Tips for Networking & Job Hunting
This is, understandably, the most pressing topic when I chat with students and junior/mid UXers and Developers. So I put together this collection of the most helpful resources and advice from my early career and 2018 job hunt. On this page I cover:
If you’re feeling lost…
Building your network (and maintaining it)
Writing and improving your resume and portfolio
Preparing for interviews and what to expect
Compensation and negotiation
Have a question I didn’t cover? Ask me via the form at the bottom of this page :)
“What Should I do with my life?!”
If you’re struggling with this question, I highly recommend reading Designing Your Life (I loved the audiobook). It is super actionable, interesting, and I promise you’ll feel “unstuck” after you read it. Summary: “In this book, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans show us how design thinking can help us create a life that is both meaningful and fulfilling, regardless of who or where we are, what we do or have done for a living, or how young or old we are.”
BUILDING & MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS
Meeting new people & companies
LinkedIn: Reach out to folks who work in roles or companies you’re interested in. Ask them if you can buy them coffee/tea and learn about their experience.
Example template:
Hi NAME,
I’m currently a << student / junior designer/developer/etc. >> and I’m trying to learn more about the << XYZ >> role at different companies. If you’re up for it, I’d love to buy you a coffee/tea and pick your brain about your career path and your experience at << COMPANY >>.
Happy to meet at a time/location that works best for you (or hop on the phone if that’s preferable). Thank you in advance for your time!
- YOUR NAME
Events: Search for meetups in your area. My favorites in Seattle are Women in Product, Hexagon, Ladies That UX, Product School, and Product Tank.
Mentorship:
There are formal mentorship programs like Hexagon and Ladies That UX. Search for ones in your interest areas, sign up for their meetup groups or newsletters, and apply when the next round opens up.
Or, you can find your own mentors. This always sounded confusing/daunting to me — here’s how you do it:
Don’t reach out and say “will you be my mentor?”
Do reach out with specific questions or ask to meet up. Come prepared (!!) with specific questions. If it goes well, ask them if it’s okay if you stay in touch and ask them more questions in the future. If they say yes, repeat as often as feels right to both of you — be respectful of their time, and always come prepared with questions or progress to discuss. And that’s it - you’ve got yourself a mentor!
Maintaining your existing relationships
The standard coffee/lunch/drinks, of course. But people are busy, budgets can be tight, and not everyone enjoys 1:1 meals/drinks out.
Invite them to an event / meetup. It’s a good excuse to catchup over a shared interest, you’ll have a buddy at the event, and you can invite multiple people/coworkers if you’d like - a great way to expand all of your networks.
Share interesting podcasts, articles, videos, etc. You can stay connected without meeting in person! If you read / hear / watch something interesting, think of people in your life who might enjoy it too. Send it with a quick: “Hey there, I saw this and thought you might be interested. Hope you’re doing well!”
Your Resume
Groannnn. A painful but necessary task.
Google tips and tools. There are lots of articles about format, content, approaches, etc. Plus some useful free tools like TopResume’s free resume evaluation (as of Oct 2018)
Focus on impact. As you’ll likely read if you follow #1, it’s important to describe the impact of your work, not just a list of tasks. Include metrics and numbers if you can, but qualitative results can also work — “happy clients,” “increased task success,” “improved clarity,” etc.
Progress not perfection! The job of the resume is to get you through to the next step, usually talking to someone at the company. So don’t get too stressed or precious about every little detail. Put it out there even if you don’t think it’s “ready” — if it’s not working, you can always tweak it later.
YOUR Experience & PORTFOLIO
Storytelling
Your career path and where you want to go next are all about storytelling. Very few careers (none?) follow a perfectly logical progression. (You can see my own career transitions story here.) Instead, it’s the story you tell about your experience - the anecdotes you choose to include and how you explain the “why” of each step and what you’re looking for next.
General storytelling tips:
Watch or read Simon Sinek’s Start with Why to understand the cognitive science behind storytelling.
Check out my Storytelling 101 presentation (made for students, applicable to professionals!)
Make a spreadsheet (see the Prepare for Interview section) to focus in on your best, most relevant stories.
Use the PAR framework to clearly describe your work and impact. Pictures are great, but they don’t always tell the story of your contribution. This framework helps:
Problem: What problem were you trying to solve? Or what goal you were trying to achieve?
Action: What did you do? What steps did you take? What was your role? Who else did you work with?
Result: What was the impact of your work? Impact on the business; impact for your users; lessons you learned?
Reframe your experience. Sometimes you have the right experience, you’re just not showing the full process or using the right words (current industry lingo) to get the attention of recruiters and hiring managers.
Example: For a graphic designer who wants to move into UX design, these are some things you might reframe. Quotes = UX industry lingo
Learning about the project => “gathering data” “stakeholder interviews” “defining the problem and goals”
Looking at how other companies do similar things => “competitive analysis” “competitive teardowns”
Image of the final design => Also describe the “impact” and how you “measured the success/failure” of the design
For designers: check out Nielsen Norman’s Design Thinking 101 and website to learn more design lingo.
Adding new experience and skills
Participate in hackathons. You can try out different roles (e.g. visual designer who wants to move into UX design; anyone who wants to move into product management), you’ll create new projects you can add to your portfolio, and you’ll make new connections that could lead to job opportunities.
Learn new tools / skills. You can learn almost any tech/design skill on the internet! Even if it has nothing to do with your current job, you can watch videos, do free trials, and practice on your own to boost your skills.
Learn new skills at your current company. Think outside your current role. Ask to buy coworkers coffee to learn more about their roles. Ask to take on side projects where you can practice new skills (I’ve seen this a ton with folks who wanted to move into PM roles). Shadow meetings where you might learn new areas of the business. You probably have access to wayyyy more info and people than you think.
Consider “struggling” or “old school” companies. I admit this sounds brutal, but I heard this advice and I think it’s worth considering…
If you are:
Wanting to switch roles (e.g. graphic design into UX; anything into Product Management)
Looking for your first job in tech
Keep hearing that you don’t have enough experience or the right experience
Consider jobs at:
“Old school” brands and industries. Almost every company and role has a “tech” aspect now, even if the brand or industry isn’t typically associated with the tech industry. As such, these companies are sometimes less competitive for hiring and could be a good place to get in the door and build experience. Bonus: they are likely better than small startups in these areas: benefits, work/life balance, high brand-recognition (when you go to apply for your next job), colleagues with lots of experience to learn from, chance to learn and practice business etiquette (especially if this is your first job out of college! For example, my time in NYC book publishing was super helpful for this).
“Struggling” companies: There will always be a startup that has just done a big pivot with layoffs and/or that is on the decline but still hiring.
Disclaimer: There will likely be a lot of change going on and, especially for longtime employees, it could be an emotionally tough time (speaking from experience!). Compensation might be lower than average.
Pros: They’re still hiring! And it won’t be as competitive because top candidates will stay away. They will want or need to hire junior folks. You will likely get a wide scope because there are fewer people left — lots of projects to add to your portfolio. You’ll get a lot of stories to add to your “tell me about a challenging time…” list!
prepare for interviews
My checklist before I go into an interview:
Your stories and questions
Stories: Refresh your memory on your go-to interview stories. Some helpful tips:
Make a spreadsheet to keep track of your best stories (this podcast episode has more info). Write down the skills/behaviors you want the interviewers to remember about you (e.g. for a product manager: business sense, product/design intuition, technical depth, communication, etc.) and add 3+ stories that speak to your experience/skill in these areas. Also include stories that represent the standard interview question areas like: challenges, collaboration, failures, etc.
Practice, using the PAR framework (problem, action, result) to make sure you’re telling a coherent, concise story that shows the impact of your work.
Questions: Keep track of questions you want to ask. Some of my favorites:
When you think about the next 3-6 months, what challenges are you most excited about?
What brought you to this company / what keeps you here?
What is the most surprising thing you’ve found about working here?
Tell me about the relationship / collaboration between << Engineering, UX, Product, Marketing, Sales, etc. >>
How do company mission and goals filter down to your team? How do leaders tell those stories? What does interaction with leadership look like?
Tell me about something your team has built/shipped in the past year that you’re most proud of?
Tell me about the << design, engineering, product management >> philosophy at this company / on your team.
Tell me about the cadence of work — are you working in sprints, when/how does planning happen, what’s the pace, what are core hours, etc.?
[New for the pandemic] What does the future of work look like at your company? Will you be remote forever, a blend of remote and in-person work, or other? Where will your people be located—is there flexibility to live in different cities/countries?
Research
Don’t spend a ton of time on this — you just want a basic understanding of these areas so you can ask good questions:
Reread the job description: Refresh on the specifics they’re looking for and how your experience matches.
Test out the product space: Take a look at the company and their competitors. Poke around the websites/apps, test out the products, check out their main social media channels so you have a basic understanding of what they do and how they talk about themselves.
Company leadership and funding: Read the company’s “About us” and “Leadership” pages again to see how they describe themselves, their mission, and what they care about. You might want to learn more about their board/advisors, parent company, investors, and funding rounds — Crunchbase is a helpful resource for this.
People you’re meeting: If you know the names of the folks you’re meeting, look them up on LinkedIn. Don’t go overboard — it can be creepy to know too much about them before you meet — but it might spark questions you want to ask them about their career and how they got to the company.
Search Google News: See if the company has been in the news recently; if there are any announcements you should know about.
Tools
Resume and/or any other visuals you might want to share during the conversation.
Headphones / video conference tools. If it’s a phone interview, consider calling a friend to do a sound check.
Pen / paper / computer / chargers / etc.
Self-care: Especially if you’re meeting in person, bring items that help you feel put-together and comfortable — e.g. chapstick, tissues, snacks, water, etc.
Interview process steps / what to expect
The below is based on my experience on hiring loops in 2016-2018 and looking for a job in 2018 — all in the Seattle, WA tech industry. As with all of this advice, you should ask others about their experiences!
Steps:
Network: See the top of this page. This is critical and the way 100% of my interviews started.
Referral and/or apply online:
Referral from someone at the company: The most effective way to get in. Usually just requires sending your resume, LinkedIn, website/portfolio (if applicable).
Apply online: Not as effective as referrals, but sometimes required even if you have an internal referral. For example, I only did this 1/10 times in 2018.
Recruiter screen: To see if you’re qualified. Expect questions about…
Your experience relative to this job: “Tell me about a time when…”
What you’re looking for in your next role. This is not a trick question! Be honest so you find a good fit for the next step in your career.
Your compensation expectations. Caution! Try not to give a salary range unless this is a deal breaker for you (I messed this up several times). Compensation is multifaceted and can vary wildly between companies (see Compensation & Negotiation section).
Instead, say, “If we get to the offer stage, I’m sure we can find a compensation package that works for both of us — the role and fit is much more important to me than specific numbers.”
If they press you, you can ask what their salary range is for the relevant levels (often called a “salary band”) and tell them if you feel comfortable moving forward.
If they press more, you can say you know that salary range varies by company size and type and it’s not the only factor in compensation (e.g. equity); with those disclaimers, you have heard salary ranges anywhere from X to Y for similar roles (aim high, even if it’s quite a bit higher than what you make now!). Expect the recruiter to say, “that’s higher than our typical salaries for this role”—I think they’re often trained to say that. I always heard this, then learned later that I was paid less than others in similar roles, so don’t fall for that bullshit! ;)
Hiring manager screen: To dig deeper into your experience and fit for the team. In my 2018 product manager interviews, this included:
Behavioral questions: “Tell me about a time when…”
Problem solving exercises: Usually based on a well-known company / product and a hypothetical scenario.
Product managers: The book The Product Manager Interview: 164 Actual Questions and Answers was really helpful. It’s obviously not exhaustive and I don’t agree with some pieces, but it’s a great resource to get your juices flowing.
UX & content strategy: Your hypothetical questions will likely include a design problem and then they’ll want to see your design thinking process.
Tip! As you work through your answer during the interview, after each step (e.g. defining your users) you can ask the interviewer, “Is there anything obvious I’m missing or anything you want me to dig into more?” so that you’re getting feedback throughout and not unknowingly going off track.
Full interview loop
Homework assignment (sometimes): As a product manager, you might be asked to prepare a hypothetical business case or case study from your past experience. As a UX person, you might be asked to present part of your portfolio. Make sure to: Read the assignment carefully and ask clarifying questions (expected!). Usually you deliver this to a group of 3+ people.
You’ll likely meet on-site for a full or half day, including:
Start, end (or both) with the recruiter
Presentation (sometimes)
Several 1:1 or 1:2 conversations — your recruiter should tell you the discipline areas of the people you’ll be meeting (and sometimes, but not always, their names). I had some interviews that were all product management folks, and some that were a mix of disciplines.
Check references: If the company is interested in moving forward, they’ll likely ask for 3-5 references. If they don’t tell you their preference, ask them if they would like any particular relationships (e.g. former manager, peer, teammate, etc.).
What you give your references:
Line them up ahead of time: “Hey there! I’m currently job hunting. I was wondering if you’d be willing to be a reference for me? If/when I get to the reference stage with a company, I’ll give you info on the company/role. Thanks in advance for your help!”
Specific reference request: When you reach that stage, send your references a brief note confirming that they’re still up for being a reference and including:
Job description: Link + super short summary (e.g. “It’s a product manager role on an agile team focused on X”)
Contact person: Hiring manager (most likely) and recruiter — include contact info + LinkedIn link
Relevant notes: If applicable, brief notes on things you want them to highlight or what the company might ask about
Link or attach your resume, LinkedIn, website/portfolio (if applicable), homework assignment (if applicable)
What you give the company: Your list of references, including:
Name and title (plus their title when you worked together, if it’s different)
Contact info (email and phone)
Your relationship (e.g. “Most recently, NAME managed some of the devs on my team. Prior to that, we worked closely together when she was a senior engineer on my team.”)
Offer: The recruiter will likely call you over the phone to tell you the offer. Tips:
Ask clarifying questions to make sure you understand all pieces of the offer (especially around equity — Google any applicable terms, such as “RSUs - restricted stock units,” “stock options,” etc.)
Say thank you for all the info and ask if you can have some time to review the details and think it through
Ask when they need to hear back from you
Negotiation: It is always appropriate and expected to negotiate. For some jobs (like product manager), it would actually be a red flag if you didn’t negotiate because negotiation is part of your job. And for womxn, it is super important to negotiate because we are historically paid less than men in the same roles (one resource to learn more). You’re not just negotiating for you, you’re setting the compensation bar for all future womxn hires! See negotiation section below for more details.
Sign the final offer: Once you agree to terms, you’ll get your final offer letter in writing from the company. Sign, submit, and save a copy.
Compensation & Negotiation
Compensation varies based on the job level, company size, company type (public v private), industry, etc. This is advice I received, specific to the tech industry in Seattle, WA.
What’s included in compensation
Base salary: Very important because it predicts your future raises and annual bonus (a percentage of your salary). For these reasons, many mentors told me they would rather have a higher base than a signing bonus.
Bonus: Most companies have an annual bonus, usually based on 1) your personal performance and 2) the company’s performance. I’ve heard bonus ranges of 10-15% for individual contributors, 20%+ for managers, and higher for directors and leadership.
Equity: Google terms like “restricted stock units (RSUs), stock options,” and any other applicable terms. Example article. How much equity you want and get depends on factors like the size, age, and structure of the company, your role and level, how you feel about the risk vs. potential of a successful exit (acquisition, IPO, etc.), and trade-offs that affect your personal finances (more salary vs. more equity), etc.
Signing bonus: While this is common for some roles (e.g. engineers), it’s not always included in your initial offer, especially early in your career.
Start date: If you can afford to and are interested in taking time off in between jobs, you can often negotiate for a later start date. Make sure to ask if there are any dates that affect your bonus eligibility — for example, you might have to start prior to November 1 to be eligible for January’s bonus.
Benefits, including but not limited to:
Healthcare: Medical, dental, vision. Sometimes there are multiple plans to choose from.
401k: Make sure you ask about their matching policy.
Parental leave — important even if you’re not planning to have children! Here’s why: parental leave policies are usually indicative of gender equity at the company. For example, if paternity leave for men is only 2 weeks long, that tells me I’m likely to find some “old school” aka inequitable gender policies and practices. Versus, if the company has equal time off for all parents, including adoptive parents, regardless of gender identity, that tells me the company and leadership are educated about and care about gender inclusion and equity; and this is likely to be reflected in hiring practices, company culture, etc.
Caution! There is well-documented pregnancy discrimination in the US, which unfortunately is a risk to be aware of before you ask about this topic.
Time off (vacation, sick, personal, other): Sometimes you can negotiate for more, sometimes there is no wiggle room, sometimes they have unlimited time off. Make sure you understand their policy including if there are accrual rules (e.g. you earn a day off for every X days worked, or time-off increases the longer you’re at the company, etc.).
Volunteering and donation matching: Again, this is one area that is usually indicative of company values and culture.
Meals? Other special perks? Make sure you understand the full picture of benefits. For example, free food might have a big impact on your personal budget.
Advice about negotiating
Educate yourself. There are lots of free and paid resources out there.
I found Ladies Get Paid to be helpful
Glassdoor has salary info
UX salary resources: UXSeattle.org, OnwardSearch.com, O’Reilly 2017 survey, UX Designer Salaries, Robert Half 2018 Salary Guide, Nail It: Stories for Designers on Negotiating with Confidence
Ask people about “normal” compensation ranges:
I’ve heard many times (and agree) that it’s important for womxn to share numbers with each other to increase visibility and build confidence — we’re historically paid less for the same work, and data is powerful when you go into your next negotiation.
I also heard the tip to ask white men what numbers they think you should ask for — because, based on the data, they are the group that will 1) be offered the highest numbers and 2) ask for the highest numbers.
When you get an offer, share it with some mentors (ideally in the same industry) to get their thoughts. When I did this, I heard a variety of perspectives (below). There’s no right answer! The right approach is whatever makes the most sense for you based on how you view the role, your future at the company, and your financial situation. Real advice / approaches I heard:
Ask for more salary, more stock, and ask for them to add a signing bonus.
Give them a choice: ask for 10k more in salary - or - 10k signing bonus.
Ask for more stock — it’s easy to tell the story of wanting to be at the company for a long time.
Pick one area you care most about and negotiate up.
Ask for more salary and more stock. If they say no to one/both, then ask for a signing bonus instead.
Example of how to ask for more:
Disclaimer! The words you use are important. They should reflect the context of what you care about and your conversations with folks at the company (e.g. I did not use the word “fair” when negotiating because I knew that the initial offer was fair for this level/industry).
Examples:
Asking for more: “Thanks again for the helpful information and solid offer. I feel like we're really close, but knowing the impact and effort I always bring to my teams, I'd love to see if we can get closer to these numbers: XYZ. Let me know your thoughts, thanks again!”
Salary:
“While I’m not super money-motivated, it’s important to me to be compensated competitively and commensurate with the impact I think you expect of me.”
Note: You do NOT have to share your previous salary. But you may decide to say something like “this would get me close to my old salary + bonus level at my current/last company”
Equity: “Because I believe COMPANY will be a long-term home where I’ll positively impact company value.”