057: Interviewing Like a Boss with Andy Vitale

User Defenders podcast
Land a Job in UX
057: Interviewing Like a Boss with Andy Vitale
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Andy Vitale teaches us all about how to interview for our next UX job like a boss. He emphasizes the importance of avoiding jargon, and at all costs the temptation to conflate confidence with arrogance. He reminds us to be prepared to get way out of our comfort zones, and even offers smart techniques on how to cope with the discomfort in those critical moments. He also points out that pay isn’t everything, and that a fantastic work culture can make all the difference.

Andy Vitale is the UX Director of Wholesale Banking at SunTrust Bank, one of the nation’s largest financial services companies, where his focus is on translating human insights into actionable experiences to improve the product and service ecosystem within the finance industry. Throughout his career, he has held multiple roles as a designer, entrepreneur, education department chair, and design leader. Aside from his primary role at SunTrust, Andy serves as Director of Design Impact for AIGA Minnesota and often speaks and writes about design. Not-so-fun fact: He was working at a company that suffered the first anthrax attack in the United States back in 2001.

  • The Importance of Soft Skills (4:55)
  • Calming Your Nerves (17:08)
  • The Importance of Body Language (22:18)
  • What Do You Love About Interviewing? (36:15)
  • What Do You Hate About Interviewing? (38:21)
  • How Much Should I Be Paid? (41:13)
  • Discussing Salary During an Interview (47:06)
  • Favorite Last Interview Questions (51:07)
  • Whiteboard Exercise Preparation (54:58)
  • How to Tell If a Company Understands UX (60:29)
  • Words of Encouragement (63:47)

Continue reading 057: Interviewing Like a Boss with Andy Vitale

056: Building an Effective UX Portfolio with Sarah Doody

User Defenders podcast
Land a Job in UX
056: Building an Effective UX Portfolio with Sarah Doody
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Sarah Doody challenges us to think of our portfolio as one of the most important products we’ll ever create. She urges us to not only communicate our contributions, but to both show and tell the story of each project. In the end, she teaches us that using the right process is more than just about landing our next UX job–it will also make us better designers.

Sarah Doody is a user experience designer and product strategist based in New York City. She helps product teams create products people need and love. She does this through smart and fast research, prototyping, and experience design. She produces a highly acclaimed weekly newsletter called the UX Notebook. She created and taught General Assembly’s first 12-week User Experience program back in 2011. She was originally going to be a neuroscientist.

  • Ideal Number of Projects (4:07)
  • Lead with the Best Project (5:40)
  • Alternate Portfolios (7:13)
  • What a Recruiter Is Looking For Most (13:03)
  • Proving Your Knowledge (15:52)
  • What Does Storytelling Mean? (23:47)
  • Edit Your Work (29:48)
  • Do You Need a Website? (39:44)
  • Build a Portfolio Quickly (49:36)
  • The UX Academy (54:09)
  • Best Advice (56:31)

Continue reading 056: Building an Effective UX Portfolio with Sarah Doody