This talk started as a Meduim article, was presented by Jen at the Boston UX Fair in 2018, and then revised and presented by Jen and Bob at the UXPA international conference in 2019.
Crafting your UX resume and designing your portfolio
1. CRAFTING YOUR UX RESUME AND
DESIGNING YOUR PORTFOLIO
Jen McGinn
Director of User Experience, CloudHealth by VMware
Bob Thomas
Director of User Research, Liberty Mutual
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We have been mentoring for more that 15 years. We’ve been mentoring Bentley MS HFID
students since 2008 or 2009 and co-leading the Boston UXPA mentoring activities since 2012
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And we’ve been hiring managers for 10 years
We’ve hired designers, writers, interns, user researchers
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https://blog.prototypr.io/5-secrets-to-design-an-excellent-
ux-designer-resume-and-get-hired-981628826946
Reasons to reject a candidate
• Objective doesn’t match job
description
• Cover letter is for a different job
• Job hopping
• Too many pages
• Inconsistent typesetting
• Sloppy design
• Typos
• Poor grammar
• Bad writing
• Poorly designed portfolio website
• Lousy portfolio
Resume Content Resume Format
Writing Portfolio
14. THE RESUME
Goal: get the recruiter to call you
So let’s start with the resume. The goal of a resume is not to get you hired. The goal of the
resume is to get the recruiter or hiring manager to call you.
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Do some competitive analysis
First, I’d expect you to do some competitive analysis, so let’s Google for UX resume
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Resume tips
• Find examples of resumes that align with your design aesthetic
• Buy and modify a template that you like
• Know your fonts
• Do not borrow the design of your friend or colleague
(that just sounds lazy. because it is.)
• Secret: you do not need to have EVERY qualification in the job
description
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Resume content
• Name, contact email, phone number, portfolio link, link to blog
(if you write one)
• Objective/summary needs to align with the job you are applying
for
• Job titles, companies, dates of employment all need to be clear
and in order (don’t confuse the recruiter)
• Include relevant education & coursework
• Should be consistent with your LinkedIn profile
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Resume content
• All signal, no noise
• Tell the truth
• “responsibilities included” -> Challenge – Actions – Results
• Focus on what you do at work, not what you do outside of
work
• “Lead” vs. “Led”
• Typos! (get proof-readers)
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Resume design
• One to two pages
• Layout is well organized
• Advanced organizers/titles/groups
• Descriptions should be brief and scannable
• Use Gestalt principles – alignment matters
• Sufficient white space
• Sufficient contrast between type and background
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Resume design
• Clean, readable font
• Use color intentionally and sparingly
• Use images and photos cautiously
• A gradient drop-shadow logo is not going to get you a UX job
• If you use a photo:
• Take out the background or have a head shot taken for this purpose
• Use the same photo as you have on LinkedIn
• The interviewer should be able to recognize you in person from the picture
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Resources
5 Secrets to Design an Excellent UX Designer Resume
and Get Hired: https://blog.prototypr.io/5-secrets-to-design-
an-excellent-ux-designer-resume-and-get-hired-
981628826946
How to design your own resume: https://uxdesign.cc/how-
to-design-your-resumes-3b86ff7d9f76
10 Amazing Designer Resumes that Passed Google’s Bar
https://medium.com/@bestfolios/10-amazing-designer-
resumes-that-passed-googles-bar-deedb315ec47
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Portfolio tips
• All the design tips from creating your resume, PLUS
• It’s a website, not a dropbox, not a google drive, not paper in
your hand (could be a slideshare)
• Use a website template that aligns with your design aesthetic
• Customize it yourself
• Or get help from someone with web dev skills and/or visual design skills
• If you use a vendor’s portfolio site, be sure you love their UX
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Portfolio content
• All signal, no noise
• Name, contact email,
link to blog
• PDF resume
• About me
• Photo
• can be more personal or
creative than your headshot
• How you define yourself
• Skills/work summary
• Design/research philosophy
• 2 paragraphs, max
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Portfolio content: work samples
• Zoom out, blur areas, use fake data to protect your previous
employers and their customers
• No proprietary information
• No customer names
• No slides marked proprietary or Confidential or Internal Only
• No user research results
• Tell a story: beginning, middle, end
• Design: before, during, after
• Research: Goal/challenge, method, impact
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My Portfolio Piece
I designed this. The End.
Emphasizing Process Only
Step 1: I did this
Step 2: Then I did this
Step 3: And this is the final design. Ta da!
All Text,
All the Time
Lots of text, no
headings
Remember Jen’s CAR Principle: Challenge – Action – Results (Goal – Method - Impact)
This is a common mistake: showing just results
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My Portfolio Piece
I designed this. The End.
Emphasizing Process Only
Step 1: I did this
Step 2: Then I did this
Step 3: And this is the final design. Ta da!
This is an other common mistake: showing just process.
Focusing on process is good, but it’s missing Challenges and Impact.
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My Portfolio Piece
I designed this. The End.
: I’m sure this is interesting, but I’m not going to read it.
You haven’t organized the content for me. There is no information design here.
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Portfolio design
• Work samples should be labeled and organized by type of work
• The URL should make sense to the recruiter/hiring manager
• Your name
• Easy navigation
• No “creative” interactions
• Piles of images
• Non-clickable buttons
• Giant fonts
• Mobile layout on the web
• Animated logos
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Resources
10 Tips for a killer UX portfolio:
https://blog.usejournal.com/10-tips-for-a-killer-ux-portfolio-c918ae5ccb50
Three tips for creating a better UX portfolio: https://www.interaction-
design.org/literature/article/three-tips-for-creating-a-better-ux-portfolio
Great UX Portfolios:
https://www.slideshare.net/MaryWharmby/great-ux-portfolios-39212601
How to wow me with your UX research portfolio:
https://www.userfocus.co.uk/articles/wow-me-with-your-ux-portfolio.html
8 UX Mistakes To Avoid On Your UX Portfolio Website: https://hackernoon.com/8-ux-
mistakes-to-avoid-on-your-ux-portfolio-website-4d6dd437cf21
UX Portfolios: How to tell your story: https://www.slideshare.net/usabilitycounts/ux-
portfolios-how-to-tell-your-story
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Portfolio review content
• Curate: Tell a few good stories from your portfolio
• 3 to 5 things that you are proud of
• Story has 3 parts:
• beginning, middle, end
• challenge, action, results
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Portfolio review design
• Do you re-use your portfolio site? What if you can’t get on the
wifi?
• Slides – another opportunity to show your information design
skills and design aesthetic
• Keep it clean and simple
• Love the slide template you use
• If you have visual design skills, use them
• If you have photography skills, use them
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During the presentation
• Know how to work your computer
• We all get nervous
• Let the portfolio be the only thing open and on the desktop
• Bring a dongle if you’ll need one
• Bring a backup (or two)
• What will you do if there’s no wifi?
• What will you do if you have to use another person’s system?
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During the presentation
• Manage your time effectively
• Talk about your work, not about the product
• Be the expert on your work
• Make eye contact with everyone
• Answer questions that are asked
• Consider the feedback being offered
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Interview tips
• Be friendly
• Be enthusiastic about your work, the role, the company
• Ask questions about the role, what it’s like to work there
• At the end
• Ask what the next steps are
• Ask for feedback
• Write thank-you notes or emails
45. Whew – that was a lot – but we want you to reach your goal
We have been mentoring for more that 15 years
Mentoring Bentley MS HFID students since 2008 or 2009
Co-leading the Boston UXPA mentoring activities since 2012
And we’ve been hiring managers for 10 years
We’ve hired designers, writers, interns, user researchers
Our goal is to help you succeed at getting that next job
So as you look for that first job or next job, what can you control?
Your resume
Your portfolio
And the presentation of your work
So let’s start with the resume. The goal of a resume is not to get you hired. The goal of the resume is to get the recruiter or hiring manager to call you.
First, I’d expect you to do some competitive analysis, so let’s Google for UX resume
Google example: Clean, uncluttered
Uses labels and headings
Simple and to the point. Sans serif headings, with a different color than the text.
You can buy a resume template. Jen just bought one for $6, and she just got a new job.
Know your fonts and pick those that work together: usually no more than 2 font families
If you design a resume that looks like one a friend or colleague designed: you might be discovered
You don’t need to have every qualification, just the most important ones. Me: management experience, strategy, and experience with a lot of user research methodologies
Your resume: easy to see who the person is and their job title
Contact info below that. Objectives/ professional statement below that
Experience on the left, education on the right
I like the bar chart of skills. I’ll usually ask candidates if they’re beginners, intermediate, or advanced in their use of tools or research techniques
I DON’T think references are necessary. Recruiters know you have them and will ask at the end, not at the beginning of the process.
What should go on a resume; All your contact info, portfolio link, and a link to your LinkedIn profile
Objective/summary; keep in mind you may have to customize your resume for each job you apply for
Work history: start with most recent position and work backwards. Depending on your age and the position, you don’t need to go back 20 years
Only include relevant education and coursework (I don’t need to know about your cooking classes)
Everything on your resume should align with your LinkedIn profile – which I will look at
+ Profile photo: personalizes the resume
+ contact info at the top, and then projects worked on
+ Experiences, Education, UX/UI Skills, Tools
I’m not a big fan of “hobbies” or “interests.” For example, I practice martial arts and like to take long walks on the beach. Does the hiring manager need to know that?
No noise: no outside interests, no experience that’s over 5 or 10 years, depending on the job description
Tell the truth: a few years ago, we were ready to hire a new Product Manager for our mobile team. She said she got a B.A. degree. Background check proved she lied. She was not hired.
CAR: This is really important if you include lists of accomplishments on your resume. Jen will talk more about CAR when we get to portfolios.
Focus on work, not hobbies
Make sure you check your resume for typos and grammar. Lead is present tense, Led is past tense. I’m a stickler on that. If your resume has typos, I’m going to assume you’re lazy or just don’t care. Ask someone else to check your resume.
Gestalt: how we perceive patterns. Align your sections vertically and horizontally.
Sufficient contrast: #1 is black text on a white background. #2 is green text on a white background, which is why I like to use green for headings.
Easy to read headers
Lines break up the sections
Lots of white space
Last bullet point: so no pictures from your high school prom
Last bullet point: so no pictures from your high school prom
There’s a lot of info packed into this one-page resume - but it’s easy to scan
Big headings, use of color, and use of lines to break up the top portion from the other headings and text that take up most of the page
No Instagram feed
ABOUT ME: This is where you can put hobbies and/or family information – but why?
Remember Jen’s CAR Principle: Challenge – Action – Results (Goal – Method - Impact)
Example 1: Just results
Example 2: Focus on process only. Focusing on process is good, but it’s missing Challenges and Impact.
Example 3: I’m sure this is interesting, but I’m not going to read it. You haven’t organized the content for me. There is no information design here.
Remember Jen’s CAR Principle: Challenge – Action – Results (Goal – Method - Impact)
Example 1: Just results
Example 2: Focus on process only. Focusing on process is good, but it’s missing Challenges and Impact.
Example 3: I’m sure this is interesting, but I’m not going to read it. You haven’t organized the content for me. There is no information design here.
Remember Jen’s CAR Principle: Challenge – Action – Results (Goal – Method - Impact)
Example 1: Just results
Example 2: Focus on process only. Focusing on process is good, but it’s missing Challenges and Impact.
Example 3: I’m sure this is interesting, but I’m not going to read it. You haven’t organized the content for me. There is no information design here.
What will you do if the company’s WiFi blocks access to your site because it’s not secure?
Whew – that was a lot – but we want you to reach your goal