Time for a UX CV Makeover?

If you’ve been searching for a new job for a while and are finding it harder than anticipated to get traction with potential employers and recruiters, it might be worth taking an in-depth look at your CV to ensure this vital document is doing the best it can for you.

Design

Our main advice when designing a UX CV would be – don’t go over the top. Your CV should really reflect the current design trends of the day, so clean and easy to navigate. Whilst you may have fantastic motion graphics skills for example, basing the design of your CV around them can result in a cluttered, confusing user experience. You want to stay away from anything which requires a high loading time or interaction to ‘reveal’ key information.  ‘Concept’ CVs could be perfect for some companies, but we would suggest including a link to a separate plainer document, in case that suits the reader better.

 

Make it obvious

Sometimes, a recruiter or employer – when faced with a selection of CVs – will only have time to dedicate twenty or thirty seconds to your profile. You must aim to make your top skills and experience as obvious as possible. A good trick for this is utilising a summary of keywords or short sentences summarising all of the methodologies and tools you’ve used. If your skills and experience are lost within a large body of text, there’s a chance this important information could be missed.

Erase ambiguity

Go through your CV as a potential employer would. Is there any ambiguity about your skills, qualifications, experience or even what you’re looking for next? If something doesn’t quite add up or is hard to decipher, this is where problems may have arisen. Why not get a friend who knows the business to read over your CV in detail and highlight any areas they feel don’t match up with your profile.

Link everything

If your CV has piqued a hiring manager’s interest, the next logical step for them is to check you out, online. But wait – what if they can’t find you at the click of a button? Include a section with your portfolio, a password for the portfolio if necessary, your LinkedIn, Google Plus and Twitter.  The aim is to keep them on your profile for as long as possible, by making it easy for them to surf between social media and web sites.

Let me know your thoughts. Please email me 

The Path to a UX Career

As with any decision to start out on a new career path, a fledgling UX’er will face the conundrum that Experience breeds Experience. That is to say, if you don’t have any commercial experience to your name, it is sometimes pretty hard to get your foot in the door.

This week I wanted to ask whether any readers have tips or tricks they would give to Graduates/ Juniors or Designers/Researchers from a different background looking to effectively push the re-set button on their career.

Depending on their vacancy, companies can afford to be selective on the candidates they choose to put forward to interview processes. So the question remains, what can you do to make yourself stand out if you are new to the industry?

We would suggest: 

• Attending careers fairs
• Networking on social media
• Strengthening your online presence – align all online profiles with the same skills and photo, interlink effectively
• Blogging about industry topics and gaining followers
• Taking a step down in your expectations (salary-wise) – One step back for two steps forward
• Building up freelance experience
• Working for free – we wouldn’t suggest this in the long run but a client project on your CV will look good whether you were paid or not
• Ensuring your CV and portfolio market your skills well – ask an expert to check. Include lots of key words to ensure you show up in searches
• And if you don’t have a portfolio – create one – online or in PDF form
• Opening your mind to opportunities –  give that company you’re not sure about a shot. If you’re invited to a face to face meeting you will know for sure
• Keeping your CV on all possible job boards and online communities for job seekers – you never know who is looking where
• Attending workshops / UX skill training events – various agencies in London facilitate these
• Attending industry events – IXDA, UXPA, for instance

It would be great to hear if anyone has any further suggestions. Please do email me.