News

The stories we tell…how to present your work to potential employers

The July 2021 Women in UX meetup sponsored by Aquent Australia focused on the stories we tell to help us land our next role.

Each of the three presenters took a different angle on the theme:

1. Mags Hanley talked about storytelling for your CV, portfolio, case studies and interviews
2. Kate Veran talked about what should be done in a case study to showcase your work and capabilities
3. Rosie McAllister talked about what potential employers want to see in an interview

Mags Hanley talked about creating multiple stories from one project, identifying the different aspects of a project that could be used depending on the situation. For example, a navigation project could be divided into the technical work – user research, creating the labels, and testing with TreeJack, and the leadership work – stakeholder management and giving direction to a UI designer and a researcher. You then match the stories to the job role you are aiming for.

Kate Veran discussed the difference between portfolios and case studies; a portfolio is an overview of the project; a case study is detailed focusing on the process and work that you contributed to the project. It is showing competency in the process, technique or skill developed in the project.

Rosie McAllister gave us the perspective of the potential employer; they want to know about you, and your contributions to the project, not a generic process that could be any UX project in the world. Even though in most projects, designers are part of a larger contributing team, employers are hiring you and not the team, so you should focus on your contribution, your lessons learnt and the impact you made on the project.

As always, it is great to have an engaged audience who asked many questions in Q&A from how to talk about personal pronouns, neurodiversity in interviewing, talking about failed projects and how to move into UX when you are senior in a different career.

This meetup was recorded and sent to all attendees post-event. 
The Women in UX meetups are free, virtual events held monthly for all those who identify as women working in design. Keep an eye on our socials for the announcement of the August meetup. 

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This news article is written by our Women in UX partner Mags Hanley. You can connect with Mags on Linkedin or magshanley.com.