Career Workshop: Preparing for Your Job Search

CAREER WORKSHOPIA Summit 201
Image Source © Time Inc.
Amanda Schonfeld
Russ Unger
| BeyondCurious
| 18F

SIMPLE RULES
Welcome to Sanctuary

INTRODUCTIONS
Name
Something About You
First Concert You Attended

AGENDA
• Preparing for Your Job Search
• Networking Basics
• Your Résumé and You
• Portfolio Time
• Interviewing
• The Follow-Up
• Bonus: Quitting Your Job

PREPARING FOR YOUR JOB SEARCH
Finding a Job Can Be a Full Time Job

Activity:
Pros & Cons

Activity:
Ideal Job Opportunity

How Will I Know?
(When It’s Time to Go)

Job Boards
• glassdoor.com
• Monster
• Dice
• Indeed / Eluta
• Workopolis
• CareerBuilder
• AuthenticJobs
• Krop
• CreativeHotlist
• Coroﬂot
• IA Institute Job Board
• IxDA Jobs
• EnvatoStudio
• Fresh Web Jobs
• Craigslist
• AIGA Jobs Listings
• We Work Remotely Job Board
• LinkedIn Jobs
• Job-Hunt.org
• Boxes & Arrows Job Board
• SimplyHired
• BayCHI
• PhillyCHI
• The Ladders
• Aquent
• Creative Circle
• Bestica
• Local User Group Chapters
• Twitter Feeds
• Elegant.ly
• CyberCoders

You Found a Job You Like. Now What?
•Do Your Research on the Job
•Find out the Recruiters Name
•Find out Who the Role Reports to
•Are You Connected?
•Get to LinkedIn!
•Research the Company
•Research Current Employees
•Use Keywords from the Job Posting if from a Third Party

NETWORKING BASICS
Who Do You Know & Where Are They?

NETWORKING BASICS
LinkedIn:
The Most Important Social Media Tool for Your Career
(right now, at least)

NETWORKING BASICS
The Basics
•Easy way to make over your profile:  
http://biginterview.com/blog/2014/06/linkedin-profile-tips.html
•Keywords
•Title Headline for LI profile
•Title for each individual job/role
•Specialties
•Skills and Expertise
•Update your Public Profile link with your NAME!
•Add to email signature

NETWORKING BASICS
The Basics
Write an interesting Summary
• https://uk.linkedin.com/in/chadcribbins
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurenatcoolerheadsintel
• https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonevans

NETWORKING BASICS
Beefing Up Your Profile
Recommendations
•Quality, not quantity
Add Sections
•For example: Slide Share, Certifications, Publications, Projects, Organizations,
Influencers, Companies
Groups
• Choose a group where you will participate and add valuable content.  
https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-i-got-425-more-page-views-on-
linkedinand-you-can-too

NETWORKING BASICS
LinkedIn Etiquette
•Linked In Etiquette: http://blog.linkedin.com/2011/07/18/linkedin-etiquette-rules/
•Don’t use the form letter, actually write something!
•Help others as much as you ask for help

COVER LETTERS
Yes–You REALLY Do Need One.
Okay, We Discussed This. Maybe Something LIKE One.

COVER LETTERS
Yes. We All Hate Writing Them. They *Do* Count.
•The Purpose of a Cover Letter is to Explain How You Will Beneﬁt the Company
•Use Words from the Posted Ad in Your Cover Letter
•Be as Conservative or Creative as the Company Appears to Be
•No Excuses for Poor Grammar and/or Typos
•If Possible, Drop the Name of the Person Who Referred You

COVER LETTERS
•Don’t be Afraid to Pay Someone to Help You Write a Cover Letter (but Know How to Write!)
•Must be Addressed to the Specific Name of the Recipient (Last Resort: Use “Dear Hiring
Manager”)
•Find Contact Info from Google or LinkedIn, or Call the Company’s Receptionist
•Must Target a Specific Position in the First Paragraph
•Must be Very Specific When Describing Your Skills and Qualifications

COVER LETTERS
•Use Concrete Examples to Demonstrate Your Claims
•Demonstrating Knowledge of the Employer Shows Your Interest ‒ Make Sure Your Facts are
Correct!
• Request for Action and Speciﬁc Description of Your Planned Follow-up Action
•Out of Ideas? Google “Cover Letter”

COVER LETTERS
Examples
•Get Links Correct
•Get the Description Right
•Use Spell Check!
•Proofread
•Provide Contact Info

COVER LETTERS
Examples
•Get the Company Name Right
•Get the Description Right
•Use Spell Check!
•Tailor to Audience
•No Fibbing.

COVER LETTERS
IA Summit 2012
Examples
•This is a Good One

COVER LETTERS
Discussion:
What’s the 1 Most Important Thing That Should Be In a
Cover Letter?

BREAK TIME
See You in 5-10 Minutes

YOUR RÉSUMÉ AND YOU
Love to Hate It

RESUMES
The Basics
•So... Some employers still don’t know “what we do”
•KISS methodology - give your resume an enema
•No more than two pages. Period. Well...
•Contact Info ﬁrst > Positions > Accomplishments > Education
•Don’t spend too long describing your job role in each position
•Remember: Your resume opens the door for the interview in many cases, but...
•"It’s the personality more often than the resume that gets you the job" - Theresa Putkey
•One last thing: Employers WILL use Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to ﬁnd out
more about you, how you behave online, etc.

RESUMES
Fundamentals of Format
• Use a plain, 10 point Serif font
• Resist the urge to design your resume
• Name, address, phone, personal email, portfolio and URL
• Centered and bold at the top
• Write up your job history, presented in reverse chronological order
• Each job has Start-End Dates, Your Title, Company Name and Location
• Lastly, two lines for your education. Degree, Year and Institution
Courtesy of Livia Labate | livlab.com

RESUMES
Your Responsibilities
• Follow with 2-3 sentences describing responsibilities
• Answer the question, What job did you have?
• After responsibilities, list your major accomplishments using bullet points
• How large was the audience for the work you did ‒ hints to the kind of impact you can
make and how comfortable you are working with large scale initiatives
• How large was the group you worked with ‒ hints to the types of interactions and
demands you are subject to depending on size of team
• How large was your client (for consultants), employer (for in-house employees) Example:
“Fortune 50”, “$200MM annual revenue” ‒ hints to the level of business challenges you’re

RESUMES
Your Accomplishments
•Activities that resulted in cost saving and efﬁciency gains (better performance, less people/
hours on projects, etc)
•Activities that resulted in increased value (explicit satisfaction score gains, increased
revenue and proﬁt margins, etc)
•Company and industry recognition (awards, nominations, remarks from annual reviews, etc

RESUMES
Basic Structure
•Contact Information
•Employment Dates
•Company Information
•Description
•Accomplishments
•Education
Courtesy of Mario Bourque | mariobourque.com

RESUMES
IA Summit 2012
Basic Example

RESUMES
IA Summit 2012
Basic Example
With Summary

RESUMES
Advice from Recruiters
• Clean
• Concise
• Clear
• Quantiﬁed
• Provides easy links to work
• Relevant
• Typo Free
• Clearly Show a distinct focus/direction
Courtesy of Loryn Schiraldo

RESUMES
Loryn Schiraldo
It is not uncommon to have multiple resumes for
multiple roles, ‘specialization’ is key vs.
‘generalization’.
“

RESUMES
•Write about your accomplishments in your role
•Don't re-write your job description ‒ write about your skills
•Include a couple links to show online samples of your work
•Keep it brief ‒ resumes over 4 pages are pretty long
•Talk about how you're involved in a team atmosphere
Courtesy of Penny Curtis

RESUMES
•Show how you've moved up the ladder
•Files with images are too big to upload to systems like Taleo so all of your hard work is lost
at that point
•Include a link to your LinkedIn profile
•Could include recommendations from your LinkedIn profile
•Good tenure is always a benefit on anyone's resume

RESUMES
Penny Curtis
For UX people I take an extra look at the general
lay out of their resume ‒ easy to follow, logical
etc.
“

RESUMES
•Don’t go crazy with fonts/colours/designs. Clean and simple makes me want to review it…
anything “busy” will be passed over.
•If you are a contractor/consultant ‒ create a functional resume. I don’t want to read a ﬁve
page resume that lists 50 companies with the exact same description of responsibilities
under each one. List your skills or projects most relevant to the job posting and then have
a list of your contracts under a separate section (no descriptions necessary).
•If you are a perm employee ‒ create a chronological resume. List each company (newest
ﬁrst) and your relevant skills or projects. Try to use no more than six bullet points under
each company.
Courtesy of Sara Cooper

RESUMES
•Do not write in paragraph form. Bullet points are easier to read.
•Do not go into detail on jobs you had 10 years ago (no-one cares). If you feel you must
mention them, your best bet is a heading with “Positions prior to 1998” and then a quick
list with each company and the dates.
•Always remember that the recruiter and/or hiring manager is looking at least 30
resumes for each role (probably way more). If you make it difﬁcult for them to read yours,
they just won’t.

RESUMES
Sara Cooper
Highlight the link to your online portfolio ‒ do not
attach multiple examples of your work to an
email. If you do not have an online portfolio,
make one before you start your job search. There
is nothing I hate more than having to wait ﬁve
minutes for an email to open because of all the
attachments.
“

RESUMES
Activity:
Resume Critique

OH, RECRUITERS
Yes, There Are Differences

RECRUITERS
Types of Recruiters You Will Meet in Your Job Search
•Agency Recruiters / 3rd Party Recruiters
•Headhunters
•Quota/Bonus-Driven
•Corporate Recruiters
•(Or lack thereof)

PORTFOLIOS
Show Them Your Preciousssssss

PORTFOLIOS
•For IA’s relevant content is a must. Just as with resumes, it may be helpful to have a few
separately formatted portfolios in pdf format, with each bringing to light specific industry
experience depending on the role/industry you’re applying to.
•Wireframes must be annotated. Include all relevant project info (sitemaps, wireframes,
personas).
•Show the finished product. Even if it’s just a screenshot. The finished product may
resonate with team members long after an interview, which is a plus.

PORTFOLIOS
•Every IA/UX person should have one...if you can’t be bothered to create a website for
yourself, I’m not hiring you.
•Portfolios should be easy to navigate. If you have multiple specialties, section them off so
I can ﬁnd what I’m interested in one click. I don’t want to have to search for the work I want
to see.
•Ensure your portfolio is relevant to the positions you are applying for and update it
constantly. Work you did ﬁve years ago is not going to interest me as much as what you did
six months ago.
•For the love of the gods, make sure all your links work. No, really. ALL OF THEM.

PORTFOLIOS
Sara Cooper
Case studies that show the initial problem/
opportunity and then a work flow overview to see
how the final solution/result was arrived at make
me very happy. I need to see how your brain
works to know if you’ll fit with our process
methodologies.
“

PORTFOLIOS
Advice from Recruiters Russ
•Test & Review Portfolio with Colleagues, Mentors, Other Managers
•LESS is, by far, Much MORE
•Brief Explanations, Highlighted Screens with Captions
•KISS approach
•External Services:
•Coroﬂot
•Behance
•WordPress
•SquareSpace
•Others?

PORTFOLIOS
Discussion:
What’s the Best Way to Present Your Portfolio? And... When
is the Best Time to Present It?

INTERVIEWS
What is Your Greatest Strength and Weakness?

INTERVIEWS
Communication Before the Interview
•Make sure to conﬁrm the exact time and place for the interview.
•Conﬁrm proper 'dress code' with your recruiter. You don't want to be under dressed or over
dressed.
•Ask who you will be meeting with, their title, and how long that meeting is expected to be.
•Ask the recruiter if there is a particular format for any of the interviews. For example, one
is meant to be a portfolio review, one is more behavioral etc.
•Do research on your interviewers. Be prepared. Note any major career accomplishments,
awards, etc...

INTERVIEWS
Communication During the Interview
•Always take notes. Do not rely on your memory only.
•If the interviewer does not 'break the ice' in the beginning, try to build rapport with your
research knowledge of the interviewer.
•It may be a good idea to state your understanding of the role and requirements for the role
if the interviewer does not begin the interview with this information.
•Clearly state concrete examples of what you have accomplished in your career and how it
maps to what the company is looking for.
•It's ok to need a few minutes to compose your answer during the interview.

INTERVIEWS
Question You Need to Have Answers For
•What’s your deﬁnition of UX? What’s your UX process?
•Tell me about the size and scope of the engagements you have worked on.
•What level of client interaction do you have? (This is applicable for both in house and
consultants…you will have ‘clients’ at in house gigs as well.)
•What software do you use in the production of your deliverable and why?
•How do you collaborate with other team members (visual designers, developers..)?
•Check these out:
•http://onstartups.com/tabid/3339/bid/98901/12-Unconventional-Interview-Questions-
Entrepreneurs-Should-Ask.aspx
•https://www.americanexpress.com/us/small-business/openforum/articles/the-10-best-
interview-questions-that-ﬁnd-great-talent/

INTERVIEWS
What the Interviewers Want to Hear
•CONCRETE EXAMPLES
•Concrete examples that you are able to work quickly, effectively, and collaboratively to solve
complex design problems.

INTERVIEWS
Interviews with Portfolio Reviews
•Make sure that you are able to set up each portfolio deliverable showcased with context of
what the design problem was.
•Be able to talk about the experience you were trying to create.
•Make sure you can explain the design rationale. (For example, why did you create a certain
path for shopping cart check out.)
•Talk about the challenges you faced and how you overcame them.
•Talk about how you validated the solution. (Did you use usability testing?)
•Talk about if you would make any improvements to the design now, based on hindsight

INTERVIEWS
How to Communicate - After the Interview
•Make sure that you have the proper name, title, and email address of your interviewers to
send Thank You notes.
•Hand written thank you notes can be a nice personal touch.
•Ask the recruiter for an ETA on the decision. There may be other candidates that the
company needs to interview and this could take time.
•If you have not heard from the recruiter after the expected date, send a friendly follow up
email asking when you may be able to hear what the decision is. If you are also on a tight
time line, be upfront about this.
•If you are turned down for the position, accept the decision gracefully. If you are not given
details, politely ask for the reasons you were not chosen. If the recruiter shares this with
you, DO NOT ARGUE with him/her.

INTERVIEWS
Questions YOU Need to Ask

INTERVIEWS
Questions You MUST Ask*
•How many clients has the company added in the past year? How many clients has it lost?
•What’s the company’s strategy for generating new business?
•What has the employee turnover rate been over the past 24 months?
•What’s the company’s policy on work/life balance?
•What kind of tools are provided to help me do my job? How often are they upgraded?
•In the ﬁrst 60-90 days, what’s my top priority? What is the 1 thing I can’t fail at in year one?
•Are employees required to sign a non-compete contract?
•If it’s a start-up: What is the funding and/or ﬁnancial health situation?
•How is the Company Culture?
*Questions Source: Talent Zoo | Questions You Absolutely Must Ask Your Interviewer by Steve James:
http://www.talentzoo.com/news.php/Questions-You-Absolutely-Must-Ask-Your-Interviewer/?articleID=9159

INTERVIEWS
•The interview is your audition. Be prepared and ready to give the best performance of
your career.
•Know your sh*t. Be prepared to talk about your best work. Nail it.
•Arrive on time. The interviewer’s time is precious. Also, be patient if they make you wait.
Sometimes things do come up on both sides! If you will be late, try to call beforehand.
•Have back-ups of sample work in case something fails. Either in print or bring a laptop.

INTERVIEWS
•Ask for the job! If you truly feel you can do the job at hand, make it known before leaving
the interview. Ask Name and title (responsibility) of the people who will interview you
•Google & LinkedIn their names and learn about them before the interview
•Learn about the company and their current situation before the interview

INTERVIEWS
Discussion:
Design Exercises

INTERVIEWS
Show & Tell:
What Was Your Interview Disaster?

INTERVIEWS
The Questions You’re Afraid to Ask
•If I tell you my current salary, do I burn myself during negotiations?
•What is the time frame to make a hire for this role?
•Why is this position open?
•How long do people stay in roles at the company? Why do they leave?
•How many candidates are being put forward?
•Do you think I’m a good candidate? Why?
•What are the positives/negatives about the company? The manager?
•What will the rest of the interview process be like?

INTERVIEWS
But Wait...
There’s More!

INTERVIEWS
After the Interview: Advice from Recruiters
•Be positive. I understand how frustrating it can be when decisions aren’t made quickly. I
like when candidates check in for updates and express their continued interest, but calling
in to complain is a different story. Chances are I’m frustrated as well and already pushing
for decisions to be made.
•Please don’t call or email me every day. Again, checking in is ﬁne but if you contact me
every day I start to think you’re desperate and question why.
•Provide information promptly when requested. If you take a week to get back to me on
something, I will assume you’re not interested in the role.

INTERVIEWS
After the Interview: Advice from Recruiters
Sara Cooper
Make sure you stand out from the crowd.
Personality counts. Candidates who are good at
making a personal connection with the recruiter
or hiring manager are going to be remembered
long after the one who just comes in, shows their
portfolio and leaves.
“

THANK YOU NOTES
Frequently NOT a Two-Way Street

THANK YOU NOTES
Fundamentals of Format
•Thank the employer for his or her time, letting the interviewer know how much you enjoyed
meeting with him or her
•Identify the specific position for which you interviewed
•Mention a key point of your conversation with the interviewer. When writing letters to
multiple interviewers, differentiate your letters by referring to something specific you
learned from the interviewer
•Express enthusiasm for the job/company, and reiterate why you fit well with the
organization.
•Indicate that you look forward to possibility of becoming a member of that organization

THANK YOU NOTES
IA Summit 2012
Samples

BONUS: QUITTING YOUR JOB
When It’s Time to Change, You’ve Got to Rearrange
Who You Are Into What You’re Gonna Be
Sha na na na, na na na na na, sha na na na na

QUITTING YOUR JOB
Things to Consider Before You Go...
•Give at least 2 weeks notice
•Don’t ﬂame-out on your way out (people often return, get references, work, etc. from
previous employers)
•Tie-up loose ends
•Make yourself available as best as you can after you leave
•Remember: This job most likely got you to where your next job is taking you. Be grateful/
thankful
•Commit to Quit: When you do it, there’s no real turning back

FINAL Q&A
It’s Okay if You’re First Out the Door

Career Workshop: Preparing for Your Job Search

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