Struggling to get interviews at companies I actually want to work at.
6d
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6.5 YOE. Looking to make a move from JPMC hopefully for a position that allows me to be full remote. However I’ve been applying for months and can’t even land a call with a recruiter other than the ones that constantly message me on LinkedIn. Have applied and been rejected at the first stage from Stripe, Spotify, Robinhood, Cash App, Twitter, Coinbase…some multiple times, some even with employee referrals. No clue what I’m doing wrong. Do I just not have the right kind of experience? Are they that picky when it comes to past work? Before JPMC I spent time at agencies and an engineering company. Portfolio details an enterprise software and one that’s more consumer focused.
Any advice is appreciated, thanks.
#design #interviews #ui/ux
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Or you are a middle man, running side business of referrals 😆
Might be worth the investment.
Good luck!
When is the last time you've had a professional take a look at your resume?
Also, a doc resume might help instead of a pdf (parsing issues)
2. Recruiters might be looking for a 'dribbble'-ish portfolio, while your work might be comprehensive, balanced and touching upon all aspects of design. Sad truth.
3. If a JD interests you, try customising your resume & portfolio structure according to that particular role.
4. Sometimes JDs are also poorly written and hiring managers have no idea what to expect from a prospective hire. Point #2 starts happening too, in such cases.
5. The hiring partners could be too strongly fixated on what they see visually, instead of seeing the portfolio as just a passive cue for the body of work to start an initial conversation.. in short, a portfolio-agnostic hiring is still distant for many orgs..
6. In the resume, have you accurately called out what roles/responsibilities that you are comfortable in taking up? That could help too.
7. Design teams have become too finicky these days. They are trying to look for 'cool, rebel' folks who 'fit in their tribe'.. some design teams are even calling themselves 'design mafia' these days. So in certain companies, maybe there is an unreasonable cult attitude that sees your profile as ordinary (while your profile is actually damn good in reality)
8. Are you a generalist or a specialist? the opening might want the clear opposite of your shape up.. And again, JDs are poorly written many times and hiring partners have no idea what to look for. Referrals are easier again.
9. Before you apply, examine (through LinkedIn or so)if the prospective design team has somewhat like minded people that you want to work with. Of course, there is only so much you can get from LinkedIn, but that somewhat increases the chances of getting shortlisted if you know you might fit in there. Cold contact them directly if a team really interests you. It's okay if there is no response.
Lastly, if you plan to seek guidance, please avoid ADPlist. There are way too many half baked self proclaimed designers on that platform, who know nothing about design and are giving sub standard career advice and so-callled design mentoring.
Seek help from folks whom YOU really trust and whose credentials you know for sure. ADPlist is a recipe for disaster. Democratising design mentorship does not guarantee quality mentoring. The reality of such a social capital based mentoring platform, is killing the field of design.
Good luck with your job hunt.
Tech doesn't love people from finance and consulting backgrounds typically.
Didn’t see more than 25% of them to completion and iterated on less.
Anyone there for more than a couple of years is sus, can confirm.