Today we are looking at how a job interview works, and what skills we can develop to enhance our chances of getting the job in the end. This class was to help prepare us to do an interview with confidence knowing that we can provide what they are looking out for. Whenever we reach the interview stage, we can have confidence because we are already qualified to get the job, and the interview is simply to see if we would fit in their team, and if our personality matches the vibe of the place.
Each company will have a set of values that they want in their employees, and they will be looking out for these values in the interview, by asking questions that invoke these values in the answers. There are a general set of values that most companies look out for, but just worded differently. Some of these include:
These values are really helpful to have as someone looking for jobs. We should be aligning our own work and projects with these values, and researching different companies to find out what they want is really helpful as to tailor towards that company. Values are a mutual thing, as I shouldn’t be working in a company that doesn’t share the same values as me. It is important that I care about the work and agree with their value system.
It is also important to consider the part time jobs that I have worked, even if was very different to the role that I will be working now. There are skills and qualities that are transferrable toward any job, and these are things like working in a team, communication, problem solving etc. This is great for me as although I haven’t had any work experience in the UX design industry, I have experience working in a team, working under pressure, and problem solving, which will come in useful for any job.
It is so important to answer every question, even if you aren’t sure about the answer. Try to make a point and something that is relevant. Preparation is key here, and having a decent idea of what sort of questions they would ask is so important. This way you can already have an answer ready for when they ask it means that you can really nail the answer and say what you want to say instead of waffling. It is good to have a basic structure when answering the questions about how you dealt with a problem, how you improved a user experience etc.
Another step for some interviews, is a design task. This is usually on a second interview after they have gotten to know you as a person, and they want to see how you complete a task in the timeframe that they set. This is because in our portfolios, our projects are already completed in the past so they may not know how long it took, but if they give us a design task and a timeframe then they can see how we get on with it. It is also a way for employers to see how we approach a task, and they can learn about some of the UX design skills and qualities that we possess, that can’t be seen in an interview.
We then done a task with our class where we got into groups of 2 or 3 and conducted some mock interviews. We took turns asking and answering questions that are commonly asked in UX design jobs. This was quite fun and helpful for getting used to answering questions that are related to the UX industry and practising answering them. We then evaluated the other people that we interviewed so that we could give feedback as to how they got on, so that they could learn from it. This was a cool exercise and although it was a bit of fun I still learnt a lot from it and found it very helpful.
Todays class was super helpful and practical to learn how to prepare and execute an interview. Interview skills are a really important to have, as you need to be able to sell yourself and know what sort of questions that they may ask. One thing that I will take from this class is the importance of having a good structure of what your gonna say when answering the more challenging questions.