Just a little bit about me. I'm a self taught product designer. Um What that means for me is uh I've learned a lot um and documented everything I've learned throughout my journey. I started out as a research based uh designer in a HC I lab uh at college.And then from there, I kind of went to the industry as they say, um and research and work at a bunch of uh consumer products like Mint okcupid meet up. And most recently, I'm at Etsy, I'm also a side entrepreneur, but uh currently just focusing on writing this book. I think I'm having some video issues. So, oh, I might have to turn it off. Um You can hear me. Um Hopefully everyone can hear me mind confirming and chat that you often still hear me. Awesome. Thank you, Michelle got all of these weird internet notices. Um Anyway, so this talk um mostly gonna focus on um kind of like a one on one of product design interviewing. Um everything from applying for it, what that interview loop looks like because a lot of people don't really know what to expect. I definitely didn't um a design challenge is something a lot of uh product designers were starting out will run into. Um And then we'll open it up for questions and discussion just to kind of where this information is coming from. I've spent a lot of time interviewing and working at these uh companies um landing offers at them.

So here's like a little bit uh a little bit of a preview of the companies I've interviewed at and gotten offers from. And um I was documenting my process like I said throughout and this is kind of um me summarizing all of it. Um And with that, we'll get started with applying. Um So I think the first and maybe the most important thing you will work on is your resume. Um And a lot, there's a lot of advice on the internet about how to write your resume and what to include and what not to include. And um here are some of the things that I've learned um that are super important that you may not have heard in your standard workshops is you really don't have to share everything you can present the narrative you want the hiring team to see, not all the information is required.

Some of it is almost creepy. Like why do they need to know where you live? Where um sometimes things like graduation year can be held against you because of age. Um You don't have to share every single job you've had. Um Just summarize doesn't keep you've done. So the hiring manager can really see what who you are and the skills you have without it feeling too onerous to kind of decipher all of the jargon. It's also important to not over design your resume, kind of like keep it. Um just have a few basic things that are important, which is like your current or past experience. How long you've been there? A link super important as a designer, you're always going to always going to need. We'll talk about it shortly. But um as a designer, maybe the most important thing in your resume is that link, um the reviewer can click and the last uh thing is a little bit of a self summary and here's an narrative you want and just summarize experiences. Like I know bullets are kind of the industry standard. But when I was, I think I tried something different where I quickly and like a normal human readable paragraph and it seemed to work really well. On the other side, when I do hiring, I also try to keep an eye out for people who are either overloading their resume with jargon and bullet points that are kind of saying the same thing as opposed to being in their job.

And so it, it goes both ways as there are people on the other side, reading your resume too and uh the more you talk to them, the better shot you have. Speaking of over designed resumes. And I can't tell you how many times I've seen these and it just is insane like having to up my head or zoom in. I would much rather prefer an undersigned resume than an over designed one. But since we are designers, I would recommend designing it a little bit kind of establishing your own personal brand and then you can have it kind of uh con continue to and anything else you have um on the internet. So here are a few examples of resumes that are what I like to call just right. And these are taken from Canva again, like your name, your portfolio link. Super important. You don't have to have all of your experience, you can summarize some of it. Um Mine's here minds on the website, on my website. So if you ever feel like you want to take a look, feel free and here are some of the uh resume, like the best resumes I've seen and I've obviously taken their permission, but these are real resume that performed really well. Um uh your portfolio.

Um It's really important to balance the time investment uh that you will put into it because I know it's fun and nice to build a pretty uh a pretty portfolio that's like custom built with all of these animations. But honestly, as a designer and as a reviewer of these portfolios, I would much rather you spend time on your case study and it easily because by changing often and it should be easy for you to maintain recency over any of those gimmicks. You also as someone who's starting out want to blend in a little so something that's too out there can send the signal that you're trying too hard or trying to stand out too much and maybe just like take a look at a few portfolios of designers at your level who are working where you wanna work and like kind of go off of that to make sure you're not.

Um And then like I said, if you're not proficient in web dev just like use what's do squarespace web flow like whatever templates it it doesn't matter. Um As long as it's not like super hideous, your resume brand can start kind of bleeding into your portfolio site. But um you don't need to spend a lot of time on it are these must haves you always have your portfolio, have at least two case studies. Um And these can be recent war type projects but make sure you call out which one it is a little bit about you and like I said it or identity. Um And then the next thing is for the case studies itself, thinking projects is so important, try to include a variety of different projects. So you wanna span across recency and skill set. So if you have five visual design projects um that may not be as good as having just like two projects, but one is visual design and one is interaction design focused. Um if get a bunch of tiny things, try to combine it project on your portfolio just because it's easier for the reviewer to look at like your auxiliaries go set in one place.

And the last thing and this is really important for those starting out is um just stay the case and not professional experience. It's OK, You don't have to pass it off as it's almost harder for the reviewer to judge you. And it was actually a side project because inside projects, we're making a lot of assumptions and it's even more important for the reviewer to understand that you're better at making those assumptions and working off of them and think those are real constraints. And then that one is um something that I've noticed is um a lot of students graduating from boot camps or uh design programs and having the same project. So I'll see like four or five candidates all having the same project and everyone says they were the designer. And so it's really important for those to outline your role and involvement because um your other classmates are probably applying to the same roles. Um And uh just a quick overview on like what that case study should look like. Definitely have these eight things. Um but of screens and prototypes, like I said, making sure your role as a designer um is clearly articulated, even if it means saying you work with multiple designers and how those roles were broken out and always practice your problem with prior research that was backing it up or if you didn't do the research yourself.

Um One of the things in that in uh the list of studies process, um here's my two cents on it, avoid using standard visuals like the double diamond or pills, they rarely use this evaluated on your ability to adapt that like generic process to a problem you're working on. Um And so here are examples from my portfolio of like process like me visualizing the process I use and it's almost more effective that way. And um we'll kind of switch gears. So once you've applied portfolio applied and you start getting interviews, here's a quick overview of what to expect. So the first thing you would expect is an interview screen and um the recruiter 15 minutes um just to kind of match you to that job description uh that you applied for. And uh this is done a couple of different ways. Sometimes you'll have a conversation with the designer before doing a design challenge or the other way around. You will see that the challenge is not part of the loop at all. And once you pass that initial stage, you will have almost always a 45 minutes to one hour portfolio presentation where you share some past work um popular these app Cricket grounds where you and, but I can critique it.

Um And again, part of interview loops where you and your, it's a product specific problem or more generic like design and alarm clock uh kind of thing. And then you'll have a bunch of uh what they call cross functional interviews. So talking with product managers, uh researchers, other designers, the thing I want to focus on here is uh design challenges for my advice. And I've done this before is uh for senior role, doing them or put them off for a later step. It really honestly is free work. Um Especially if it's a company specific prompt, that's a red flag for you as an interviewer uh as an interviewee because either they've already solved that problem and are looking for you to have the same answer as them. And you know, as a designer, there's always multiple solutions but their bias will be towards the answer they have. Um And worse is if they haven't solved the problem and they end up using your work. And so even if you're not even, and I, I understand a lot of uh folks just want to get that job and are willing to do it, even if you do try to ask for compensation um or put it off for a later step. I have an email template I've used in the past. That's work is like, you know, I'm, I'm excited about the role just as much I want to make sure this is a fit on both sides before um kind of spending all of this time and energy.

Um And also trying to ask for a challenge that's more generic to every candidate. But if they see specific skill gaps, uh they can ask for a design challenge to see that exact skill. And um if you do end up doing the design challenge, it's again, it's really challenging, but I would say time box, it, a lot of companies say, oh yeah, you have to spend like four or five hours, but honestly, it will take you like a day, day's worth of work, but still try to be really strict about how much time you spend on it.

Um The other thing is don't just go off solving it until you've asked a lot of clarifying questions and set expectations for what they're expecting, whether it's a deck, whether it's designs, high fidelity, low fidelity, ask them what they're expecting and um just work off of that.

Um It's also a good idea to ask like, does the team feel like I need to exhibit more interaction skills or visual skills? And um let the recruiter or the design manager know that you're going to be showcasing those skills in the project time. And the last thing is if you find yourself stuck, just like adjust fidelity, keep going, make a song. Um It's totally fine and here's a quick suggested format of presenting um that design challenge. Some companies will have you presented in a presentation, I have to send it over.

But uh the few things I really, really define that problem space, whether it's from those clarifying questions or the assumptions you've made. Um kind of try to go a little broad for, with like lower mid fidelity. So they can see you're able to diverge and always have next steps for what you would do because this was an 8 to 10 hour project. No real project is like that. Um And so try to uh say what you will do next for it and reflect a little bit and that's pretty much it. So I have written um, step by step guides for a few interviews and offers that I've landed. Um I'm adding them as we go, but I would be remiss if I didn't share. Um And the waitlist is open. Um I hope to have it up by sometime late this year, but I kind of want to open it up for questions for you all at this point and you can ask questions in the chat and I'll pick them. OK. I'm seeing this question from Lily. Uh Hold on, let me just read it. So that's a really good question. Uh What I like to do is ask them beforehand. Uh What they would prefer, I personally prefer questions at the end just because it like kind of throws you off.

Uh But usually when I start out, I will just ask them um like, do you want to ask questions as we go or towards the end of each project or presentation or, or the entire presentation? Um And if they ask you for your preference, feel free to share it, but definitely ask the question um or you can, if you wanna be more assertive, you can say, hey, you know, I'm gonna, we have like a jam packed uh schedule with how many other projects they're presenting? And I'll possibly each project for questions. Seeing another question. I hope that answered it for you, Lily. Um Awesome. Uh The other question I'm seeing is um do you have recommendations on how someone who is new to designing can get started? Well, yes, cause I, that's how I got started. Um I did a lot of side projects and the side projects I did, I was very clear to call out that here's a side project. It's live in the world or it's just like a design prototype. Um Getting a lot of feedback is really important. Um Whether you do it to uh design mentors that you find and there's a lot of websites that do have designers who are willing to spend one on one time. I've done my fair share of it and it's really rewarding just kind of integrating that feedback showing you're open to it.

And I guess just putting yourself out there just like, but not your resume but not your portfolio, start applying and see what you get and then if you want to be tested a little bit, maybe change some words around if you're not having um good luck with getting views back, just like try to ask your mentor or your buddy.

Like where do you think the gaps are?

I mean, let's see another question from Julie. I have a lot of the product designer experience and business strategy, project management and have

gotten into design this year. Um Well, it is just a positive thing to have that kind of experience. Um I'm not really sure um if you are currently designing or want to get a design role, but I do think that when you start building out those projects or um doing some of the design work in your current role as a project manager or doing business strategy, it's a good, it's a good way to practice your case studies by saying I brought not just the design skill set but all of these other skill sets to it as well.

Um I think in an interview, it will be important for you to distinguish between your focus on design and every and all of your other skills and how they may impede you from becoming a good designer. So business strategy or project management can sometimes be perceived as this person is not going to go abroad on solutions because they're very focused on execution. And so you have to be very mindful of saying I understand the business constraints, but that will not stop me from going crazy with my design process. And then coming back and figuring out whether it's

doable, I'm a mechanical engineer. How much is the design portfolio is detailed to where you

can't share proprietary information? Uh That's a really good question. So I ran into a little bit of this um at my first role at mint. Um it's, it's ok to have a password. Um Just provide a little bit of an overview and make sure you share the password with your application as opposed to waiting for the company to reach out to you uh for that password as you're doing the portfolio review process just because that step moves really fast and there is a lot of applicants.

Um you want to provide as much information upfront to the reviewer when they're spending time on your application. Um And if for whatever reason they get stuck, they may reach out to you for the password, but they're also looking at other portfolios um that are readily available for them. Awesome on that note. So like I said, um everything's on my website. There is um my email is readily available if you have any questions, uh feel free to sign up for that waitlist as well or uh take a look at the specific guides. Um I also write some of this on medium if you want to take a look. Um But thank you so much for joining. I really appreciate it and it was wonderful meeting y'all today.