Resume UX

Hi Everybody!
Last week I attended a workshop by HCDE/Microsoft on how to create a resume to get a job in User Experience. Here are the main points they covered.

Fundamentals

You have 10 seconds to make an impact. The recruiter is only going to be skimming the resume to quickly understand what your strengths are so they have to be evident. If he finds them and they match the job description, then he will read the resume for content. The key is to make it relevant to the job you want and keep it concise. Also, don’t make assumptions about the recruiter’s knowledge, he might not know what all the acronyms mean! Lastly, remember that if you want to work in UX, your resume must show a good sense of design in terms of font, layout, and color, as well as use good grammar and spelling.

Strategies

Include triggers from job descriptions. Practice this by going through 12 job descriptions and identifying what they are really looking for, sometimes you will have to read between the lines. Then include these things in your resume and see if someone else can find them quickly.

Remember that your resume has two audiences: (1) the recruiter, (2) the hiring manager, who is going to spend more time on it. The recruiter will only spend about 10 seconds on it, and he is going to be focusing on the initial words in each line, so remember to use action words at the beginning of the sentence.

Writing

Remember to put the most important concepts at the beginning of the sentence, and get to the point! Your resume should answer these questions: what are you great at? What could you bring to the team? When describing projects, focus more on the skills you used and developed, not what the project is about. An easy way to measure this is simply to count the number of words you dedicate to describing the project vs. the skills. The latter should have more words! Lastly, remember to include what your contributed to the project and the impact you made.

Design

Put your contact information at the top of the page, this includes name, address, email, phone number, and possibly your degree completion date. Also, typography is very important so use a good font! You can read an article on this topic here. In general, look for a clear, crisp, sans serif font, and try to use the same font throughout the resume. In terms of layout, try to use a good grid and a clear visual hierarchy, pay attention to white space, and try to establish your brand.

Also, try to break up information visually, such as:
Student Web Producer_____________________September ’08 – present
UW Office of Research – Seattle, WA
If you have a “laundry list” of skills put it in a place where it takes up less expensive space, such as at the bottom of the page. It is useful for database search engines, but not very readable for humans. Make sure that your resume can be printed (so make it letter sized) and that if they view it on a computer screen they do not have to zoom.

The HCDE Career fair is on Wednesday, February 23, 2:30pm – 5:30pm in Kane Hall, Walker Ames Room (Room 225). If you have any questions post them as comments in the space below.