Deny in one click, or how a designer to get a dream job
Head of Interface Design at Kontur Sergey Solovyov and IT recruiter at IT-People.ru Rushana Kayumova at last year’s DUMP conference talked about mistakes in resumes and portfolios that even the most experienced designers make, how to do the right test, how to get an interview and not finish it to the tears of a recruiter and art director.
The report has not lost its relevance for the year, therefore, under the cut we publish its video and text version.
Rushana. I am Rushana Kayumova, an IT recruiter at IT-People, so I believe that I have the moral right to speak sharply and radically. And Seryozha Solovyov, the head of the interface design department in Kontur, will argue with me and, perhaps, even upset a little.
Our report is not in vain called Deny in one click. This is what a button looks like on one of the working sites. Sometimes, when looking for designers, recruiters and art directors get hurt and want to immediately click on it. Every time annoying mistakes occur, and they are both for beginners and experienced designers. Today we will tell you how not to make mistakes and still get the job of your dreams.
Sergei. First of all, our story will be useful to children who are thinking of becoming designers, or those who want to change jobs. We will talk about the test, resume, portfolio and interview. But if you are already working as a designer and don’t think that you need to change the company you work for, it’s still useful to have an up-to-date portfolio and it is useful to periodically go for interviews.
When you look at your work and think whether it is worth placing it in your portfolio, you kind of summarize your work and give yourself an estimate. This is always helpful. The same interview situation. If everything is fine with you, but your name is for an interview, do not be too lazy to go. You will find out what tasks are in the market, how much you are in the labor market now. Well, periodically attending interviews, you will begin to do it better. You will be less afraid, and interviews will be more comfortable for you.
Rushana. The main task of the resume is not to spoil the first impression. When we are looking for designers, we draw the most basic conclusions on the portfolio, but acquaintance begins with the resume. The most important thing is not to screw up.
For many, this is captainhood, but this is a separate pain for recruiters - a third of the resume comes without files, without attachments. I was born, studied, worked, and no examples of work. This is not necessary.
A description of the tasks must necessarily be in the resume. Just a company name and position is not enough. Try to briefly explain what you did in your last places of work, what tasks you faced. If you designed, write what you designed. If you created icons, write so.
Do not forget to indicate the tools, about him Seryozha will share his pain further.
If possible, indicate in the resume with whom you worked. Maybe you worked together with an art director, maybe with a marketer, maybe you had a whole design department. This is also worth talking about.
Yekaterinburg is a small city, the IT sector is even smaller, and there are very few designers. Aichi recruiters, whom everyone knows, and through which almost all designers went, can be counted on the fingers. Lies always pop up. Be honest.
Sergei.I want to say a few words about the appearance of the resume. This is a picture from one of the sites that allows you to generate a resume by filling out several fields. If such a resume is made by the welder or, as in the example, the project manager, he will probably stand out from the rest of the candidates. He will have an unusual, bright, neat resume. But with designers, this is not so. In the case of designers, such a resume does not show your personality; it, on the contrary, hides it. Because here you did not choose the font, you did not choose the composition, you just wrote the text.
Resumes made in such a program are rare, but circles are regularly found, as in the example - a kind of pseudo-infographic about knowledge of programs.
They look different. There are such:
These are all examples from these resumes. There is an inverted histogram:
Well, the most popular option is filled circles:
What, in my opinion, is the problem of such an infographic? For example, Photoshop. The author of this resume believes that he knows Photoshop for 7 out of 10. Here you can doubt that this is true, Photoshop is like Excel, the whole universe, and there is not enough life to know it at least halfway. But even if the candidate really knows Photoshop 7 out of 10, this does not mean that he really knows how to do it in Photoshop. For the designer, it’s important not to know the number of features in the program, but what the designer can really do with his own hands. But here nothing is clear about this.
Specifically in this picture, I, as a person who can view this resume, speaks about the designer in one place: when the person did not enter a line, and he simply moved the circles away. In this place I get more professional information about a person.
If you want to make your resume interesting, add pictures - it's cool, it will be remembered, it can help you find a job. It is better to indicate not the list of programs that you know (this list is similar and very short for designers), but the skills that you possess.
For example, the Bureau draws octopuses. This is an example from an article by Kolya Toverovsky , where he talks about this tool.
What is the fundamental difference between octopuses and the list of programs that you know? The list of programs is the same for everyone, and the skills that you include in the list will be individual. Think about what is your strength and include it in the list.
In this example, in my opinion, there are non-trivial things: courage, problem solving - this is already interesting, it can already be discussed at the interview. Why did a person include this or that in the list? One may ask: why is your courage shorter than solving problems? Some kind of story appears here, and nobody will ever discuss the circles of knowledge of programs, it is not interesting.
The octopus itself may also look different. For example, in our Circuit, a designer, after a trial period passes, fills out a questionnaire. And this profile can be accompanied by a picture. One of the options for the picture is such an octopus, which illustrates skills.
A couple of examples:
If you have the courage to insert such a thing in your resume, it will definitely be remembered, and your resume will not be lost in the list of others.
Rushana. Another captain’s slide, but I’ll tell you about it anyway. As a rule, if you indicate in your resume that it is preferable to call rather than write, then your working day, most likely, plus or minus intersects with the working day of the recruiter. This means that a recruiter can call you right at the height of the working day.
I have a story. One day I call a candidate, saying: “Hello! I am Rushana from IT-People. I liked your work, I have a couple of projects, maybe we'll talk with you somehow? Are you comfortable talking now? ” To which the candidate says: “Hello, Rushana! No, I’m not very comfortable right now. ” And I understand that you need to call back later. The next minute his supervisor writes to me in telegram: “Hello! I just heard that my employee was calling you by name. He seems to want to leave. " If you do not want anyone to find out about this, do not indicate the phone number.
Mail is indicated most often, but least often checked. Two months later, I get: “Oh, hello, I missed your letter. It seems to be spammed. ” Check your mail and spam at least once a day.
Rushana. You all know the widespread meme about the seven deadly sins of the applicant. There are seven adjectives that always indicate in a resume about themselves: sociable, stress-resistant, responsible, quickly-trained, hard-working, independent, the mistress's dream.
The guys discuss this block in the form of the game "One Hundred to One." We recommend you watch it on the video , it's fun.
Look at this list again and forget it forever. You, of course, are all like that, but you have a lot of other things in you.
How to?
In the resume, after listing the facts and achievements, we want to see a living, real, cool person. The "About Me" block allows you to write in a humane, kind way, as you would like to be introduced.
For beginners, this is a great place for you to write why you still decided to do design. If before that you worked as a sales consultant for 8 years, and you decided to do design without experience, in the "About Me" section you can tell about what interests you, that you already read, that you tried, what trial work you have, what test tasks did you perform? Try to write humanly and briefly about this.
Guys with an impressive resume, give yourself free rein, fantasize. Someone goes in for sports, someone conquers Everest, someone breeds seals, someone bakes pancakes on weekends. Write about it. When you talk about yourself as a person, you immediately want to go and get to know each other.
Many work sites offer cover letter templates. I may later regret what I say, but better than no cover letter than a template. They are absolutely identical, they occupy two lines and look like this: I ask you to consider my candidacy for the vacancy "". In quotation marks, the vacancy is substituted automatically. It's pretty wretched, it's boring. One gets the impression that it was too lazy to write a normal letter in one or two paragraphs.
A cover letter is a cool place to show what kind of person you are. If you want to find a dream job and it seems to you that it is in this project, in this team, you can coolly realize yourself, and write in normal human language. “I heard that you have cool projects,” “I saw your speeches at some conference,” “I congratulate you on some kind of award,” “I have been working with you for two years, I can’t look at him, because I envy. " Write about this, most likely, you will want to meet.
Sergei.The difference between the "About Me" block and the cover letter is that the "About Me" block is always in the resume, it is universal. A cover letter, ideally, should be written for each specific vacancy. When I receive a good cover letter in which a person explains why he wants to work in our company, I always read it carefully, for me it is important.
In general, our report is not about what design to do, but about what a designer should think like a designer, not only when he draws models, but also in some kind of related activities.
The requirements for a designer’s resume are slightly higher than the requirements for an ordinary person. There should be no errors in the resume. If I see errors in the designer’s resume, I understand that there will definitely be errors in his layouts. If there are no errors in the resume, this does not mean that they will not be in the mock-ups, but if they are, then they will definitely be.
Typography. You are designers, make the text neat so that it is pleasant to look at. Quotation marks, dashes are correct, and so on.
The designer should not only draw pictures, but also write good texts. Text is a very important part of the interface and design. Demonstrate in your resume that you can write good, high-volume texts. Reread Ilyakhov and check the text in Glavred. This, too, will not go unnoticed.
Rushana. Portfolio is needed so that the person who looked at him immediately wanted to send either a test, or call for an interview.
Once again I will say that a third of the resume comes without a portfolio. This is not necessary.
Sergei. Portfolio should show your taste. At least in which of your work you have chosen. It should also show the breadth of your interests and capabilities as a designer.
What should be in the portfolio? A very small portfolio is weird. A very large portfolio is redundant. It seems to me that 7-12 works is enough so that you can be looked at as a designer and evaluate your capabilities.
Usually it is advised to sort the work in order of coolness so that the most interesting work is on top. It would be harmless to write the time of its creation next to the work, so that an especially inquisitive person who checks the portfolio can see the dynamics of your development. If he sees that the work is weaker, and it was done two years ago, he finds a clear explanation for this.
Rushana. Again about the newcomers. Sometimes people come to me and say: “I haven’t worked anywhere yet, I don’t have any projects, I can’t put anything in my portfolio.” In this case, invent yourself. Perhaps you studied somewhere, and you had projects on which you filled your hand. Choose from them those for which you are the least ashamed.
If you go for interviews and they say "we need someone more experienced," beg a test and do it. As a rule, recruiters know test 5-7 large companies. When we see them in the portfolio, we understand how a person approached the solution of a problem, what he thought about, how he reasoned, what tools he used. Once again, for beginners: feel free to come up with and feel free to use test cases in your portfolio.
Sergei. How can I arrange a portfolio? The main advice: approach the creation of resumes and portfolio design as a design task. How does a designer solve a problem? He is trying to imagine who and how will work with this design, in what conditions, what a person will pay attention to.
Unfortunately, when receiving a portfolio of designers, it does not always seem that the designer tried to look at the portfolio with the eyes of the company. For example, what is the difference between how an experienced speaker calls his presentation at a conference compared to an inexperienced one? An inexperienced speaker calls his re-presentation, for example, “DUMP, final 17”. Because for him this is really the seventeenth version of the presentation. An experienced speaker calls the presentation his last name or the name of the report, because the section manager will collect the presentations in one place, and he needs to navigate them. And if all of them are called “final 17”, it will be impossible to understand who, where.
Same thing with portfolio. Look at him through the eyes of the person who will check him. Often archives come to me, there are daddies in the archives. The more experienced the designer, the more he has levels of daddies and more daddies at each level. At the root are Web Design, Interfaces, Illustrations, Identity, and Children's Drawings. You go inside, and there everything is laid out over the years. Finding it to the end is simply impossible. It is not comfortable.
How to do? Instead of archiving with folders, put your work on Behans or make your own site. If you do not want to put your portfolio somewhere on the Internet, do a neat pdf. Even the way you designed your work in this pdf will present you as a designer.
In the portfolio, I always want to see the layouts in full scale. I like to look at the details, the devil is in the details. Any design, if it is reduced several times, as a rule, several times becomes prettier. Probably, if you have a portfolio on Behans and you collect orders from employers, then small neat little pictures, they are also called cases, help you find an order. But when another designer evaluates your work, he wants to see full-scale layouts to carefully examine them.
A few words about the cases that are done on Behans. A person draws a design, and then inserts it into the iPhone screen. The iPhone is at that angle, at a different angle. Then comes the macbook on a wooden table, and then the aimak against a background of bricks. Behind this, design is usually not visible. Moreover, the customer may think: “What a beautiful picture,” but another designer understands that these are some kind of free mockups, you just opened the layer in Photoshop and copied the picture.
There are good cases on Behans, for example, JetStyle post their cases, and, in my opinion, this is a good example.
If you made a design and it uses someone's illustration, or you took a free set of icons. This is normal, this happens in the work, this does not need to be shy. The situation is worse when you did it all, took it somewhere on the Internet, made your own design with it, and then signed it only with your name. Now this is not entirely honest.
At the interviews, I ask: "Have you painted these icons?" At this moment, the person has a fork: lie or tell the truth. It’s better, of course, to always tell the truth. At this moment, the impression of a person spoils a little. A man signed the work with his name, and then it turns out that he downloaded the icons somewhere, copied the illustrations, and so on.
It is always better to indicate honestly: I took three icons, finalized, added a few of my own. There is nothing to worry about, it, on the contrary, will show you a professional - you are not shy to indicate any sources of artifacts in your design.
Rushana. The test must be taken and done. If you are not the coolest designer that every recruiter and every art director knows, then most likely you will not be hired without a test.
Sergei. The test should show how you approach the solution of the problem. During the test, you will not have time to do something super cool, but you must show how you think, what you pay attention to.
Rushana.When you agree to take a test, the timing is always discussed. Someone immediately says you have a week, someone asks how much you will do. This is a very tricky question. Closer to the date that you called, I begin to contact the candidate and ask how the test is, are there any questions? The statistics are very poor. Of the 10 people I give the test to, 5 people go missing on about the third day, 2 more go missing on day X. Of the three remaining, at best they will arrive on time, the rest will say that the cat is sick and they do not have time to the deadline.
If you took a test and it seems to you that it is kind of dumb, or you accepted another offer, it’s better to just tell the recruiter honestly.
By the way you approach the test, many employers judge how you will relate to their future deadlines.
Sergei. I’ll be a little bit the devil’s lawyer. Why does the designer merge the test?
When a designer is asked when he will do a test, the designer understands that here she is, the verification has begun. “You can’t call a long term because they will think that I’m a brake. It’s necessary to immediately show that I’m a cool designer, I’m doing it quickly and cool. ” The designer calls some very optimistic term. When the time is right, the designer looks at the test and understands that it is not perfect. And this is true because it is not perfect. He begins to complex, and in the best case, he is postponing the deadline (my cat got sick), and in the worst case, he is afraid to postpone the term, thinks he has flipped it, and it’s better not to come at all, not to admit it, because he’s ashamed. The designer thinks: “If I quietly disappear somewhere, then no one will even pay attention.”
This is actually not the case. My advice on how to behave so as not to fall into this situation. First, do not call too short. If you work, then for a task that can be done in one working day, you are not ashamed to take a week, because you will solve it in the evenings. This is normal.
Secondly, when you look at the results of your test and see that it is not perfect, this is also normal, because the test should not be ideal. The test should not show some ready-made design, it should show how you think, how you approach the solution of the problem. The test should hint at how you will do the task if you have a real normal deadline.
Thirdly, if you do not have time, honestly say that you need a few more days. In work, this happens, the dates have to be postponed. If you postpone the deadline, but then do well, no one will even remember about it.
Sergei. I want to say a few words about the explanations for the test. Sometimes an explanatory note is sent along with the picture. This note can go up to several A4 sheets.
If the designer has made a good design, he does not need an explanatory note. If the design is bad, then the explanatory note will not save him. The design should be clear without explanation, users will perceive it that way.
Here you can compare the explanations for the test with the context-sensitive help by the user manual. Previously, the programs had a user manual that opened separately. If you had a problem, it was necessary to find again in this hierarchy the screen with which you had a problem, and there to understand something. This does not work. Users do not want to read this whole Talmud. Users want to solve their problem.
If you know that at this point the user may have a problem with some field, you can put a question there, when you click on it, a short comment will open, which will explain what needs to be done in this case. The same can be done with the test. Do not write a long explanatory note, place a few comments in the fields that will show some additional work that you have done, solving a problem that is not visible on the layout.
If such comments are next to the layout, then the look itself is drawn to them to read them. And long explanations of several pages are rarely read.
Rushana.If you think that your work was not appreciated, did not understand, ask a question. If you take a test and understand that some point is not clear, you need more data, more input, do not hesitate to ask immediately. Or later you can write to the recruiter or art director who gave the test. Perhaps these questions are expected from you. I know at least two teams that say: “Mmm, he did a test, in general, well, but did not ask a single question, it suggests.”
If something is not clear, be sure to ask.
If you are told: “As you want, so do it”, then when surrendering, indicate in your short comments your thoughts that led to this decision.
If you were told that the test was not done very well, go and ask why. Few employers and recruiters like to answer these questions, but if you write a good humane letter, such as “I understand that my test is not perfect, but I want to understand where I made a mistake. Please tell me ”, most likely, they will answer you.
Sergei. We in Kontur decided to give feedback on each test made.
Rushana. The main task at the interview is to compare expectation and reality. Interviewing is always a two-way process. Not only the team is looking for a new person for the project, but you are also looking for someone with whom to develop further. The result is 50% up to you, 50% from the employer.
Sergei. I believe that at the interview the most important thing is to be as natural as possible, as you will be at work later. Well, you should expect that the employer will be just as sincere. Then, if you like each other, you won’t be disappointed in a few months, when it turns out that everything is actually wrong, because at the interview you were unnatural.
Rushana.If you do not go to an agent recruiter, but to the company you want to get a job with, read about it. Unfortunately, this is often found: - “What do you know about the company?” “Nothing.” The company probably has a website, this will be enough.
Questions from the slide are at almost all interviews. If you don't get interviews very often or feel excited, rehearse the answers at home. At the interview it will be much easier and calmer to answer.
Learn to talk about what tasks you worked on, what part of the work you did, in what form the tasks came to you, from whom, they wrote detailed specifications or was it a short statement “make the icons cool”. Be able to answer these questions.
There will also be questions about your independence. Did you evaluate your work yourself or did you have a team that accepted - did not accept?
This is again about the attitude towards future deadlines. An employer may take it this way: if you are late, then you will probably be late for deadlines.
Sergei.I really like when a designer asks for an interview. This tells me that a person does not care where he wants to come to work. If the designer asks a lot of questions and these questions are not about the beginning of the working day, not about the white salary, but something related to professional activity, I will answer them with pleasure. And this gives me confidence that if then the candidate chooses our company, then he most likely will not disappoint in us, because he really chose a company that suits him.
Rushana already said that the interview is a mutual process. Not only do you choose, but you choose. And the more experienced designers you become, the more the scales will shift in your direction.
Rushana.I often ask designers at the interview: “What would you like to do?” And I’m talking about two great ways for a designer. Surely you know the pros and cons of each.
If you want more different projects, different audiences, different tools, and plus or minus a large community of designers around you, then this is an agent story.
If you don’t like when audiences, projects, products change, you want to dive into the same product as deep as possible, you want to study your target audience as deeply and thoroughly as possible and try to reach it in different ways, then you need to go to a food company.
Sit, think, answer this question for yourself, and then it will become clear to you which company to go for an interview with, and with whom you should wait a while.
Absolutely normal story, when “I worked in the studio for 5 years, got tired and now I want to work on the product”, and vice versa.
There are no bad and good candidates, there are no bad and good employers, there are more suitable and less suitable ones. And this is an axiom. And if someone told you “No”, then this is simply not your company.
Sergei. Regardless of which company you choose, an agency or a food company, choose a company in which you want to work for a year, and preferably three years. And remember that the employer only pays you money, and you spend part of your life on it. It is very important.
I want to end with the phrase that I say at the interview closer to the end: "Now ask for something from us."
I have a question about portfolio. What do you think should be the portfolio of a product designer who doesn’t do any wow things in the company that cannot be put on Behans, he just makes a tool. Gray, boring, tables, all that. What should he put in his portfolio? How to evaluate such a person? What is expected of him?
It seems to me that the product designer should focus not on beautiful pictures, but on cases. Description of the problem, how he solved it and, most importantly, what result was achieved by this design. Designers in agencies, as a rule, made a design and forgot. The product designer knows how he worked, what was the conversion, and so on. This is a strong place for grocery designers, you need to use it.
For example, there is some design candidate for the team. Sometimes it’s dumb to give a test, because an experienced person, a lot of work, you heard about him. In this case, is it still useful to give a test or not?
If I look at the portfolio and understand that it is he, the same one, I can put pressure on the employer and ask not to give a test with the words: “He is cool. If you give the test now, you will lose it. ”
What valuable information will the recruiter get from the one with whom the designer did this work? What difference does it make: with an analyst, marketer, director, other designer? What conclusions from this will be?
Conclusions on how to formulate tasks. For example, the tasks from the analyst will be formulated, most likely, in the form of a rather detailed specification. If from the art director, they probably sat together, thought, stormed, and came up with. I think so.
I am wondering how the HR filter works. Let's say they sent 50 resumes. They have good portfolios and good descriptions.
This is a perfect world! 50 resumes with a good portfolio and good descriptions do not exist in Yekaterinburg.
Abstract situation :) Will all resumes go to the head or will there be some kind of filter?
If it seems to me that the work was done very untidy, “back off”, did not think about the person who will be watching, then most likely I will write that we have a slightly different view of the vacancy.
If I doubt the portfolio, then I just come up and torment the art director.
There are not many good specialists on the market, so “I won’t show it” - there isn’t such a thing. I’m rather a person who I doubt more, I’ll go and show. “Maybe he still has the opportunity to fix the jambs in the next two months in your team, and then fig at your desired level?”
What do you think about the resume being tailored to each company? What is your attitude to such resumes?
I believe that, at a minimum, a person is not lazy, he is confused, he is motivated and he wants to. There is such tedious advice from recruiters: do a separate resume for each company in which you want to work. Of course, no one does this, because we don’t have so much time in a day, but, in general, the advice is not bad.
If you haven’t decided yet, you want to go to a studio or a product, you don’t know which studio to choose from among the three, it’s normal if you write a cover letter and adjust your resume in the “do not lie” conditions for each of the vacancies. This, on the contrary, will show what you really want.
It is clear that the designer shows beautiful pictures, and what should the interface designer show you to say that he is well done?
It seems to me that the question is very close to the question of what to show to product designers. They do not wrap, they do what is under the wrap. If you did not make vivid pictures, but prototypes of interfaces, and you come to a company that needs a designer, they will see in your dim pictures whether they are well made or poorly made. There is no need to complex and especially for the portfolio to draw something bright, although you did not do it.
If your strengths are user-friendly interfaces, well-thought-out logic, make it visible in your portfolio.
The report has not lost its relevance for the year, therefore, under the cut we publish its video and text version.
Rushana. I am Rushana Kayumova, an IT recruiter at IT-People, so I believe that I have the moral right to speak sharply and radically. And Seryozha Solovyov, the head of the interface design department in Kontur, will argue with me and, perhaps, even upset a little.
Our report is not in vain called Deny in one click. This is what a button looks like on one of the working sites. Sometimes, when looking for designers, recruiters and art directors get hurt and want to immediately click on it. Every time annoying mistakes occur, and they are both for beginners and experienced designers. Today we will tell you how not to make mistakes and still get the job of your dreams.
Sergei. First of all, our story will be useful to children who are thinking of becoming designers, or those who want to change jobs. We will talk about the test, resume, portfolio and interview. But if you are already working as a designer and don’t think that you need to change the company you work for, it’s still useful to have an up-to-date portfolio and it is useful to periodically go for interviews.
When you look at your work and think whether it is worth placing it in your portfolio, you kind of summarize your work and give yourself an estimate. This is always helpful. The same interview situation. If everything is fine with you, but your name is for an interview, do not be too lazy to go. You will find out what tasks are in the market, how much you are in the labor market now. Well, periodically attending interviews, you will begin to do it better. You will be less afraid, and interviews will be more comfortable for you.
Summary
Rushana. The main task of the resume is not to spoil the first impression. When we are looking for designers, we draw the most basic conclusions on the portfolio, but acquaintance begins with the resume. The most important thing is not to screw up.
For many, this is captainhood, but this is a separate pain for recruiters - a third of the resume comes without files, without attachments. I was born, studied, worked, and no examples of work. This is not necessary.
A description of the tasks must necessarily be in the resume. Just a company name and position is not enough. Try to briefly explain what you did in your last places of work, what tasks you faced. If you designed, write what you designed. If you created icons, write so.
Do not forget to indicate the tools, about him Seryozha will share his pain further.
If possible, indicate in the resume with whom you worked. Maybe you worked together with an art director, maybe with a marketer, maybe you had a whole design department. This is also worth talking about.
Yekaterinburg is a small city, the IT sector is even smaller, and there are very few designers. Aichi recruiters, whom everyone knows, and through which almost all designers went, can be counted on the fingers. Lies always pop up. Be honest.
Sergei.I want to say a few words about the appearance of the resume. This is a picture from one of the sites that allows you to generate a resume by filling out several fields. If such a resume is made by the welder or, as in the example, the project manager, he will probably stand out from the rest of the candidates. He will have an unusual, bright, neat resume. But with designers, this is not so. In the case of designers, such a resume does not show your personality; it, on the contrary, hides it. Because here you did not choose the font, you did not choose the composition, you just wrote the text.
Resumes made in such a program are rare, but circles are regularly found, as in the example - a kind of pseudo-infographic about knowledge of programs.
They look different. There are such:
These are all examples from these resumes. There is an inverted histogram:
Well, the most popular option is filled circles:
What, in my opinion, is the problem of such an infographic? For example, Photoshop. The author of this resume believes that he knows Photoshop for 7 out of 10. Here you can doubt that this is true, Photoshop is like Excel, the whole universe, and there is not enough life to know it at least halfway. But even if the candidate really knows Photoshop 7 out of 10, this does not mean that he really knows how to do it in Photoshop. For the designer, it’s important not to know the number of features in the program, but what the designer can really do with his own hands. But here nothing is clear about this.
Specifically in this picture, I, as a person who can view this resume, speaks about the designer in one place: when the person did not enter a line, and he simply moved the circles away. In this place I get more professional information about a person.
If you want to make your resume interesting, add pictures - it's cool, it will be remembered, it can help you find a job. It is better to indicate not the list of programs that you know (this list is similar and very short for designers), but the skills that you possess.
For example, the Bureau draws octopuses. This is an example from an article by Kolya Toverovsky , where he talks about this tool.
What is the fundamental difference between octopuses and the list of programs that you know? The list of programs is the same for everyone, and the skills that you include in the list will be individual. Think about what is your strength and include it in the list.
In this example, in my opinion, there are non-trivial things: courage, problem solving - this is already interesting, it can already be discussed at the interview. Why did a person include this or that in the list? One may ask: why is your courage shorter than solving problems? Some kind of story appears here, and nobody will ever discuss the circles of knowledge of programs, it is not interesting.
The octopus itself may also look different. For example, in our Circuit, a designer, after a trial period passes, fills out a questionnaire. And this profile can be accompanied by a picture. One of the options for the picture is such an octopus, which illustrates skills.
A couple of examples:
If you have the courage to insert such a thing in your resume, it will definitely be remembered, and your resume will not be lost in the list of others.
Rushana. Another captain’s slide, but I’ll tell you about it anyway. As a rule, if you indicate in your resume that it is preferable to call rather than write, then your working day, most likely, plus or minus intersects with the working day of the recruiter. This means that a recruiter can call you right at the height of the working day.
I have a story. One day I call a candidate, saying: “Hello! I am Rushana from IT-People. I liked your work, I have a couple of projects, maybe we'll talk with you somehow? Are you comfortable talking now? ” To which the candidate says: “Hello, Rushana! No, I’m not very comfortable right now. ” And I understand that you need to call back later. The next minute his supervisor writes to me in telegram: “Hello! I just heard that my employee was calling you by name. He seems to want to leave. " If you do not want anyone to find out about this, do not indicate the phone number.
Mail is indicated most often, but least often checked. Two months later, I get: “Oh, hello, I missed your letter. It seems to be spammed. ” Check your mail and spam at least once a day.
About block
Rushana. You all know the widespread meme about the seven deadly sins of the applicant. There are seven adjectives that always indicate in a resume about themselves: sociable, stress-resistant, responsible, quickly-trained, hard-working, independent, the mistress's dream.
The guys discuss this block in the form of the game "One Hundred to One." We recommend you watch it on the video , it's fun.
Look at this list again and forget it forever. You, of course, are all like that, but you have a lot of other things in you.
How to?
In the resume, after listing the facts and achievements, we want to see a living, real, cool person. The "About Me" block allows you to write in a humane, kind way, as you would like to be introduced.
For beginners, this is a great place for you to write why you still decided to do design. If before that you worked as a sales consultant for 8 years, and you decided to do design without experience, in the "About Me" section you can tell about what interests you, that you already read, that you tried, what trial work you have, what test tasks did you perform? Try to write humanly and briefly about this.
Guys with an impressive resume, give yourself free rein, fantasize. Someone goes in for sports, someone conquers Everest, someone breeds seals, someone bakes pancakes on weekends. Write about it. When you talk about yourself as a person, you immediately want to go and get to know each other.
Many work sites offer cover letter templates. I may later regret what I say, but better than no cover letter than a template. They are absolutely identical, they occupy two lines and look like this: I ask you to consider my candidacy for the vacancy "". In quotation marks, the vacancy is substituted automatically. It's pretty wretched, it's boring. One gets the impression that it was too lazy to write a normal letter in one or two paragraphs.
A cover letter is a cool place to show what kind of person you are. If you want to find a dream job and it seems to you that it is in this project, in this team, you can coolly realize yourself, and write in normal human language. “I heard that you have cool projects,” “I saw your speeches at some conference,” “I congratulate you on some kind of award,” “I have been working with you for two years, I can’t look at him, because I envy. " Write about this, most likely, you will want to meet.
Sergei.The difference between the "About Me" block and the cover letter is that the "About Me" block is always in the resume, it is universal. A cover letter, ideally, should be written for each specific vacancy. When I receive a good cover letter in which a person explains why he wants to work in our company, I always read it carefully, for me it is important.
In general, our report is not about what design to do, but about what a designer should think like a designer, not only when he draws models, but also in some kind of related activities.
The requirements for a designer’s resume are slightly higher than the requirements for an ordinary person. There should be no errors in the resume. If I see errors in the designer’s resume, I understand that there will definitely be errors in his layouts. If there are no errors in the resume, this does not mean that they will not be in the mock-ups, but if they are, then they will definitely be.
Typography. You are designers, make the text neat so that it is pleasant to look at. Quotation marks, dashes are correct, and so on.
The designer should not only draw pictures, but also write good texts. Text is a very important part of the interface and design. Demonstrate in your resume that you can write good, high-volume texts. Reread Ilyakhov and check the text in Glavred. This, too, will not go unnoticed.
Portfolio
Rushana. Portfolio is needed so that the person who looked at him immediately wanted to send either a test, or call for an interview.
Once again I will say that a third of the resume comes without a portfolio. This is not necessary.
Sergei. Portfolio should show your taste. At least in which of your work you have chosen. It should also show the breadth of your interests and capabilities as a designer.
What should be in the portfolio? A very small portfolio is weird. A very large portfolio is redundant. It seems to me that 7-12 works is enough so that you can be looked at as a designer and evaluate your capabilities.
Usually it is advised to sort the work in order of coolness so that the most interesting work is on top. It would be harmless to write the time of its creation next to the work, so that an especially inquisitive person who checks the portfolio can see the dynamics of your development. If he sees that the work is weaker, and it was done two years ago, he finds a clear explanation for this.
Rushana. Again about the newcomers. Sometimes people come to me and say: “I haven’t worked anywhere yet, I don’t have any projects, I can’t put anything in my portfolio.” In this case, invent yourself. Perhaps you studied somewhere, and you had projects on which you filled your hand. Choose from them those for which you are the least ashamed.
If you go for interviews and they say "we need someone more experienced," beg a test and do it. As a rule, recruiters know test 5-7 large companies. When we see them in the portfolio, we understand how a person approached the solution of a problem, what he thought about, how he reasoned, what tools he used. Once again, for beginners: feel free to come up with and feel free to use test cases in your portfolio.
Sergei. How can I arrange a portfolio? The main advice: approach the creation of resumes and portfolio design as a design task. How does a designer solve a problem? He is trying to imagine who and how will work with this design, in what conditions, what a person will pay attention to.
Unfortunately, when receiving a portfolio of designers, it does not always seem that the designer tried to look at the portfolio with the eyes of the company. For example, what is the difference between how an experienced speaker calls his presentation at a conference compared to an inexperienced one? An inexperienced speaker calls his re-presentation, for example, “DUMP, final 17”. Because for him this is really the seventeenth version of the presentation. An experienced speaker calls the presentation his last name or the name of the report, because the section manager will collect the presentations in one place, and he needs to navigate them. And if all of them are called “final 17”, it will be impossible to understand who, where.
Same thing with portfolio. Look at him through the eyes of the person who will check him. Often archives come to me, there are daddies in the archives. The more experienced the designer, the more he has levels of daddies and more daddies at each level. At the root are Web Design, Interfaces, Illustrations, Identity, and Children's Drawings. You go inside, and there everything is laid out over the years. Finding it to the end is simply impossible. It is not comfortable.
How to do? Instead of archiving with folders, put your work on Behans or make your own site. If you do not want to put your portfolio somewhere on the Internet, do a neat pdf. Even the way you designed your work in this pdf will present you as a designer.
In the portfolio, I always want to see the layouts in full scale. I like to look at the details, the devil is in the details. Any design, if it is reduced several times, as a rule, several times becomes prettier. Probably, if you have a portfolio on Behans and you collect orders from employers, then small neat little pictures, they are also called cases, help you find an order. But when another designer evaluates your work, he wants to see full-scale layouts to carefully examine them.
A few words about the cases that are done on Behans. A person draws a design, and then inserts it into the iPhone screen. The iPhone is at that angle, at a different angle. Then comes the macbook on a wooden table, and then the aimak against a background of bricks. Behind this, design is usually not visible. Moreover, the customer may think: “What a beautiful picture,” but another designer understands that these are some kind of free mockups, you just opened the layer in Photoshop and copied the picture.
There are good cases on Behans, for example, JetStyle post their cases, and, in my opinion, this is a good example.
If you made a design and it uses someone's illustration, or you took a free set of icons. This is normal, this happens in the work, this does not need to be shy. The situation is worse when you did it all, took it somewhere on the Internet, made your own design with it, and then signed it only with your name. Now this is not entirely honest.
At the interviews, I ask: "Have you painted these icons?" At this moment, the person has a fork: lie or tell the truth. It’s better, of course, to always tell the truth. At this moment, the impression of a person spoils a little. A man signed the work with his name, and then it turns out that he downloaded the icons somewhere, copied the illustrations, and so on.
It is always better to indicate honestly: I took three icons, finalized, added a few of my own. There is nothing to worry about, it, on the contrary, will show you a professional - you are not shy to indicate any sources of artifacts in your design.
Test
Rushana. The test must be taken and done. If you are not the coolest designer that every recruiter and every art director knows, then most likely you will not be hired without a test.
Sergei. The test should show how you approach the solution of the problem. During the test, you will not have time to do something super cool, but you must show how you think, what you pay attention to.
Rushana.When you agree to take a test, the timing is always discussed. Someone immediately says you have a week, someone asks how much you will do. This is a very tricky question. Closer to the date that you called, I begin to contact the candidate and ask how the test is, are there any questions? The statistics are very poor. Of the 10 people I give the test to, 5 people go missing on about the third day, 2 more go missing on day X. Of the three remaining, at best they will arrive on time, the rest will say that the cat is sick and they do not have time to the deadline.
If you took a test and it seems to you that it is kind of dumb, or you accepted another offer, it’s better to just tell the recruiter honestly.
By the way you approach the test, many employers judge how you will relate to their future deadlines.
Sergei. I’ll be a little bit the devil’s lawyer. Why does the designer merge the test?
When a designer is asked when he will do a test, the designer understands that here she is, the verification has begun. “You can’t call a long term because they will think that I’m a brake. It’s necessary to immediately show that I’m a cool designer, I’m doing it quickly and cool. ” The designer calls some very optimistic term. When the time is right, the designer looks at the test and understands that it is not perfect. And this is true because it is not perfect. He begins to complex, and in the best case, he is postponing the deadline (my cat got sick), and in the worst case, he is afraid to postpone the term, thinks he has flipped it, and it’s better not to come at all, not to admit it, because he’s ashamed. The designer thinks: “If I quietly disappear somewhere, then no one will even pay attention.”
This is actually not the case. My advice on how to behave so as not to fall into this situation. First, do not call too short. If you work, then for a task that can be done in one working day, you are not ashamed to take a week, because you will solve it in the evenings. This is normal.
Secondly, when you look at the results of your test and see that it is not perfect, this is also normal, because the test should not be ideal. The test should not show some ready-made design, it should show how you think, how you approach the solution of the problem. The test should hint at how you will do the task if you have a real normal deadline.
Thirdly, if you do not have time, honestly say that you need a few more days. In work, this happens, the dates have to be postponed. If you postpone the deadline, but then do well, no one will even remember about it.
Sergei. I want to say a few words about the explanations for the test. Sometimes an explanatory note is sent along with the picture. This note can go up to several A4 sheets.
If the designer has made a good design, he does not need an explanatory note. If the design is bad, then the explanatory note will not save him. The design should be clear without explanation, users will perceive it that way.
Here you can compare the explanations for the test with the context-sensitive help by the user manual. Previously, the programs had a user manual that opened separately. If you had a problem, it was necessary to find again in this hierarchy the screen with which you had a problem, and there to understand something. This does not work. Users do not want to read this whole Talmud. Users want to solve their problem.
If you know that at this point the user may have a problem with some field, you can put a question there, when you click on it, a short comment will open, which will explain what needs to be done in this case. The same can be done with the test. Do not write a long explanatory note, place a few comments in the fields that will show some additional work that you have done, solving a problem that is not visible on the layout.
If such comments are next to the layout, then the look itself is drawn to them to read them. And long explanations of several pages are rarely read.
Rushana.If you think that your work was not appreciated, did not understand, ask a question. If you take a test and understand that some point is not clear, you need more data, more input, do not hesitate to ask immediately. Or later you can write to the recruiter or art director who gave the test. Perhaps these questions are expected from you. I know at least two teams that say: “Mmm, he did a test, in general, well, but did not ask a single question, it suggests.”
If something is not clear, be sure to ask.
If you are told: “As you want, so do it”, then when surrendering, indicate in your short comments your thoughts that led to this decision.
If you were told that the test was not done very well, go and ask why. Few employers and recruiters like to answer these questions, but if you write a good humane letter, such as “I understand that my test is not perfect, but I want to understand where I made a mistake. Please tell me ”, most likely, they will answer you.
Sergei. We in Kontur decided to give feedback on each test made.
Job interview
Rushana. The main task at the interview is to compare expectation and reality. Interviewing is always a two-way process. Not only the team is looking for a new person for the project, but you are also looking for someone with whom to develop further. The result is 50% up to you, 50% from the employer.
Sergei. I believe that at the interview the most important thing is to be as natural as possible, as you will be at work later. Well, you should expect that the employer will be just as sincere. Then, if you like each other, you won’t be disappointed in a few months, when it turns out that everything is actually wrong, because at the interview you were unnatural.
Rushana.If you do not go to an agent recruiter, but to the company you want to get a job with, read about it. Unfortunately, this is often found: - “What do you know about the company?” “Nothing.” The company probably has a website, this will be enough.
Questions from the slide are at almost all interviews. If you don't get interviews very often or feel excited, rehearse the answers at home. At the interview it will be much easier and calmer to answer.
Learn to talk about what tasks you worked on, what part of the work you did, in what form the tasks came to you, from whom, they wrote detailed specifications or was it a short statement “make the icons cool”. Be able to answer these questions.
There will also be questions about your independence. Did you evaluate your work yourself or did you have a team that accepted - did not accept?
This is again about the attitude towards future deadlines. An employer may take it this way: if you are late, then you will probably be late for deadlines.
Sergei.I really like when a designer asks for an interview. This tells me that a person does not care where he wants to come to work. If the designer asks a lot of questions and these questions are not about the beginning of the working day, not about the white salary, but something related to professional activity, I will answer them with pleasure. And this gives me confidence that if then the candidate chooses our company, then he most likely will not disappoint in us, because he really chose a company that suits him.
Rushana already said that the interview is a mutual process. Not only do you choose, but you choose. And the more experienced designers you become, the more the scales will shift in your direction.
Rushana.I often ask designers at the interview: “What would you like to do?” And I’m talking about two great ways for a designer. Surely you know the pros and cons of each.
If you want more different projects, different audiences, different tools, and plus or minus a large community of designers around you, then this is an agent story.
If you don’t like when audiences, projects, products change, you want to dive into the same product as deep as possible, you want to study your target audience as deeply and thoroughly as possible and try to reach it in different ways, then you need to go to a food company.
Sit, think, answer this question for yourself, and then it will become clear to you which company to go for an interview with, and with whom you should wait a while.
Absolutely normal story, when “I worked in the studio for 5 years, got tired and now I want to work on the product”, and vice versa.
There are no bad and good candidates, there are no bad and good employers, there are more suitable and less suitable ones. And this is an axiom. And if someone told you “No”, then this is simply not your company.
Sergei. Regardless of which company you choose, an agency or a food company, choose a company in which you want to work for a year, and preferably three years. And remember that the employer only pays you money, and you spend part of your life on it. It is very important.
I want to end with the phrase that I say at the interview closer to the end: "Now ask for something from us."
I have a question about portfolio. What do you think should be the portfolio of a product designer who doesn’t do any wow things in the company that cannot be put on Behans, he just makes a tool. Gray, boring, tables, all that. What should he put in his portfolio? How to evaluate such a person? What is expected of him?
It seems to me that the product designer should focus not on beautiful pictures, but on cases. Description of the problem, how he solved it and, most importantly, what result was achieved by this design. Designers in agencies, as a rule, made a design and forgot. The product designer knows how he worked, what was the conversion, and so on. This is a strong place for grocery designers, you need to use it.
For example, there is some design candidate for the team. Sometimes it’s dumb to give a test, because an experienced person, a lot of work, you heard about him. In this case, is it still useful to give a test or not?
If I look at the portfolio and understand that it is he, the same one, I can put pressure on the employer and ask not to give a test with the words: “He is cool. If you give the test now, you will lose it. ”
What valuable information will the recruiter get from the one with whom the designer did this work? What difference does it make: with an analyst, marketer, director, other designer? What conclusions from this will be?
Conclusions on how to formulate tasks. For example, the tasks from the analyst will be formulated, most likely, in the form of a rather detailed specification. If from the art director, they probably sat together, thought, stormed, and came up with. I think so.
I am wondering how the HR filter works. Let's say they sent 50 resumes. They have good portfolios and good descriptions.
This is a perfect world! 50 resumes with a good portfolio and good descriptions do not exist in Yekaterinburg.
Abstract situation :) Will all resumes go to the head or will there be some kind of filter?
If it seems to me that the work was done very untidy, “back off”, did not think about the person who will be watching, then most likely I will write that we have a slightly different view of the vacancy.
If I doubt the portfolio, then I just come up and torment the art director.
There are not many good specialists on the market, so “I won’t show it” - there isn’t such a thing. I’m rather a person who I doubt more, I’ll go and show. “Maybe he still has the opportunity to fix the jambs in the next two months in your team, and then fig at your desired level?”
What do you think about the resume being tailored to each company? What is your attitude to such resumes?
I believe that, at a minimum, a person is not lazy, he is confused, he is motivated and he wants to. There is such tedious advice from recruiters: do a separate resume for each company in which you want to work. Of course, no one does this, because we don’t have so much time in a day, but, in general, the advice is not bad.
If you haven’t decided yet, you want to go to a studio or a product, you don’t know which studio to choose from among the three, it’s normal if you write a cover letter and adjust your resume in the “do not lie” conditions for each of the vacancies. This, on the contrary, will show what you really want.
It is clear that the designer shows beautiful pictures, and what should the interface designer show you to say that he is well done?
It seems to me that the question is very close to the question of what to show to product designers. They do not wrap, they do what is under the wrap. If you did not make vivid pictures, but prototypes of interfaces, and you come to a company that needs a designer, they will see in your dim pictures whether they are well made or poorly made. There is no need to complex and especially for the portfolio to draw something bright, although you did not do it.
If your strengths are user-friendly interfaces, well-thought-out logic, make it visible in your portfolio.
This year, the DUMP conference will be held April 19 in Yekaterinburg. Traditionally there will be a section about design. This year's program: Grigory Savenok (MegaFon), Alyona Kirdina (Evil Martians), Sergey Krivoy and Maxim Sovenkov (SEMrush), Alexandra Rudenko (Service Design Bureau), Daria Prokuda (BeaversBrothers), Vyacheslav Kornilov (Geex Arts). The full program is on the conference website .