The Interview…

As a contractor you probably spend more time interviewing for your next contract than you do onsite at your current one in the few weeks leading up to the end date!! Permanent candidates will be asked to move heaven and earth to attend interviews, and then be made to wait until things get signed off before we can even move forward. It is however the part of the process that can’t be missed!

I’ve had some great stories from clients and candidates about interviews, some have been done within 15 minutes and offers out, some have gone on for hours because the client wants the candidate to refer back the ‘user’ at least once!

As the designers and the interviewers you’re the guys that have the technical knowledge, but sometimes you can forget about the person/s that are in the interview room with you. Being a UX interview, I’ve spoken to a few of my clients and done some reading to see what I can muster up, here are a few points that can hopefully help..

• You’re interviewing for a User Experience role- so take yourself out of the interview for a second and think of the client as a user and you’re the product. Have an understanding of the needs of the client, and how you will get them to their goal.
• This leads on to the next point quite well, as controversial as this may sound, designers will get to the same end product/ deliverable as another (some by hook or crook and others by loving what they do and being darn good at it), but it’s the process and the methods that will make you stand out and fill clients with confidence
• When you’re asked to take your portfolio with you to go through it, it’s not just a matter of plugging it in and saying ‘I did that.. I did that.. I helped do this.. I drew that..’ take the client on a journey. It’s all about the user experience here, if the interviewer has been taken on a journey through your portfolio, they’ve understood how you approached the task, the problems you came up against, the methods you used, how you thought outside of the box when you came up against hurdles and how you got to the deliverables, the client is seeing the product in action. This is a good user experience for them, they’ll invest in the product..

For example..

Buying a car	Hiring a UX Designer
Do your research (internet)	Do your research (Linked, Xing)
Watch videos and screen (youtube, forums)	Go through online portfolio / PDF
Go to a showroom to have a look	Skype / telephone interview
Test drive	Face to Face interview and expanded portfolio review
Question the salesman	Ask the interviewer questions
Decision	Decision

Obviously this is quite watered down, but my point is you wouldn’t buy a car without going through the process, you’re putting your hard earned money into something and you want to be made to feel excited about what you’re doing. Be the Aston Martin in your interview, you’ve got to the interview stage because you’ve passed through the previous phases.

If you turn up, it’s your fourth interview of the week, you’ve got a Dominos on order, hoping the delivery man doesn’t turn up in the middle of Eastenders then it’s not worth you being there. If you are there, you’ve done the research and have a genuine interest, show the passion you have in your work, sell yourself as that top end vehicle and give them the best test drive they’ve had (bit cheesy, I just got really caught up in the writing).

Just a few pointers, I’m more than happy to go into more detail over phone or email if you have any questions or pains about interviews.  Please feel free to contact me at sukhi.kang@ic-creative.co.uk