Career Advice Archives » Engineering For Humans

Your Resume and Portfolio Are Design Projects

Benjamin Schwartz Jul 19, 2026

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 personae 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. Of those, the …

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What makes a good human factors engineer? Five critical skills

Benjamin Schwartz Feb 24, 2024

Recently, the head of a college human factors program asked for my perspective on the human factors and user experience skills valued in industry. Here are five critical qualities that emerged from our discussion, in no particular order:

College interviewing tips

Benjamin Schwartz Oct 29, 2022

I recently offered a mock interview to a high school student to help them practice and I realized I had a lot of advice to help students with the process. I searched online to see what advice was already out there and was pretty disappointed, so I decided to compile my own list.

“Diversity of thought” is the “all lives matter” of corporate inclusion efforts

Benjamin Schwartz Jun 9, 2021

Diversity and inclusion means making sure that teams are actually diverse, across a range of visible and not-visible features. Why does that matter?

Learn from the mistakes of others

Benjamin Schwartz Sep 16, 2020

he problem with being too busy to read is that you learn by experience… i.e. the hard way. By reading, you learn through others’ experiences, generally a better way to do business…
General James Mattis

Board man gets paid

Benjamin Schwartz Mar 22, 2020

Pro basketball player Kawhi Leonard found his niche as “The Board Man”. What’s your niche?

Thoughts on “A Message to Garcia”

Benjamin Schwartz Jun 17, 2019

“A Message to Garcia” is a brief essay on the value of initiative and hard work written by Elbert Hubbard in 1898. It is often assigned in leadership courses, particularly in the military. There are a number of interpretations and potential lessons to be extracted from this story. It’s important that developing leaders find the valuable ideas.

Why you should use a writing coach (even if you’re already a good writer)

Benjamin Schwartz Jan 13, 2019

The university writing center is an undervalued resource. Most students, especially those in technical fields, don’t bother to use it because they get decent grades on their own. Don’t make the same mistake as your fellow students! Using a coach can save you time and stress while improving your writing skills. It’s free!

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