One of the first step in landing your dream job is crafting a UX designer resume that will get you a second look. But what skills, qualifications and information are companies looking for when it comes to UX design employees? What needs to be on your resume – and how do you design it – so that you get noticed?
Don’t overthink it.
A nicely designed resume is important, but what’s equally valuable is how you explain yourself to potential employers. How are you different from the hundreds of other UX design job applicants?
It starts with a well-communicated resume, cover letter and portfolio.
Senior Product Designer at Copper.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Experience Designer at Bosch.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Lead Product Designer at Nerdwallet.
Product Designer at WillowTree.
Product Designer at Google.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Product Designer at Facebook.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Product Designer at Square.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Interaction Designer at The Wrecking Crew.
Product Designer and UX Engineer at Google.
Product Designer at Zumper.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Interaction Designer at Google.
Product designer at Instagram.
Senior UX Designer at LinkedIn.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Visual Designer at R/GA.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Interaction Designer at Google.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Product Designer at Uber.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Interaction Designer at Google.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Product Designer at Quora.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Visual Designer in San Francisco.
Product Designer at Facebook.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Senior Product Designer at Copper in San Francisco.
Visit Portfolio Website →
Treat designing a resume, just like a user interface or user experience design project. You need to understand who will be looking at the resume and design for that audience.
The reality is that when you apply for a job, your resume goes to a lot of non-technical people before it gets to a team of people that speak the language of UX design like you do. They might be looking for specific keywords or information to pass the resume on to the next stage of the hiring process. (There might not even be a real person filtering resumes; it could be a bot or another automated process.)
Make sure to read the job posting carefully so that you fully understand what the company is looking for. You want to write your resume to include elements that match the job posting and are in line with what the company does.
This can be even more important when applying for a digital design job with a company that doesn’t necessarily specialize in that area. A good understanding (make sure to do your homework) of what a company does can help you shape how to start the resume-writing process so that you “speak” to the right people and make a solid first impression.
Stupid little mistakes are the things that will get your resume tossed quickly. Many hiring managers are actually looking for reasons to reject candidates, so your resume has to be practically perfect to make the first cut.
Many designers think a great resume design is somewhat boring. That’s OK.
You probably won’t have a lot of visual elements to work with. And you definitely won’t have the interactive elements that you are used to designing. But this text-heavy design does serve a purpose.
When designing the content for every individual section, think in reverse chronology. The most recent items should be first, followed by older ones. You don’t have to include everything. Stick to the most relevant experience and eliminate jobs from decades ago. (You can post a full bio on a network such as LinkedIn and include a link on the resume, if you want potential employers to see this information.)
When it comes to jobs in user experience and user interface design, skillsets are important. What have you done to standout from everyone else? What tools or software do you use that will impress potential employers?
You can highlight these skills on your resume. Skills can be anything from software proficiencies to understanding programming languages to your ability to solve problems creatively.
Do you have skills that match your dream job?
Take a close look at the job posting. What exactly are they asking for? This will help you determine if you are a fit for the job.
If your skills match, then use the same descriptive keywords in your resume. This will show the company that you “speak their language” and are what they are looking for in a job candidate. Making these changes can mean tweaking sections of your resume for each different job you apply for.
Package your resume to optimize user experience as well. Send everything as a PDF and don’t jumble everything into a single file (unless the job posting asks for it that way). Use the same header or footer on each file so that every page contains your name and contact information.
Use your name as the first part of the filename so that when the files are downloaded, they stick together alphabetically.(Make it easy for hiring managers to find and contact you.)
Don’t over design your resume when looking for a UX job. While what you do at work is highly engaging, interactive and visual, a resume isn’t always that way.
Keep it simple, include relevant information and don’t try to use it as a creative showcase. That’s what your portfolio is for.
Your resume should be a single page.
Cut all the extraneous information, long job descriptions and positions from years ago. A concise, clean resume is easy to read at a glance and shouldn’t overwhelm users (hiring managers).
If you want to provide additional details or information, use LinkedIn or a personal portfolio website and include a link on your resume.
Ditch the old-school resume “Objective” section. Instead, highlight a few key project problems and solutions that you developed.
Did you create a user interface that resulted in higher conversion rates for an e-commerce customer? Or did you help a client drop their bounce rate with a redesign? Explain how you did it. Outline the problem and solution.
Just like you would design for the user of a digital product, you want to create a pleasurable user experience for readers of your resume as well.
The skills that make you a great UX designer can also help you create a killer resume if you think about it carefully. Consider your audience and how they will read and use your resume to (hopefully) contact and invites you to an interview.
A great hierarchy that’s relevant to the position and easy to read is the trick. While this might be easier said than done, a good resume should be a highly usable design that shows off your skills at a glance. (It just happens to be in a format that’s a little different from what you are used to designing.)
Check out the curated UX case study gallery.
Learn the strategies and tactics used by successful hires at leading tech companies. Speed up your job search with tools and tips that will help you stand out.
Learn More