Crack Your Next UX Interview: Interview Questions, UX Hiring Process, Salary Negotiation and More

How to find a UX job? What are the total number of processes for any given company? How to actually negotiate the salary if you get selected? What are the most important questions that you'll be asked as a UX designer? If you have any of this question, let me help you with that in a very detailed manner. So without any further ado, let's get started. Hey everyone, hi, Anirudh here. Welcome back to my YouTube channel. This is Roadmap to User Experience Design, episode number 7, and today in this video we're gonna talk about how to crack that UX job of yours efficiently without any struggle. Let's just say you have already studied for UX design, maybe by applying for a UX design education, maybe some degree, or learning online, or maybe by self-learning, and now you're all set to apply for UX job. The first thing that you should take care of is an online portfolio. You should have your UX design portfolio well written, well documented, ready before you start to apply. And if you don't have a UX design portfolio, here's a video that I have made, explains everything about how to create a UX design portfolio in 2022. So the link is also going to be in the description. Part number 1, where to apply for UX design job. Well, the very first efficient method to apply for right UX design job with the highest probability is going to be LinkedIn. LinkedIn is one of the most powerful social network where you can go forward and search for jobs across the domain and at the same time connect with like-minded professionals across the globe. Just like Facebook, you can connect with your friends. On LinkedIn, you can connect with professionals all across the globe that will help you excel in your career directly or indirectly. So step number 1, go forward and create a LinkedIn account. Make sure to be very active on LinkedIn. Now that you have an active LinkedIn profile, make sure that you start connecting with people across the globe. Not just with respect to a UX domain, but also to product management, development, engineering, and other domains also. There are 3 efficient ways to apply for a job on LinkedIn. Step number 1, you can go forward and ask for your connection for a referral, which is if you see there is an opening in some of the companies and one of the employees of that company is your connection on LinkedIn, you can go forward and message him or her. For example, Hey Anirudh, I just saw that there's an opening in your company recently and I think I'm a perfect match for the company. If you don't mind, can you just give me a referral to your company? I can forward my portfolio and resume to you. Thank you so much. And that's how you make sure that you ask for a referral to your people. This is going to be a very efficient method because companies do prefer to hire employees from their network and their knowings rather than hiring an unknown person. At the same time, most of the companies give referral bonus to the employee who can refer a good candidate for their company. So why wait? Go forward and message your network on LinkedIn right away. Number 2, if you find any opening on LinkedIn for XYZ company, go to the job description page, and most of the job description pages will also have the mentioned name of the hiring manager. If it is there, go forward and make a connection to the person and message him or her saying that, hey, I just saw a recent opening in your company and I think I'm a perfect fit for that. If you don't mind, can you please consider my portfolio? Here's the essential links for you to go through. Thank you so much. Step number 3, you can directly message to co-founders and product managers of a startup, even if there are openings or not, so that you can tell them that, you know what, this is what I am as a UX designer, this is what I work with, and I think it would be a great opportunity for me to work and grow in an organization. Part 2, let's just talk about the hiring process that you will have to go through when you apply for any company, irrespective of what the process you apply LinkedIn, directly, or via third-party hiring website. So let's get started with it. There are basically two standard processes of hiring in industry right now. Process number one is a very traditional approach which more than 90% of the companies are using to hire employees even in 2022. Process number two, which is the more emerging one, which more than 10% of the companies are adopting, and it's rapidly being adopted across the globe. Let me explain both of these in very detail. Round number 1, introductory round with the HR. Either you contact the HR in the very first place, or the HR would try to communicate or contact you through XYZ medium. This round is all about introducing yourself with the HR, and the HR will tell you some important insights about the company and the job description. Round number 2 over here would be portfolio screening. Someone from the design team is definitely going to walk through the portfolio that you have provided in the first place. Round number 3 is going to be simple and straightforward assignment round. Now assignment round is basically the lead designer or someone from the design team is going to provide the HR with a takeaway assignment and HR will communicate the same to you and you will be given 3 to 4 working days to provide the assignment and the solution back to the HR recruiting manager. Now based on the assignment round, if your assignment is selected, the HR will inform you and take you to the next round, which is going to be a fourth round, just a simple one-on-one with the design lead or design manager. In this round, you'll just have to give a complete walkthrough and reasoning behind what is the assignment is all about, how did you came to the solution, how did you actually solve the problem statement. It's more like a small walkthrough of the entire assignment. Once this round is clear, you're gonna have a final round with the HR where you can do your salary negotiation and all the other discussion. That was 4 important rounds that you will have to go in a traditional design process of hiring. Now let's just move back to the new emerging hiring process and what are the difference between it. Let's get started. This new emerging hiring process will have total 8 rounds which is going to be progressive, which means if you do not get selected at round number 3, you will not go to round number 4. If you're not selected at round number 5, you will not go to round number 7. So it's going to be a progressive hiring mechanism. So first of all, let's just try to understand what are the 8 different hiring rounds over here. Round number 1 and round number 2 remains the same, which is introduction with the HR round and internal portfolio screening. These 2 rounds still remain the same even in the new hiring process. Now, round number 3 is going to be an introductory call with the design head or design VP, which is the vice president. In this round, the design hiring managers just want to understand who you are as a designer, what is your story, how did you get into design, and are you really very serious and excited about your design career or not. This is just going to be a casual one-on-one interview where people will ask you questions and you just have to genuinely answer the question. There's No mathematics behind this. Round number 4 is going to be the most challenging round of this entire process, which is whiteboarding challenge. Now, what is whiteboarding challenge? I'll definitely explain in details in another interview, but for now, whiteboarding challenge is a process in which you don't actually get to solve a problem statement by taking it away as an assignment. But you have to solve that entire problem statement live in a call with the design team or the product management team. In the whiteboarding challenge, you will be given with a problem statement. Let's say everybody from the design team is online on a call with you, on a video call. You will be given a problem statement and you actually have to solve the entire problem statement live together with them. This will help them understand that how are your problem-solving skills, collaboration, communication skills, and this will help them decide whether you should go forward with you or not. Now, whiteboarding challenge also makes sure that it saves a lot of time of the recruiter and also the employee, because it's not gonna be spending 3 days on a takeaway assignment, and it's just hardly 1 hour or 1.5 hours of whiteboarding challenge where both can come to a conclusion whether you are perfect fit for each other or not. Round number 5 is just going to be one-on-one interview round with the product manager, where the product manager will just give you some of the scenario and ask you that, you know what, this is what my product page looks like, this is what the issue I'm facing, how would you overcome? So it's just simply going to be some sort of scenario-based question. You don't have to worry about it. Round number 6 is going to be one-on-one with the product VP or the product head, the actual business owner. This is also just going to be one-on-one casual round. You don't have to worry about anything. He is VP, He just wants to make sure that the product that he develops or designs with his team has to be A1 and first class in the competitive market. So he would just gonna talk and ask few scenario-based questions again, getting to know how do you do, what's your problem-solving skill approach, so and so forth. He would never fiddle around with you. Round number 7 is going to be one-on-one with the HR VP. Now one-on-one with HR VP is just a cultural round. Where they would ask you some psychological question. For example, the question can be, let's just say there's someone who's troubling you in your team, how would you go about it? How would you handle the situation? You don't have to be aggressive over here. You can simply say or answer in a manner that explains how your culture is all about rather than just giving some aggressive answer. Round number 8 is just going to be a final negotiation with the HR where you will get the final offer letter which you want. All the negotiation can happen in this round number 8. A quick difference between takeaway assignment and whiteboarding challenge. Well, in takeaway assignment, you get a problem statement which you can actually take away for 3 to 4 working days. After that, you can solve the entire problem statement, make a small presentation out of it, just like your case study or a portfolio, and then send it over back the recruiting manager or the HR. Unlikely in whiteboarding challenge, the problem statement cannot be taken home as a takeaway assignment. You will have to solve on the very first place with live audience, which is the design team or the product team in a Google Meet or one-on-one in the personal space in an office, and solve the right problem statement right in front of them. That's the only major difference. If you ever get a chance to select from takeaway assignment and whiteboarding challenge. If you're really very good at your UX skills, make sure that you always take up a whiteboarding challenge because it explains in the very first place that, hey, you're confident enough with your skills. So even if you give 80% of your perfect skill to solve that problem statement live in that 1 hour or 1.5 hours of whiteboarding challenge, you have higher chances of getting selected rather than going forward with a takeaway assignment. Part 3: Important UX Questions. Now, be it any of the round that you go through in traditional hiring approach or a new emerging approach, there's always going to be few technical questions that you have to face. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to provide you with an Excel sheet that contains all the questions that I've, I've been asked with so many companies that I have given interview in my past 7 years of experience. Now, I have all the companies and all their questions how to segregate it properly in Excel sheet. It's linked below in the bottom. But I'm also going to talk about few important questions and how to answer them. Let's talk with the most important question. Question number 1 is always going to be, tell me something about yourself. Now this question is opportunity at the same time a trap. Make sure that you make the most of this question and give the best possible version of yourself. And how do you answer this question? Well, there's a proper technique that I've learned from YouTube, internet, and other influencers that I followed over the years of years of experience they have. And I try to replicate and follow the same, and it's been working perfectly fine for me from past 7 years. So every time you want to face an interview question where people ask you, tell me something about yourself, make sure that you answer this question in a following format. First, make sure that the answer has a small introduction paragraph about yourself, and then you move down to all the experience that if you've been through and all the problem that you have solved, directly or indirectly communicating that the skills that you have and the amount of value that you can bring down to the table if I hire you as a UX designer. Always make sure that you talk about your skills, your success story, some situation that you have been through and how did you overcome that situation and what is your actual goal in life to go forward with. Well, if you try to communicate proper value that you're gonna bring up as a UX designer, this is going to leave an everlasting impact on the recruiting manager. Also, don't forget that people always remember the start and the end. So always give a very smart introduction in the beginning and at the end, make sure that you give a small summary of your journey. For example, in order to summarize my entire user experience designer journey, right from this point to this point, this is what I have grown into. Simple as that. Question number 2: What is your design process? No designer in the world can ever escape from this question. I have also made a small reel on this question, and here's the link on the top and also in the description. Make sure that you go through the same answer and try to answer in the same direction. Question number 3 can be, can you explain a situation where you were stuck as a UX designer and how did you come out of it? So make sure that you explain the actual situation where you got stuck with the problem statement and what was the approach that you took to come over it. That's a perfect way to judge a person's maturity as a UX designer. Designer. Question number 4: In a situation where your product manager do not agree with the solution that you have designed, how do you handle that situation? Now this is a very critical question. Make sure that you always answer with maturity. The simple answer to this question can be, you know what, I actually respect the amount of knowledge and experience that my product manager has, and at this At the same time, I'm confident about the fact that I have designed this solution with proper informed decisions that I have taken. So in order to solve this situation, what I'm gonna do is talk to my product manager and tell him that, you know what, let's just try to do a small A/B testing on both of the solutions that we're discussing, and whichever is the solution our end target audience is more inclined towards, let's just go forward with that solution. In this situation, if my solution is not the one that has been selected by the user, I'll be more than happy to accept the learnings from here and take that criticism in the positive manner. That's how you answer this question. Question number 5. In most of the interviews, the hiring manager or the design recruiter will definitely ask you that give me an example of a product which UX you loved and give me an example of a product whose UX you don't love. So make sure that only answer this question by the product that you have actually experienced and you don't love the experience of that product or you love the experience of that product. For example, I always talk about Snapchat that how I actually don't love the UX of that product while I was a teenage. And then I talk about Kite, which is the investment app by Zerodha, that how I actually love the overall UX about that product and I would never switch to any other product, be Paytm money for investment. So make sure that only talk about the product that you have experienced personally. Similarly, a lot of other questions will be asked to you by the recruiting manager, and to make sure that you excel in your career, I have made a compilation of all the questions in the Excel down below. Make sure that you access it and learn from it. Part 4: UX salary negotiation. Now, not always UX salary will be discussed on your last round. Make sure that in order to avoid disappointment and get a salary that you're not really comfortable or you want to go forward with, make sure to talk about your salary in the very first place. That is why I'm going to talk about 3 important points that you should follow and cover in order to make sure that you get the ideal salary that you're looking forward to. Tip number 1, make sure that you always do the market research. Now, whatever your experience is all about, be it fresher, 2 years, 5 years, more than 5 years, make sure that you go, what is the salary that the experienced person with your amount of experience is getting into the market? You can go forward and talk to your seniors, you can go and forward, you talk to your colleagues, you can go and forward, talk to people on LinkedIn. But make sure that before talking to the HR about any number, you are pretty sure about what is the number that people are getting in the market. Don't you ever go forward and talk about any random numbers, because if you go forward and talk about some random number the possible outcome can be either you're asking more than the industry standard expected values, or either you're asking very low. In either of the case, it's your loss, right? So make sure that you have done your right research before asking for any number. Tip number 2: Set the expectation right in the very first place, which is in the HR round. Now, your actual salary negotiation should start from your HR round, which is your very first round. Do not wait for the entire process to get ended and then talk about salary, because if the salary that the company has to offer is something that you don't really want to go forward with, it's a total waste of the entire process, right? So that's why in the very first place, in the first round, HR is always going to ask you that what is your salary expectation or what is your notice period. So these are the two important questions that HR is going to ask you. So make sure that doing your market research, you always go forward and give an actual radical number. Make sure you always answer this question in market trends that you have studied and never give a single number. Always say that I'm looking forward to a salary in a range of 5 to 10 lakhs, 10 lakhs to 14 lakhs, 14 lakhs to 20 lakhs, so and so forth. Long story short, do your homework before asking any number from the HR. Tip number 3: Ask for a reasonable hike. Well, one of the worst part about hiring process that I personally don't like is that most of the HR will always tell you that your your new salary is going to be dependent on your previous salary. In such scenario, if your salary is really very low, make sure that you ask for a reasonable, decent amount of hike. For example, my salary is 10 lakhs per annum and I'm looking forward to a 65% raise on the existing salary. Simple as that. Last but not the least, for salary negotiation, confidence is the key, my friends. That is all for this Roadmap to User Experience Design episode number 7, how to crack UX interview process. If you have any other question, make sure that you can drop the same into the comment box and I'm going to reply back to you real quickly.