the company.

Final Thoughts

We have reached the end of the design interview process. You must have figured out how this can be a mutually beneficial process. It informs you of the team members you will be working with in the future, the office culture, their current design methods, their alignment with your interests, and if your values sync with the company’s values. Keep in mind the pointers mentioned above, and you’re sure to land your dream job.

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