UX designer jobs: where and how to find them

UX design is a growing industry, with people flocking over to learn their way around a UX design tool in the hopes of becoming a UX designer. But, where do UX designers look for new job opportunities? How can they prepare for an interview? How do UI designers prepare their resume?

Let’s go over some crucial questions for new-comers: the dance of searching and finding your next gig. We know it’s not easy, especially in the beginning. However, if you look in the right places and learn to spot red flags when you see them – you’ll land the right UX design job for you! Looking for information on UI design jobs? We got that too.

Dribbble is a huge name in the UX design community. The social media is super active, with many designers using it for their portfolio. However, not everyone may be aware that it has a UX job board that is also very active, with fresh listings every day. Aside from being enjoyable as a social media, Dribbble can also help you find a UI design job.

The website divides the listings into either full-time or contract. It’s true that it also has plenty of freelance listings, which is only accessible for PRO users. The available design job listings include remote work, but are mostly focused on US-based jobs, both for UI design and UX.

Another huge social media in the UX design community. Behance was one of the very first websites to connect designers to employers, helping people display their UX-UI work. Today, they appear to have even more listings than Dribbble in general.

With that said, these UI design job listings tend to focus on international opportunities, from Latin American to Australia – making this a great option for any designer based outside of the US. Even better news is the fact that Behance also separates listings from full-time to contract, but requires no extra cost at all for freelance listings.

This UX design job board is very interesting, because it offers listings that are very diverse in the realm of UX. If you’re looking for a UI design job, UX researcher or even Art Director opportunity, this could be the platform for you. At the time of writing, IxDA had 300 UX job listings, making this a great place to check once or twice a week for new opportunities.

It is worth mentioning that while IxDA has a large number of total listings, the vast majority are for US-based UX jobs. A few of them are international opportunities with some also offering remote openings, with plenty of UI design jobs in the mix too.

This is a favorite among the US-based design community. UX jobs board has been around for long enough to make a name for itself, offering all sorts of UX design job listings. Although the majority of the listings are in the United States, there’s plenty of remote opportunities too.

This job board is a good resource for designers, because it includes opportunities in startups as well as huge names like Facebook and Starbucks. It includes UX design jobs but also product management, graphic design and development listings as well as UI design jobs. It’s definitely worth a look!

As you might guess from the name, this UX design job board is all about remote work. Created by a digital nomad, RemoteOK is one of the best options around when it comes to remote work. With plenty of design opportunities that range from researchers, writers, product managers and engineers to UI designers.

Even more interesting is that the website covers other industries, including marketing and customer support – making it a worthy recommendation to friends. Also worth noting is that it dedicates an entire category to development opportunities.

Ideate Labs has the kind of UI design that might be hard on the eyes after an extended period of time due to the small font – but it’s still a wonderful UX design job board. It focuses on those of us who are just coming into the UX industry, with 0-2 years of experience.

We love the concept. It’s no secret that it’s hard to get your foot in the door, especially for those of us making the leap into UX from other sectors. Ideate Labs offers all sorts of UX internships, with the main bulk being US-based. It’s also a worthy platform for remote listings.

This is another UX design job board that can be a little visually heavy after a while because of the bright colors. With that said, Design jobs board has been around for a long while and has built a solid base for itself, both for UX and UI design jobs.

The job board has plenty of remote UX listings, including remote UX jobs. In fact, we’d say that the two most common types of listings are for remote work and UK-based opportunities. The nature of the listings include everything from classic UX designers to researchers, marketers and managers as well as developers.

Remotive is another wonderful UX design job board for those who are looking to be remote UX designers. The website has an impressive quantity of listings (over 2000 at the time of writing), with a healthy portion being based outside of the US. Plenty of these listings are for UI design jobs, as well as UX.

Remotive is a good option for UX designers, researchers, consultants, developers and managers. We love that the website offers a neat feature where you can click on the checkbox and hide all US-based listings – very handy for those of us located around the globe. Listings tend to come from smaller companies and startups, with the occasional big name such as Atlassian.

AngelList is a wonderful UX design job board. It focuses on opportunities in startups, making this a great option for those looking to grow quickly in the company. With that said, you can also find the occasional big player such as Twitch or Yelp.

The website offers all sorts of UX jobs, from UX designers, researchers, managers, marketers and developers. It also brings a great deal of listings for remote UX design jobs to the table, with a very impressive number of developers and engineering remote listings. A healthy portion of the listings are also about UI design jobs.

Even though the number of total open UX design job listings on Interns.Design might seem small compared to some of the other job boards on this list, it’s still worth mentioning. Interns.Design focuses on those with very limited experience, making it a great option for those seeking internships.

It’s true that most of the listings are for US-based UX interns, but there’s also a healthy portion of listings for remote work.

Finding the right job listing can be hard work. We get it. The world of UX design is very big and wide, with plenty of room for all sorts of confusing titles and strange requirements. In the end, how can we focus on the listings that matter? What are some typical red flags that UX designers ought to avoid?

Let’s start off by saying that when you’re dealing with an individual company, it’s very possible that the employer doesn’t fully understand UX design and what the designer role is. They know it’s important and are willing to invest into it, but lack the specific knowledge. The result is that many just list out every possible UX-related task out there, which can be confusing. Other times, unrealistic requirements are listed or strange details are provided.

A typical red flag for many designers is the focus on social media platforms, like Dribbble or Behance. That is not to say that these kind of digital portfolios aren’t important, but they don’t represent everything UX is. Yes, UX involves making beautiful interfaces but it’s also about problem-solving, using empathy, applying business tactics and using data. These are things that can’t be captured on Dribbble and are far more important than pretty visuals.

Another common red flag is who the UX department or designer reports to. This, while disturbing to some designers, can also be described as a matter of preference. Some designers are wary of reporting to marketing directors or head developers, while others are open to the idea.

This will most likely determine the real focus of the UX design being done, with things like hardcore marketing conditioning the design decisions. To some, this represents an obstacle to their work and creates friction in their day-to-day lives. This can be even more true for UI design job listings, which are even more often misundertood than UX jobs.

Ultimately, everything will depend on what you want. Many of the red flags seen on UX design listings are also classic red flags that everyone, designer or not, ought to steer clear from. Things like lack of diversity in the company, unrealistic salaries, excessive requirements and absurd tasks are common everywhere and are easily spotted.

When it comes to UX design listings’ red flags, it will depend on what you’re ready to accept, how you envision your work and how willing to adapt you are. Some companies, especially the small ones, need a UX designer that simply handles everything UX-related. Others have entire teams dedicated to UX, including writers, researchers, engineers and several designers.

When looking for a new step in your UX career, it’s important to know what you can do and what you’re not willing to do. It’s your own preferences that will dictate what a red flag truly looks like. Are you ok with having to work for someone who doesn’t understand UX design? Are you willing to work as a designer but also act as a researcher? This is the perfect moment to take some time and define what you want and what you most certainly don’t.

Yes, this may seem counterintuitive at first, but bear with us. Your UX designer resume will be going out to someone who, more likely than not, will be tired and not looking for a memorable visual experience. They’re looking for a UX designer.

This means it’s safest to avoid bright colours and bold shapes, as well as innovative layouts. Turns out, there is such a thing as a resume that is too creative. You want your design resume to feel like a calm and straightforward conversion with someone, which is why you want the content to be the main star. Anything that might distract the reader from what is written can be generally considered a no-go.

Precisely because you want the written content to shine, it’s imperative that you say things the right way. You gotta find the right words and introduce yourself in the best possible light. While this includes avoiding the world-shattering grammar error, it also includes thinking about what you’re writing and how the recruiter will interpret it.

In theory, this means that you want to showcase your style of communication and keep things objective and brief. In practice, this showcases a few crucial factors you want to consider when writing your UX design job resume:

• Say things clearly with well-planned sentences. You want to share how you did things, as opposed to dry sentences like “I created the navigation system”. How did you do it? What did it take? Why did it matter to you?
• Prioritize the readability of the whole resume. No long bulky paragraphs, no confusing layouts. You want the recruiter to know what they are looking at immediately, you want a clear visual hierarchy.
• Try to reflect your communication style. Are you casual and funny or are you to-the-point? Even in efficient design resumes, you can still try to reflect your personality as opposed to only your technical talents.

We understand that when job-hunting, no one has time to create a new resume for each listing they apply for. However, there’s always one listing that seems particularly interesting – the one that really seems like the perfect fit. Those golden opportunities are worth taking the time and effort to adapt your resume, making your one shot count. This is true for anyone looking for a job, no matter the industry.

Mind you, this is not us telling you to lie on your UX design CV. However, when you present yourself, you may want to shift the focus a bit and highlight a different part of who you are. Showcase the right skills for that job. The same goes for a UI design job – the focus of your experience may change, highlighting a different set of skills for that job.

Perhaps you want to change your achievements from focusing on graphic design to something more data-oriented – like that one time you carried out user testing or research. Perhaps you want to let them know that in your previous job, you also used the Agile workflow, letting them know you’d fit in quickly and smoothly.

These little details matter in your UX design resume. They’re clues to who you are, the things you can do and what you know. It’s always a great idea to tailor these details for that golden listing that had you daydreaming. The exact same goes for a UI design resume.

UX design is an industry that attracts all sorts of people. It’s young, it’s diverse and growing fast, with demand for a wide variety of people and skills. It’s common to have UX designers who made the leap into UX from other sectors that are completely unrelated, like Finance or Medicine. It’s common to have people that learned things by experience and not in a classroom.

Recruiters know this is true, which is why showcasing your experience is crucial. Even if you think your previous career had nothing to do with UX, you can still showcase useful skills that you obtained. An obviously attractive background in UX design is psychology, making it a silly and easy example of non-design background that adds value to a candidate.

The same goes for designers who have been in the game for a while. Trying to communicate your experience as a professional can be tough but trust us – it’s imperative. You want to share more than just what tasks you used to do. You want to show the recruiter what you accomplished, what it took, what it taught you and why it matters. This may sound like a lot to ask, but with a little time and effort you’ll be able to find the words.

These are two different ways in which you can share your work. Remember we said a strictly visual portfolio failed to showcase all the different faces of UX design? The marriage of a portfolio and case studies is how you show your visual skills as well as your thinking, the situations you’ve overcome and how you approach problems.

Conversational UI for Cortana.

In broad strokes, you want the case studies to be easy to read and ought to prioritize the readability much like you did in the resume. Keep things simple and to the point, starting with your strongest project. Remember to share the most important aspects of that case study, those that say something about you as a designer. Here are some possible things to include in your case studies:

• What factors made the project challenging
• How you overcame these difficulties
• What your reasoning and thinking process was
• What you learned from that project that you apply to your work now
• What impact your work had

We had a UX talk with folks over at Linkedin about what makes a great UX portfolio. We got together with a Design Manager and a Senior Design Manager at Linkedin to discuss how designers can best showcase their work, what platforms work best and how to write the perfect resume. You can find it on Linkedin: How to create the perfect UX portfolio.

This is a true recruitment classic, both for UX and everything else in the world. It’s no secret that this question is not really about giving your life story, but showing why you are where you are. In this, they want to know what drove you to the world of UX design. Why did you choose to pursue this career? What is the passion that drives you?

This is a great opportunity to share why UX design is important to you, how you got to where you are and where you’d like to go from here. This is about showcasing your journey, including the big events that led you down the UX design path. These events had an impact on you – what was that impact? What does your journey say about you and your goals?

This is another classic. Yes, this is one of the ways in which recruiters can be sure that you understand UX design, both in theory and in practice. This is a good opportunity for you to give them, in broad strokes, what the general UX process is and make it clear you know what you’re talking about. With that said, there’s another important factor in this question.

This is the moment for you to share your thinking process and how you approach problems. Creativity can take many forms in UX design and problem-solving is a prized skill and you ought to show off. When faced with a problem, what do you do? What happens when there are unforeseen challenges in a project?

It’s important for you to let them know that you’re not easily overwhelmed by obstacles, that you face problems calmly and efficiently. Even though they’re asking about the design process, it’s your thinking process that they really want to know about.

This question can easily be thrown around in interviews, slightly adapted from Design thinking to other important frameworks that the employer uses. This question could be about Lean UX or Agile or any other way in which the design team organises their work.

Really, what the recruiter wants to know is how well you’d fit into their current workflow. Do you have any experience working with that method? What do you think about it? It’s ok to have your own critical opinion, so long as you have logical arguments that back it up. Not everyone enjoys an Agile workflow, but your reasons have to be solid. Did you find it limiting in some way? Is there some type of way in the framework negatively or positively impacted your work?

This is the time to share your own personal experiences with these frameworks. When was the last time you used a Lean methodology in your work? And if you’ve never experienced it, how do you imagine it’d be? Try to dig deep into yourself and see what feelings these frameworks bring to the surface.

It’s no secret that UX design is a team sport. There’s no way around it. Even if the entire UX department is made up of a single UX designer, there’s still the need to work closely with people to get things right. Be it the managerial team, test users or the engineering department, you’re likely to need to work with many others in order to progress in the project.

This is a wonderful time for you to try and pass on what your brand of communication is. Do you find working with many people to be challenging? Are these challenges due to the people or the need to keep tasks organised with a large team? It’s fine to give an honest opinion here, after all you want to find a place where you’re a good fit.

Another good point to make with this question is how well you communicate design concepts to people who aren’t designers. Precisely because you’ll likely have to work with marketers, engineers and business analysts, it’s important that you can find ways to make them understand the design decisions made.

Making people understand why a user persona is important, why further testing is needed and why a certain layout could be improved can be tough. It doesn’t come naturally to some of us, but it’s important to make an effort and let the recruiters know you don’t have an issue working with a team that may need you to explain even the most basic UX-related things.

This question can come in many shapes and forms. This is about the recruiter wanting to know even more about your experience, in your own words. They can ask about the best project, your favorite or the worst and most difficult project you’ve ever worked on.

Truly, they want to understand your reasoning as to why that project was the best or the worst. Maybe for you the best project was, in fact, the most challenging. Maybe these issues forced you to find creative ways to approach these problems, creating a design that truly seems innovative. Maybe the best project was the one with the most impact for that business, marketing a before and after in your entire career.

This is the time to share the very things that make a project exciting for you, what motivates you and gives you drive.

Finding the right UX design job ain’t easy. More and more people are discovering the industry, attracted by the creative freedom and continued growth of the sector. However, with the right preparation and the right job boards, you’ll find the right opportunity for you!