Category: Blog

Only 30 seconds to reject your portfolio?

Common mistakes designers should avoid to make the first cut in UX hiring I didn’t make that number up. I was probably too generous, it’s even lower. Some sources suggest that recruiters and hiring managers spend around six seconds reviewing job applications from candidates. After hours you invested in writing and polishing your case studies,… Continue reading Only 30 seconds to reject your portfolio?

90% of designers are unhirable?

By “linear design process” I mean cookie-cutter case studies that always read the same. The designer learned about a problem, conducted user interviews, created user personas, proceeded to sketches, then mockups and wireframes, made everything beautiful through visual design, created a prototype, and tested it with five users. Everything was perfect so they also created a design system which is not a design system but a style guide. But they call it a “design system” because it’s trendy and a keyword for the recruiters. 

2023 year in review

I’ve been thinking “This is probably the hardest year in my life so far” for a couple of years in a row now. Something happens every year to make it harder than the one before. This year was no different.

4 important questions you need to ask in UX design job interviews

Try to put yourself in my shoes. I discussed a project that I’m passionate about and shared my thoughts and asked questions trying to find out if a collaboration with you makes sense. I was trying to see if you’re as passionate as I am, but so far, I failed to recognise that passion despite your answers being generally good.

How I increased my salary by 500% in my design career

I still think of that moment as the key moment of my career. I didn’t start that job without any experience. I had freelanced for years before that. But I was told that I needed to get a degree and a proper job so that I’ll earn enough money. So I got a degree in economics because there’s no design course at any of the Slovenian universities, and got that high-paying job at the bank. It was a ”proper” job that everyone kept telling me I needed. It wasn’t really a design job either, I was a business process manager. I basically designed software solutions for business processes which is basically what UX designers do.

How to evaluate the UX maturity of a company

I was presented with this opportunity in the summer of 2015. Until that point, I had spent two years living in Germany and working for an early-stage startup in Luxembourg. It was the job that I moved abroad for. Now, I finally had the chance to move to London and kickstart my UX design career there. Or so I thought. The gut feeling that I ignored was right. I joined the London-based startup which described the role in the contract as just “designer.” I found it odd at first, but then I consoled my self with something like: they probably see designers as generalists, that’s why they didn’t use UX designer or Product designer to describe the role. Being self-taught and having mostly freelance and early-stage startup experience at the time, I had already considered myself as a generalist. So I deluded myself that calling the role just “designer” was actually a good thing.