Your Resume and Portfolio Are Design Projects
As a hiring manager, I review a lot of UX Designer resumes. They run the gamut from plain and lifeless to I’m a DeSiGnEr!
If you want to be noticed, treat your resume and portfolio like a UX design project by understanding and crafting artifacts tailored to your audience. And don’t forget there are multiple personae1 you need to consider: the applicant tracking system with its automated filters, the recruiter who checks off qualifications, the hiring manager who focuses on the impact you’ll have, and the technical interview panel that cares what you bring to the team.
The hiring manager is the person who sorts the “good enough” resumes from those that actually get interviews. The resumes that get interviews:
- Show impact, not tasks. This is basic resume advice but it’s even more important for designers because it demonstrates an understanding of the users, stakeholders, and project objectives. Anyone can learn Figma; emphasize user empathy and judgment.
- Sweat the details. Correct spelling. Consistent fonts, spacing, and date formats. Properly hyperlinked URLs, even for phone numbers. Parallel grammar across bullets. A filename that is meaningful, not resume_v4_FINAL_real.pdf.
- Are easy to read. Logical hierarchy; whitespace, alignment, font, and type size that make the page scannable in seconds.
- Use design elements sparingly and effectively. Every design element needs to earn its place and contribute to the above.
Notice that none of those points emphasize visual design. A Designer understands the purpose of the resume and designs to meet that need. Form follows function. Let the portfolio show off your visual design skills.
A “creative” resume is a bad resume
I am sure there are exceptions, but I have never personally seen one.
Trends that need to die:
- Infographic-style resumes
- Skill bars and radar charts2
- Headshots (shouldn’t be front-and-center on your portfolio, either; on an “about” page, maybe)
- Multi-column layout (these can work, but more often are just a poor use of space; automated systems often struggle with them)
Your resume is not a work sample, a memoir, or a biography; it’s an abstract to convince me that I want to look at your portfolio and interview you. If you misunderstand that purpose, it suggests that you don’t have the right judgment for my projects.
I’m not suggesting your resume should use an off-the-shelf template with Calibri and a horizontal rule. You’re a designer, and a resume that shows no craft at all is its own kind of signal.
But the craft that belongs here is the invisible kind. Typographic hierarchy that makes scanning effortless. Enough whitespace that the eye knows where to rest. Consistent alignment. Readable with appropriate contrast and font size. Design elements, if any, that strengthen and don’t distract. Restraint under constraint is the demonstration.
A note on page count
I prefer one page. Condensing information to maximize impact is part of the job. Especially in my industry, where we never have the time and resources we would like, smart prioritization is critical. A one-page resume shows me a great deal:
- What you think is most important about your background
- That you can write to maximize impact
- That you understand the audience and how the document will be used
A resume with two pages puts the prioritization on the reader, and they don’t care about it like you do. The first 15-second skim is critical; you want to control what the reader focuses on in that 15 seconds. If it doesn’t speak to your key qualifications for the job, cut it.
(It should go without saying that this doesn’t apply where there is a prescribed format or where a formal CV is expected.)
Your portfolio is more than a visual design demonstration
A UX portfolio is different from a graphic design portfolio. UX design should focus on solving problems for the user. UX designers often have superb graphic design skills and they show those off in hi-fi designs and sometimes in a separate graphic design section of their portfolio. I love to see that.
But know that I am evaluating your UX chops. The final design is not quite as important as how you got there. A common pitfall is listing your role on the project, then walking through the process linearly: the brief, the personae, the wireframe, the design system, the user testing, the finished product.
UX design is not linear; it’s iterative and sometimes messy. That’s what I want to see!
Show me the reasoning. What did you believe going in that turned out to be wrong? What did research tell you that you didn’t want to hear? What did you have to give up when the schedule moved, and how did you decide what to protect? Which of the three options did the stakeholders pick, and what did you do when it was the one you argued against? The final screens are the evidence that you finished; the reasoning is the evidence that you can take on complex and challenging problems. I’ll take a messy project with a good story about what you learned from it over a polished project any day.
A common issue in my industry is that work is not sharable. I understand that entirely; after all, I don’t want my team to disclose information they’re not supposed to. Mention the limitation on sharing and describe the problem at a level you’re permitted to.
Three deep case studies beat twelve thumbnails. Much like the resume, quality over quantity.
Put the outcome somewhere I can find it. If there wasn’t one—the project was canceled or the outcome didn’t fit the need—say that too. Designers who can talk about work that didn’t pan out are usually the ones who learned something from it.
Be prepared to talk about your portfolio pieces in a thoughtful way.
Final thoughts
Treat your resume and portfolio like any other project: Start with an understanding of the stakeholders and their needs. Four different user types (ATS, recruiter, hiring manager, interview panel) with radically different needs evaluating one artifact. That’s a real design problem. Tell the story they need to hear.
What’s the most memorable resume you’ve seen—and did it get the person the job? What common resume advice is wrong or outdated? Any recommendations you’d add to my list?