Tech It From Me
What you need to land a UX researcher job
An industry veteran explains how a newcomer can break into UX research
Welcome back to my monthly column: Tech it from me. Here, I answer questions you have about career and creativity in tech.
For advice, email techitfromximena@gmail.com with your question, name, location, and if you prefer to remain anonymous. Questions will be lightly edited for clarity.
This week: Why didn’t I get the job?
I recently started applying to jobs in the field of UX research. I’m a soon to be graduate of a prestigious PhD program, where I have been conducting research at our media lab for several years. I have also had several industry internships during summers and alongside my coursework. Recently, I applied to a Senior UX role I thought I would be perfect for. But I didn’t even make it to a recruiter phone screen — I received the same generic rejection email everyone does when they don’t make the cut. I’m confused because I just finished a six month internship at a well-known tech company which was supposed to be my in. So why didn’t I even make it past the first step? My plan is to keep applying for jobs, but I am hoping for some inside perspective to help.
Signed,
Why didn’t I get the job?
Dear Why Didn’t I Get the Job?
Ah, the black box of applying for jobs! I am sorry. I hear your struggle and your frustration and I get it. You’ve poured yourself into getting that graduate degree and done all the “right things” to set yourself up for an industry job post graduation: working “in tech” at your university, getting coveted internships at tech companies — this should be a cakewalk, right? And yet, here you are, competing for The Job, and making little progress. What gives?
Allow me to be the bearer of bad, but I think helpful, news: I think you are aiming too high. I don’t mean that you shouldn’t try to get a job in UX — you should, and I suspect with some fine-tuning in your approach, you will. But a PhD with a couple of summers of internships under their belt will have a hard time competing against experienced industry professionals for a coveted Senior UX role. Although it may not feel like it, you are still early in your career. There are people who have been in the industry for two, three, four years and still do not have the title of being “Senior.” I suspect this is why you were rejected off the bat.
Here’s how a recruiter or hiring manager probably saw your experience:
- 3 month industry internship: has been exposed to tech culture and UX research in an industry environment, likely working directly with a researcher but not yet in collaboration with XFN, likely able to execute on beginner research projects
- 6 month industry internship: has been exposed to tech culture and UX research in an industry environment, learning how to collaborate with XFN partners, possibly has a range of research projects (different methodologies, outcomes, stakeholders) to point to, but would need to learn more
- Digital Media Lab work in Ivory Tower: largely irrelevant. Tells us you are motivated and committed (good!), but doesn’t tell us if you can work in a fast-paced environment, influence stakeholders, drive clear impact, or if you have any product sense
- Graduate coursework: largely irrelevant. If it’s related to the field of UX, psychology, sociology, this tells us you are motivated and committed (good!), but doesn’t give us any intel beyond that
Of course, your experience matters, but it’s important to give it adequate weight. Sure, you could add up all your internships and say, “But wait! Between the summers and my work at the lab, I already have three years of experience!” But it simply doesn’t add up that way. Three months here and three months there and six months over there doesn’t equal a full year of experience. It means you’ve had three different experiences and had to ramp up in three different environments, with different stakeholders, and different methodologies — again, all good things — but it also means you’re likely too far removed from the politics of the organization to have really influenced it. And, especially for three month stints, a hiring manager might guess that there was maybe one big project completed (or possibly many smaller impact ones) — but it’s still unclear if you were able to see them all the way through, or if the heavy lifting of driving impact happened after you left. This is important, because often what distinguishes a junior or mid career level researcher from a senior researcher is their soft skills — their ability to tackle large and ambiguous problems and influence outcomes across teams and organizations. But if you are applying to a senior level role, keep in mind that your competition has years of experience in ways internships commonly do not offer: when you are in-house for many years, you gain experience shipping strategic projects, communicating across various levels and kinds of stakeholders, and driving impact from start to finish and even after the fact, since so often the highest impact projects can take years to fully take hold in an organization.
Luckily, there’s a pretty easy fix here, if you’re willing to set your ego aside for a moment: It’s time to stop applying to senior level roles and start looking at early career roles instead. In these, you will rightly shine. Your dedication to the craft and the hustle you’ve demonstrated in taking on industry work on top of your coursework will make you stand out from the crowd. It shows that you are in this for the long haul and not simply trying on UX for size, which makes you an appealing candidate worth investing in for the long term. You also have many real, impactful projects to point to, rather than the hypotheticals often shared in portfolios of those earliest in their career. (Be sure to emphasize the industry experience more than the digital media lab experience, however, since the latter doesn’t tell hiring managers as much about your understanding of product strategy and the development life cycle.) Finally, you have a huge advantage that you don’t mention in your letter — your network. Your former manager, the researchers you collaborated with, and the stakeholders you befriended while in those industry internships are your golden ticket! Instead of applying directly to a job through their corporate website, work your network until you find someone who is willing to put you in touch with a hiring manager, member of a team, or recruiter to help you stand out. This approach takes longer, but yields far more successful leads than blindly applying to ten jobs through their websites in one go.
All right, I hope this helps. By refocusing your efforts and leaning on your network, I think you’ll shine in no time.
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