Here are 60 common design interview questions. This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, but it will help you get started preparing for your interview.
The suggestions on how to answer those have been compiled after interviews with recruiters and hiring managers.
Questions about you
The goal of these design interview questions is to fins out as much as possible about you as a person and as a designer. Many of these questions will help the employer to see how you would fit into the team and culture.
Contrary to the popular belief, people don’t actually want to hear you talk about yourself. Especially not if you are going to talk about how many cats you have, that you like to cook, go for walks, read magazines, and meet friends for coffee. This is not a social question.
When they say, “Tell me about yourself,” what they really want to know is “Tell me something that will matter to me as I consider you for this job.”
This is an amazing opportunity for you to position yourself as a great candidate. It’s a completely open-ended question, so you can say anything you want.
Think about the job, the job description, and all the research you did before the interview, and put yourself in that hiring manager’s shoes: what is he or she going to be the most impressed by?
Hopefully the answer is because it excites you and it’s something you’re passionate about, so this is your time to shine. Be honest here.
Don’t give answers along the lines of, “I heard you don’t need a degree to be a UX designer,” or, “The salary is great” (while true, it’s not what the interviewer wants to hear).
Instead, think about the aspects of your past experience that you have enjoyed, and how they relate to UX. You kill two birds with one stone:
- Show that you really enjoy certain aspects of UX, so it’s obvious why you transition into the field;
- Address the question about not having any experience in the industry before it gets asked – since you are showing which relevant skills/experience you have acquired.
This is a great opportunity to talk about your passions, but make sure that they are relevant to the position you are applying for. Will those passions make you stand out and support you in your daily work? Or are they just random passions that make your work look like something you do to pay the bills?
Also consider company values and how your passions align with those. Are there any causes the employer supports already, and do you feel strongly about them?
Be honest here – if you are making this stuff based on what you’ve read on the company website, people will pick up on that. You can’t fake passion and authenticity, so be honest. This is not about making things up, this is about connecting the dots for the people asking the question.
For weakness, use an actual weakness that is also a strength in this job. A real weakness that will cause you a problem in other areas of your life but in this particular job will actually make you a better designer. Just please never choose “perfectionism” because it has been used by almost everyone.
For example, saying that you get frustrated with people who don’t work as quickly as you do – it is a real weakness, but it also says that you work fast and are dedicated. For some roles (especially in an agency environment) it could work to your advantage.
For strength, use something that is relevant to the job, but also that will make you stand out from other candidates. Be very specific. Saying “user research” is too general, and other applicants are likely to say something similar. Think about your USP (Unique Selling Proposition), and how it makes you a better designer.
Here the most important thing is not just to list names they may or may not be familiar with, it’s about explaining the “why”. Why are they your heroes? It will tell a lot about you as a designer, and that’s what the interviewer is trying to understand.
You are quite likely to get this question, so it makes sense to prepare a great answer. Don’t just list the products you like, you also need to explain why you like them, and it needs to relate to the type of job you’re applying for.
Consider the following:
- If the job has a big visual (UI) component, you can talk about inspiring visual elements. Not just in terms of how they look, but also how they improve the experience, whether they follow accessibility guidelines, or how intuitive they are.
- If it’s more about research, you can talk about how much research wen (and continues to go) into that product. Do they have NPS built-in? Do they come up with new, great features before you even realise you need them?
What the interviewer is trying to see here is:
- If you’re down to earth. If you brag endlessly about your accomplishment (especially if the achievements aren’t that impressive), the interviewer will think that you’re not the most pleasant person to work with.
- What YOU think is success, and how you associate it with your job and career. If you’re applying for a job as an accountant and your greatest achievement is baking the best cake ever at your office party, you’re not making the cut.
- If you’re success-oriented and if you’ve gone above and beyond in your work. E.g. If your greatest accomplishment is that you were always on time and left work on the dot at 5 pm, you’re not it. That’s not an achievement – that’s a minimum job requirement.
The answer to this needs to be something that directly relates to the job, like being awarded X prize for achievement after being in a position for only 18 months…or being recognised as the ABC…or figuring out a solution for a big hairy problem that the company had been struggling with for a long time.
However tempting it is to talk about something personal, like your kids, this isn’t likely to be a great answer. Remember why you are in the interview: you are selling yourself to get the job. Your answer needs to be relevant to the job, it needs to be a success or an accomplishment of some kind that’s relevant to the interviewer.
What they are asking is, are you going to bail on them in a few months for another job, or are you going to stick around and make their training and investment in you pay off? Is this a stepping stone on your career, or is this a job to pay the bills until you can find a job you really want to do?
Many candidates think that the best answer is some version of: “I see myself in your job!” or, “I want to be in management” because they think it shows ambition. However, often it has an opposite effect. In a smaller company an answer like that could be considered a threat to that person’s job. If they don’t have anywhere to go, they’re not going to let you push them out.
A good way to answer that could be along the lines of “I want to grow and develop my skills,” You can also talk about how you look forward to greater responsibility as you learn more about the company, and that you hope to be ready to do more things.
Here the interviewer is trying to understand who you are, both as a designer and as a person. One thing you don’t want to mention in your answer is “money” – this will raise a lot of red flags.
A great answer strategy is to try to think about some project that you really enjoyed and pinpoint what it is that really motivated you to work on it and do a good job. Talk about the project and what you enjoyed about it, and how it relates to something that you’d be doing in this job.
The interviewer is trying to understand how you approach problems and deal with adversity.
When you’re answering this question, consider the following:
- Be honest. Don’t say something like “I’m a perfectionist, and that makes my life challenging!” – it’s the most annoying answer. Talk about real challenges, not a positive trait that’s masquerading as a challenge.
- Talk only about the challenges that portray you in a good light. Most likely that will be a past challenge, not a current one. But the goal is to show how you’re the right person for the job, so consider how the challenge will make you look to the people in the room.
- Try to match the challenge to something you’re likely to face in your job if you get it. Again, it needs to be relevant to the interviewer, and nothing is more relevant than the job they are advertising for.
Employers ask these questions in job interviews simply because they want to see that you are able to handle a difficult decision or situation. They also want to see what kind of decisions you consider difficult.
Essentially the interviewer is assessing your decision-making skills. When answering these question, give one or two examples of difficult situations you have actually faced at work. Then discuss what decisions you had to make to remedy the situations.
Here the interviewer is simply looking to see what your priorities are and if you can put them into words. Any number of things can be put together to create a great answer to this question including company culture, performance based rewards, teamwork, growth potential etc.
Some of the examples could be:
- Stimulating & challenging work
- Ability to learn and develop new skills
- Achieving measurable results
- Feeling valued and a core part of the team
- Opportunities to grow and progress within the company
- Being part of a positive culture where contributions are appreciated
- Learning from peers and supervisors
- Achieving a healthy work/life balance
While there are many reasons for rejection in different industries, in design it’s most likely going to be around your ideas and solutions. For example, what is stakeholders don’t like the direction you’re proposing? What if the rest of the team doesn’t see the value in your idea?
While it’s tempting to say “I handle rejection very well, I don’t care”, even if it’s true, it’s difficult to believe. Talk about past situations where you had to deal with rejection, how you handled it, and what you have learned from it.
Really great question, but it will go better if you prepare for it in advance. Keep these things in mind:
- You should have a reason behind your decision. All risky decisions should have reasoning behind them, because the situation you are describing should be 100% business related. The risk should not be “will I get in trouble.” The risk should be “Was this the right use of our resources.”
- If the situation did not turn out well, mention the steps you undertook to fix them and/or what you learned from the experience that makes you a better employee.
For this question, the employer is trying to see what do you think are the most important and best qualities. In your answer, try to choose words that are positive, professional, and uncomplicated.
You will want to choose the words that describe your personality, working style and priorities in the very best light; and it can be tempting to choose “trendy” adjectives that will make you stand out from other candidates interviewing for the role.
However, usually it’s better to stick with simple and unpretentious words.
Similarly, try to avoid anything that’s not relevant to the role – your knowledge of sports or being a stamp enthusiast is probably not going to help you. Similarly, please don’t say “perfectionist”, almost every person says it, and nobody really means it.
Designers work with different teams and people all the time, but the environment varies from place to place. Here the interviewer is trying to understand if their environment will help you thrive or be a challenge.
Environment could cover everything from collaboration in general, to noise levels in the office (if it’s open-plan office, it will be noisy. Also agencies tend to play music on speakers), to how fast-paced work is (if someone asks you a a question, do you have time to consider your response before you get back to them, or are you expected to answer on the spot?), etc.
Be honest here – you may need to adapt some of your processes, but the business needs to be willing to meet some of your requirements to do your best work. For example, if the environment is quite noisy, and you need quiet to really think about solutions, then perhaps you could alternate: be part of their existing environment for collaboration, but also have an opportunity to think and solve problems in quiet spaces.
Credential Questions
Also known as resume verification questions. The purpose is to objectively verify the credentials presented in your background.
Design never happens in isolation, and you will be working with people and teams on a daily basis. This could be internal teams, stakeholders, clients, users, your own tea – but you will be always working with someone else.
Here they are trying to understand if you know how to do that. Some of the things that you could talk about are:
- Speaking the other person’s language (and avoiding technical jargon);
- Not being precious with ideas and where they come from;
- Being open to feedback and critique;
- Keeping everyone up to date;
- Documenting the process and findings;
- Managing disagreements and tricky situations.
Obviously you don’t need to talk about all of the above, but addressing some of these topics will position you as a great designer who is able to collaborate with different people.
Don’t just consider the time you’ve had the title, but all the times when you were applying design process (or its elements). Almost every job under the sun can be linked to a design process. So don’t lie, don’t say you have 25 years of experience as a UX designer when really it’s your first job, but consider something along the lines of “while I haven’t had a title of a UX designer, I have been doing UX design work for 25 years through X, Y, and Z…”
Most likely this question will come when you’re interviewing for a role at an agency. What the person really asking is “Will you be able to keep up with everyone else?”
Agencies tend to have a particular culture. They are exciting, moving fast, employ smart people. They have access to “celebrity” brands and projects and project quite a glamorous image. In return they ask you to work overtime quite a lot, be able to adapt to short deadlines, and be very friendly with everyone regardless of what hell you are going through personally.
So even if the answer is “no”, even if you haven’t worked at an agency before, you can still address the concerns the employer is likely to have. For example, your answer could be something like “No, I haven’t worked at an agency so far, but I do understand the industry and dynamics. I’m very good at multitasking, meeting deadlines, and collaborating with various teams. I live and breathe innovation, and I will work as long as necessary to make sure that my final work wows the client”
Most likely this question will come from a startup or from an agency whose clients are mostly startups. What the person really asking is “Do you know the pains and peculiarities that are associated with startup industry?”
Startups usually change direction at least ten times a day. Every person working needs to wear many different hats, be very flexible, a fast learner, and believe in the vision of that particular startup.
So even if the answer is “no”, even if you haven’t worked with startups before, you can still address the concerns the employer is likely to have. For example, your answer could be something like “No, I haven’t worked with startups directly, but I do understand the industry and dynamics. Several teams I have worked on had startup culture, and in particular when I worked with XYZ organisation, we had to do A, B and C (all the things that are relevant to startups)”
Questions about your work
The goal of these design interview questions is to find out about your past work.
What they are trying to do here is find out three things:
- What are your strengths;
- What are your weaknesses;
- What motivates you (or why is this project you favourite).
Another thing that the interviewers are trying to see is your soft skills in action. As a designer, you will always be working with other people, and you will need to be good at communicating. Just recounting the facts might work in an interview setting, but on the job it will ensure that people zone out when you talk – something that as a designer you cannot afford.
So this is definitely one of the answers you want to practice in advance – not just practicing the content (although that is very important), but the delivery as well. How can you make it sound so interesting and compelling, that the people in the room will want to hear what happened next?
If you can do that, you will stand out from all other candidates. You will be the one that’s remembered.
Keep in mind that it doesn’t have to be a digital project, but it does need to show something about you as a designer – you approach, your values, or your process.
There are many potential answers to this one, but a good one will require some self-reflection prior to the interview.
Think whether you prefer to collaborate as much as possible or have part of project where you can work alone? Do you want to learn from others or do you want to lead and experiment Do you prefer to do just research or the entire spectrum of design?
When an interviewer asks to see your portfolio, he doesn’t just want you to hand it over. The most common mistake designers make is proudly handing over their portfolio (or loading their website) with an attitude “Here it is. Can’t you tell I’m good?”.
The answer is no, the other person cannot. Two designers can’t agree on what good design is, and you expect an interviewer (most likely not a designer) to be able to see the difference. They simply won’t, and they won’t remember you either, because that’s exactly what most other candidates do.
What you should do instead is walk the other person through your work. Explain the process, the thinking behind the decisions, talk about business challenges that you were solving (not just UI). Talk about why it matters and what makes your solutions good – don’t expect the other person to learn that at first glance.
That is a great question to have in the interview. People love challenges and failures, so the question itself allows you to tell a great story and be remembered.
As in many other instances, you will need to give an outline of the project. Don’t dwell too much on every detail – this is just the introduction. Next, outline the challenge. Here you can provide a lot of detail on what the challenge was, what aspects of it did you find easy, difficult, interesting, unexpected, etc.
Next, talk about how you approached the situation, different strategies you’ve tried, which ones worked and why, which ones didn’t work (and why).
In the end, you can wrap it up with the final outcome or learnings.
What the interviewer wants to know is not only how you will work with people on your team, but also how you will collaborate with people from other departments.
Try to give examples where you worked together with developers, sales department, customer support, etc. You may not be in the same department, but for the purposes of the project you would have acted as one team.
The first thing you need to do here is outline the business problem, and explain why it was the right one (how did you discover this problem? How did you select it amid all others?).
Then talk about how it has affected your project. Did that change the way you do research? How did you find the right audience for this problem? How did you focus on the effectiveness of the solution during testing?
A great story would make it easier to stand out from other candidates, so try to prepare for this question in advance.
Here they are trying to see if you are able to critically evaluate your work. A great way to answer that is to tell a story by giving a past example which shows:
- What was the project;
- What went wrong;
- Why it went wrong;
- What you did to address adapt;
- What you learned from that experience.
Opinion questions
The purpose is to see if you can articulate your thoughts in a way that is engaging and makes sense to others. In addition, your answers will be able to tell a lot about you as a leader.
The natural reaction that most designers have is to launch into examples of good design and what they do. It’s not a bad answer, but an even better one would be if you define what “design” means to you first. Then you can talk about what good design would mean, and share examples.
While this is an opinion question, and there is no right or wrong answer, some answers are stronger than others.
If you just ramble lists of attributes such as empathy, understanding of business problems, etc. – you will be forgettable and no different than majority of applicants. To make the interviewer remember your answer, you need to make them care, and to do that, you need to take them on a journey with you.
You could start by defining what is design, and goals/purpose of a designer. Then building on that, explain what would make designer great. That way you are not rehashing popular phrases without context, but telling a story. Also showcasing your soft skills, which in design are the most important part 🙂
Be careful here. You don’t want to be too critical, as someone asking may have ties to that particular project. Instead focus on the things that you think that product does well (and explain why), and then talk about things that could be a potential improvement. Point out that you don’t have any research or analytics on this product, so you’re just guessing, but do mention what you would look for when checking whether your suggestion would be an improvement or not.
Here they are trying to see two things:
- Do you really love design, or is it just a job that pays your bills?
- Do you think ahead?
If you love design, then you will be on top of trends happening in the industry. But it’s not enough to say what they are, in order to have a great answer you also need to explain why they are next, and why it matters. Always consider the bigger picture here, especially if you are going for leadership roles.
Depth of understanding
The purpose is to subjectively evaluate how well you understand design.
What they are trying to find out is:
- How do you understand UX design? There are ad many definitions as there are designers. What is yours?
- How well do you communicate something that most people don’t relate to into something they can understand? How easy, simple, and relatable is your explanation?
For the answer, don’t be generic, instead focus on giving a specific definition that sheds light on who you are as a designer. Your explanation should be clear and accessible. (Imagine that you’re explaining it to a 10-year-old).
You can also use it as an opportunity to tell a story that showcases importance of human-centered design.
You’re more likely to get this question if the position you have applied for is pure UX. Person asking this question is trying to see that you know what the difference is, and that you will be able to focus on the user and structure rather than get carried away by visual style.
You can talk about how UX and UI designers work together, where their approaches are different, and areas where the lines between two disciplines blur.
When explaining your design process, it’s easy to fall into the trap of being generic, and describe something like the Double Diamond, for example.
However, that will be a missed opportunity. They are trying to see if:
- You understand that there is no “perfect” process and that you will need to adapt to constraints of every project;
- You can give a real example from your past experience.
This is a great opportunity to tell a story. You can say something like: “While the process varies based on the project and its constraints, there are basic stages that I tend to follow. For example… (tell them about a great example)”.
Boiling UX strategy down to a single, exclusive definition kind of defeats the whole purpose of the concept. That’s because the greatest strength of UX strategy is its fluidity. In order to be viable and effective, a UX strategy needs to adapt to rapidly changing information and circumstances.
But there are some more concrete things you can talk about here, for example, how you would approach creating one. For example, you could talk about stakeholder interviews, user research, identifying the right problem, doing competitor analysis, etc.
This is a good opportunity to mention that research methods tend to fall into three categories – qualitative, quantitative and desktop, and different pros and cons of each. That will then transition smoothly into when you would choose which type of research, based on the project, budget, and time constraints.
Kind of similar to the previous question, but slightly different. If the question comes on its own, not as a follow up to the previous, you can briefly talk about pros and cons of different types and methods. Then, of course, you’ll need to outline your preference.
While it may be tempting to say “User interviews, because I get better insights” or “Surveys, because you can get more data, quickly”, this is where it will serve you well to remember that UX is not just about the customer or user, it is about the business goals as well. So when you talk about your preferred method, outline the advantage for the business too.
What they’re really asking is: “Are you able to validate or reject a hypothesis in order to create a new solution?”
The answer to this question is very dependent on context. If the question is asked in context of building a new piece of software, you can talk about how an MVP (minimum viable product) could be developed.
If the question is around an existing product, then you can talk about product strategy, and that before talking about specific features it is important to drill down into business goals and user needs.
This is where you can talk about the final handover – documentation, files, interactions, etc. You can mention your favourite software and how it makes handover process easier for both you and developers.
However, this is also a time to mention that “handover” doesn’t start when the design is finalised, it happens when design begins. You can talk about how you discuss your work with developers on an ongoing basis to ensure that it is technically feasible, and that by the time the project is done, there isn’t much of a handover process left.
Behavioural questions
The purpose is to objectively measure past behaviours as a potential predictor of future results.
The worst thing you can do here is say that you have never failed. Everyone fails, all the time. It may be a big failure, or it may be a small one, but it’s there.
Employers are trying to see if:
- You’re honest.
- If you can recognise failures and learn from them.
So think hard, and come up with a great response to this question. When did you fail, what was the context, and what did you learn from it?
There are many different ways to answer this question. Evaluating an existing product is a UX project in miniature, so same rules and steps apply.
Every project will have Strategy, Research, Analysis, Design, and Production.
For Strategy, you could find out what the point of evaluation is, has something happened recently to indicate that the product is not performing as expected? Also what the outcome of evaluation should be – a presentation, a report, a few ideas? Also, who is the audience for this product?
In research you will look more deeply at the data – that could include analytics, benchmarking against competitors, heuristic evaluation, user testing, etc. Analysis is where you make sense of all the information you find through research.
In Design you create your solution or approach – in this case, recommendations for addressing problems (if required, based on what you find out in Strategy phase), prioritise ideas, etc.
Production is easy – it’s making happen whatever you did in Design and Strategy. If the goal was to produce a report, this is where you write the report. If the goal was to improve usability, then you work with developers on making changes based on your ideas from Design stage.
The above is just one of many ways to answer the question, but the important thing to remember is that evaluation follows the same principles as any other project, so talk about your approach.
A bad answer here would be “I create another one”, as that positions you as someone who can create many solutions without much thought.
A great designer will be able to back their solution by research and testing, but the first step would be to understand why the client isn’t happy.
So in answering this question outline how you will talk to the client, find out why they don’t like the design (what problem are they trying to solve), see if it’s the wrong problem from the one you thought you’re solving or just miscommunication. Then outline your approach for incorporating that feedback into the next iteration.
In this case, they’re looking to see that you have good communication skills and an understanding of authority. Can you get a competing idea communicated effectively and respectfully (without being rude)? Can you handle conflict in a professional manner?
Use the STAR structure (Situation or Task, Action you took, Results you got) to tell your story. Just make sure that it’s a story portrays you in a good light when you’re finished telling it. You don’t want to tell the story about the time when you disagreed but your manager was being a jerk and you just gave in to keep the peace.
Tell the one where your actions made a positive difference on the outcome of the situation – whether it was a work-related outcome or a more effective and productive working relationship.
With this question in particular, they’re looking for how you deal with problems and confrontations in general and how you come up with solutions.
How do you approach a difficult situation? Do you have good communication skills? Do you have empathy? Do you have emotional intelligence? Can you remain calm? Can you find a solution?
This is not a theoretical question, so try to give an example of how you dealt with it in the past. You can choose to talk about a communication issue you worked through, or a professional challenge you overcame with your initiative, resilience and problem-solving skills.
At the end, you can also ask how much conflict do they currently experience? Remember, questions that they ask should tell you about the company and environment.
A bad answer would be to blame it on someone else.
Instead briefly describe the reason for missing the deadline, and then focus on the actions you took. How did you manage communication with client and stakeholders? How did you minimise the impact of the delay? And afterwards, what did you do to prevent this from happening again?
As the question indicates, the interviewer is looking for examples, but it needs to go beyond “I did user interviews”. Try to outline the objectives of research and testing, how did you pick the right method? Were they moderated or unmoderated, and why? Did you have to take any constraints into consideration? Were you conducting them alone or as part of a team? How did you prepare, and made sure that you weren’t influencing the outcome (for example, how did you create non-leading questions)? What were the outcomes of research and testing? Were there any interesting or unexpected moments?
This is a great way for you to practice your soft skills and stand out from majority of applicants.
The reason you could get this questions in an interview is that they want to know if you’re going to freak out when they have a rough time. And everyone eventually has a rough time, it’s only a matter of “when”.
You should say something like, “We all have experienced times when our workloads become heavier than they normally are. I’ve found that the best thing to do is to take a look at what I have to do and prioritise work. Not everything has to be done immediately. Some things are more critical than others, and in times of stress you have to be able to prioritise.”
And then you tell a short story that reflects your experience in doing just that, and you can even use a STAR technique to help create a structure.
It’s a much better answer than, “I stayed late and did overtime until the work was done.” Many people give an answer that focuses on the long hours and hard work because they want that employer to know they are able to do that, but often it’s even more important to show that you can work smarter and are able to take initiative.
Dealing with difficult or challenging people is part of a life of a designer.
Overall, you need to think about what your “customer service” philosophy is and then how you can communicate that. Your answer could sound like this:
“I deal with difficult people the same way I deal with easy people. I want to make sure they have an exceptional experience when working with me. If my work hasn’t met their expectations, I want to take responsibility for that and see if we can work out a ways to fix it. If it can’t be fixed, I still want to make the experience as positive as I can by doing something that would make up for the problem”
This way you let the employers know that you take the responsibility for communication and experience of working with you. They can trust you, they can depend on you. And it’s a much better answer than: “I hand them off to my manager.”
As a designer, you will often need to adapt to different situation in order to work successfully with different people. Have you had to change working environments and go from working in a company one week, a government office the next and a small family-owned business the week after?
Also try to give examples of specific situations where you needed to be flexible. That could be managing very different personalities on a project, or adapting to different circumstances/new direction that was coming from a client. Talk, if you can, about your ability to quickly adapt to the new conditions without getting rattled.
Essentially, what they want to know is:
- Are you able to respond to unforeseen situations that will happen during your work?
- Are you able to adjust to changing work environments?
- Can you assist your coworkers in embracing changes?
- Are you willing to take on new tasks, even if this increases the list of your current tasks? Are you flexible in your approach?
The criticism question is one of those adversity pieces that you’ve always got to have a story or two about ready for interviews.
The truth is, to be a good employee (or an overall successful person), you’ve always got to be open to criticism. If you’re not open to criticism, then you’re not coachable. If you’re not coachable, then you’re less valuable than you could be.
So what they are really asking is: “Tell me about a time when someone told you how you could do something differently or better, how you did do it differently or better, and what was the outcome.”
Nonsensical questions
The purpose is to get past your pre-programmed answers to find out if you are capable of an original thought. There is not necessarily a right or wrong answer, since it is used primarily to test your ability to think on your feet.
Sometimes you can also get a different version of this question, such as “What kind of animal would you be?” or “What fruit would you be?”.
This type of question checks your creativity, your ability to think on your feet, and just might reveal what you really think about yourself. (They hope.)
A bad answer would be, “I would be an apple tree because I like apples.” That doesn’t tell others anything useful, and it really doesn’t have anything to do with the interview or the job.
To answer this question, think in a broad way about the qualities of whatever it is that you’re going to pick and how you would explain your choice. What character or personality traits would be useful for someone in that role to have? Think in terms of the utilitarian productiveness of your choice as it relates to the job you’re applying for. What does that job require?
For example, think about how fruit trees are productive, oak trees are strong and reliable, evergreen trees are steady, while palm trees are flexible.
What they really want to know is, are you only applying for this position because you need a job that pays bills or does it align with your values and goals in life?
Nobody would be surprised if you say that you will stop working for a while, but it’s a good idea to talk about how you will spend your time (hopefully not just shopping), if you will follow a financial plan, and what goals you would want to achieve.
Here the employer is trying to determine what your values are. When answering this question, you want to make sure that you pick items not just based on their monetary value, and that you give your reasons for picking them. For example, it could be items that are necessary to you and your family’s health, sentimental items, or something related to work (such as your laptop).
First of all, think about how this question relates to the job you’ve applied for. Gatherers cultivate and collect, they make small daily improvements that steadily lead to big results over time. Hunters, on the other hand, are motivated to quickly move on to the next prey, spend little time on individual projects/tasks, and move on.
While jobs in an agency will probably be more suitable for hunters, and working in-house is closer to gatherers, there is no right or wrong answer here. Employer is just trying to gauge your style and imaging how you’ll fit in with everyone else.
Another way to think about it as to consider that a hunter might be more of a go-getter who focuses on a single task no matter how large it might be. A gatherer might be better at multitasking and capable of finding opportunities that most people might not be able to identify.
Here the interviewer is trying to get a picture of who you are, so be careful about how you portray yourself. You want it to be less about fame for the wrong reasons (Paris Hilton) or looks (Brad Pitt, because he looks hot!). You should talk more about accomplishments, legacy, character, and use that to explain your choice of actor.
Tough questions
These questions come up when the employer likes you, but there seems to be a gap between your experience and what they need. Your answers will (ideally) help them bridge that gap
If you’re new to this industry, you will get this question. It is a challenge, but don’t let it freak you out. They are interested in you, or they wouldn’t have even bothered to talk to you at this point. They’re just seeing a gap and they need help bridging it for themselves as well as for their managers, so all you have to do is to sort of help them along in their thinking on this.
Remember, you’re a designer, and that means problem solving. So you could say something like:
“While I haven’t had this job title before and therefore could be considered a junior in the industry, I have been doing design work for X number of years. For example, in my role at (fill in the blank), I did A, B, and C which are (explain how they are the same as parts of design process that are relevant to this particular job). Because of that experience I am not a junior who is starting at the very beginning, in certain types of problems/projects my experience would make me a mid-weight/senior designer”
This question is very similar to “What value will you bring to the position?” Or, “Why do we want you over the other candidates?”
This question usually comes towards the end of the process, and by this point you should have already connected your skill sets to what they’re asking for in this role. You should also have been asking them questions about the kind of problems they need to solve, what has worked for them in the past, and what hasn’t. So at this point it becomes about stating the obvious – outlining what they need and how you can help them.
An even better approach is to (briefcase technique). They ask, “What will you contribute?” And you say, “I’m so glad you asked. I’ve written up a plan that shows you how I will bring myself up to speed quickly in the job and start contributing by doing X, Y, and Z.” And that is a very different conversation.
While you should have done your research and have expectations, often I see designers either selling themselves short (and getting a smaller salary than they could have) or aiming too high and not being taken seriously by employer.
The easiest thing you can do in that situation is to turn it back to them and ask, “What is the salary range you have budgeted for this position?” If they tell you, you can say: “That seems like a reasonable range for this job. If we agree that I’m the best fit for the position, I would be comfortable with an offer in that range.”
If the question comes up early on in the process (for example, in a phone interview), you can say, “I’m really interested in finding out more about the job and telling you more about me so that we can see if we’re a good fit before we start talking about the money.”
The obvious answer is, “I’ve been trying to find a new job!” But you can’t say that.
What they are really asking is, “Are you able to fill your time with constructive tasks when it seems you have nothing to do? Are you able to stay positive even in the most difficult situation?”
If you’ve been busy with retraining yourself or learning something new or even completing some family task you’ve always wanted to do, that’s great and you should definitely talk about it.
Volunteering, learning a new skill, or taking a class, are all powerful signals to the hiring manager that you are someone who keeps striving.
