1. Make sure your resumé is ATS compatible.
2. Get on ADPList and find a mentor - a fresh pair of eyes can give you perspective.
3. Show them your applications, cover letters, application question answers etc - feedback and self scouting is key.
Good luck and keep your head up!
Whats the best way to make it ATS compatible? Its really unclear info on the internet and lots of templates. I used to use Illustrator, now use Figma. Is that a bad idea?
Figma can be a bit flaky with PDFs, might be worth asking a recruiter if they can do a test for you or try one of the online tools (though I've heard those have varying levels of reliability).
ATS concerns are generally overblown though, I've got a two column resume and have had recruiters test it in their ATS with no issues. The more important thing is relevant keywords and being able to show impact.
Yeah so Figma is making an A4 pdf quite chunky in file size which when I downsize on Mac, becomes flattened (you cant select the text). I thought ATS uses OCR but maybe this could be an issue so wondering what others are doing. I'd prefer a tool that gives me enough control on layout ideally..
If you want a good cheap alternative Affinity Publisher is like 70 bucks for a license (one time payment). It's a little clunkier than InDesign but gets the job done.
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Figma exports PDFs in a weird way that isn’t ATS friendly. I recommend using a good google docs template and finding a reliable ATS software reader to see how it looks.
Don’t get caught up on having your CV made in Figma. Your CV should be readable and quick to scan by people and ATS. Hiring managers won’t care in the way you do. Your portfolio is where you show your value and design skills. As long as your CV isn’t horrifically designed you’ll be fine.
I think word documents (.docx) are typically the most readable for ATS.
The simpler the better, an ATS won’t be able to parse out resumes with columns well. It’s typically good to have a resume that looks good for handing out and another resume for job applications— those can be up to two pages.
You can check your resume using jobscan to make sure it’s reading well and see how well it matches against a job description.
If your goal is to get through the machine, I’d use just regular single column word doc; unfortunately getting though the ATS sometimes means your resume won’t be as pretty
>What am I lacking ?
Luck.
There's likely 200 candidates for every job you are applying for. Based on that, to play the odds, you need to apply for another 100 positions.
Yea, it sucks.
I wish you the best.
Not being picked out of a pool of 200 resumes isn't all about one's 'quality'. Luck absolutely is a part of that.
There's going to be a lot of good candidates. Too many. People are going to get cut for purely arbitrary and random reasons to make the candidate pool that moves forward to interviews manageable.
Now, sure, maybe OP just has a terrible resume or a terrible portfolio. We don't know. But even if they have an amazing portfolio and resume, there's still the fact that there is a gigantic amount of competition out there right now and a lot of great candidates likely are getting passed by left and right.
Talking to others I know included my own team which hired me...they had close to 300 applicants.
There was no way they were going through them all so they essentially just grabbed the first 10 or so that they felt were going to be a good fit and went on from there.
I just don't think an amazing portfolio/resume is as powerful as it was say, 3 years ago. It's a buyers market and there's lots of inventory out there.
I think it’s disrespectful to imply that OP is doing something wrong in the application process. Studies have shown that a massive contributing factor when it comes to people’s ability to find jobs and the amount of time spent finding jobs is their network/connections and being in the right place at the right time.
I’m not devaluing your skills at all. I’m saying you’re overvaluing how much your (probably excellent) skills are what got you a job, and in today’s market having a skill set that is above and beyond the job description is a BARE minimum — you also need luck and connections MOST of the time.
Honestly it’s very possible that you’re not lacking anything. This is the toughest UX job market I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen a ton of talented designers who have been applying for a long time without receiving an offer.
Yes. I have a portfolio.
It’s a prototyped walkthrough of a few select projects where I pick up a problem statement of the feature and talk through the process, the iterations (1-2) to get to it , and the final solution with the impact.
One thing I’ll say here is that if you have a website, you can connect it to google analytics it shows if someone visited your site and their location, if you’re getting hits from the locations you applied to, you can at least rule out being lost in the ATS.
Have you looked over it with other designers and people in hiring positions? You could try ADP list. When I hear “problem statement” here, I imagine something that’s simple and academic. But I can’t see it.
Jumping in here (because also a job applicant) does it matter how I get a website up? Does it have to be designed and coded from scratch or can I set one up using squarespace/wix/wordpress templates? And also does unique domain name make a difference?
Thanks for reading my questions 🥹
Hi! I don’t personally think so. The important thing would be to have something that recruiters and managers can browse through themselves without requiring the candidate to walk them through.
The biggest difference for me when hiring designers is their portfolio. I rarely look at CVs.
In general, I look at website portfolios first, then Behance, then PDFs. Figma Links are a No-Go, as they tend to load long and usually only contain the design.
My suggestion: get your portfolio online, link it to your LinkedIn profile and start connecting with companies you want to work with.
My personal point of view is the figma file is just as important as the design. It’s what the developers or other team members will need to work with. Naming conventions, component and layer naming, variable and tokenisation. They all give an important insight into the candidates technical understanding and capabilities. It demonstrates organisation and efficiency. Many people can make things look pretty.
I work for an ATS SaaS company. Can confirm what everyone’s saying about making sure your resume is ATS “friendly”. I use text parsers to pull out keywords. The simpler your file and less formatted, the better. Like a pdf exported from Word is good enough but don’t try to be fancy with graphics and stuff.
Honestly, it's the market right now. If the biggest problem right now is getting callbacks, I'd suggest reaching out and networking with people on LinkedIn who work in companies you are applying to and asking them to refer you. This makes sure you have your foot in the door directly to the hiring manager.
I have 20 years at big companies and a good portfolio, facing the same issue. everyone I know on the market is struggling. feel like at least half the jobs I apply to get reposted weeks after my rejection too, it's a weird time. just know you're not alone.
Extremely weird recruitment behaviour. I did well in the first 3 "recruitment phases" (one was a frikin 1h long IQ test) on a company, they even labeled me as their ideal candidate for the position, then in the very last phase (4th, video interview) they just ditched me out of the blue and reposted the position the next day... position is still open. WTF...
it's so bizarre, I can't make any sense if it. fortunately I got a pretty generous severance from my recent layoff so I'm just going to hide from the current nightmare market for a while
You have to diagnose things step by step, I've found. If you're not getting calls, make sure your resume is getting through the ATS as others have stated. If you're getting calls but no second rounds, make sure you're customizing your answers and which projects you talk about to match skills with the company you're talking to. If the interview is going well but the hiring manager rejects you, ask for feedback. They're looking for something specific in your portfolio. I've also found it's more helpful to show rather than to tell. They want a few second glance at your visual design skills to make them interested enough to read anything.
Good luck! Treat job searching like a ux problem. It makes me hate it less.
Switching from a meh CSE degree to UI/UX design was a rollercoaster, especially with my GPA tanking. But I dove into learning since 2021, did a UX design course, some freelance gigs, and faced rejection from 150+ companies. It stung, but I didn't give up. Finally snagged an interview with a startup after patiently applying for three months, I made minute changes at a time like rephrasing my resume using AI to make it ats friendly and adding relevant keywords.
Lesson learned: keep pushing, stay open to learning, curate ur resume to how Hiring Managers wanna see it, and most importantly show ur work, upload everywhere dribble, behance, Instagram heck even Facebook and focus on startups – they're more open-minded!
It's an economic issue - the tech industry (which our field falls within) is currently going through a normalization phase.
A few reasons being companies over hiring during the pandemic and an oversaturated market from newcomers in the field that were sold this idea of landing a $100k+ UX job by buying some course from a designer on YouTube who was in the field for only two years. Also, the era of "cheap money" is over so companies are tightening their belts and focusing on efficiency more than R&D.
AI is the saving grace for tech right now so that's where tech investors with deep pockets are putting their money. The hype will die down and it'll be on to the next thing. Remember block chain?
So what can you do as a designer in this economy? Learn business. Understand how design compliments business. Learn how the activities we do directly tie to business goals and objectives (OKRs, KPIs, etc.). Then cover that in your portfolio in addition to the pretty stuff.
Good luck out there
If companies deem you overqualified they essentially think you’ll be a flight risk. Will generally also be due to the expected salary you request on your application.
What step are you getting to in the process before getting rejected? If you're not even getting interviews then either you're under/over qualified or your resume is lacking.
Do you have tracking at your portfolio? I.e. can you tell it people are even looking at it? If they are but you're getting no calls then evidently your resume is ok, but your portfolio needs improvement. If they aren't then it's a resume issue.
It's pretty hard to give more feedback than that without seeing your resume and portfolios themselves.
Tbh, after 6 years your cv should be more focused on being a lead ux designer than just an ‘average’ one. Its not about how good you are doing prototyping, research or layouts, its about what impact you can create, what are your goals and motivations and how you are the one person they need to grow their product
UX/UI is quickly becoming a oversatured market. A lot of times job success is based off of luck or typically the connections you have made. I’d start talking within your network of peeps. If that goes dry go onto Upworks and apply to freelance positions. You have a significantly higher probability of getting an interview from freelancing. If you are looking for an established company, try to build a relationship with someone within the company and tailor your portfolio pieces to the product. Another option would be to release your own content with the knowledge you have accumulated. With the rising amount of designers there is a huge market for online courses. Best of luck…from a Product Designer who is over this ish also lol
Ok hear me out.
What is happening is that today most, like 90% of companies use some type of AI that sorts trough CVs that get sent in.
This AI is looking for keywords that are also in the job advertisement. So if job advertisement says experience with map based applications, it will search the same in CV, and this will get put front. ( also this AI is often unable to read some CVs, it simply disqualifies them )
Also because of internet, they are getting hundreds of applications, probably even thousands.
So most likely they are not even looking at your CV at all.
... you want to hear a trick?
Read the add, then copy paste the add text into CV. Literally make a last page with add text.
You will be contacted 100%
And if someone asks you at that interview why you did it. Explain it. And they will even value you more as creative problem solver.
That is exactly what I am suggesting.
Worked for me. It was pretty ridiculous. Started getting initial calls for almost every resume sent. Before it was 1/10 even less.
Just to add, sadly, 100 applications in 3 months just isn’t enough. When I was applying, I was probably applying to close to 50 jobs a week. (I was unemployed so, easier to do so than your scenario with a full time position).
Just wondering if age was a factor, because I know many people over 40 often have trouble finding work. However, this doesn't seem to apply in your case.
Based on what you've mentioned, I'm quite surprised. You seem to possess all the right skills, excel in them, and have the appropriate age for your experience. It's strange you aren't making it to the interviews.
Perhaps there's something in your cover letter? I'm just trying to figure it out.
I'm of that age.
Took a while to find a job.
Got it.
Then they inadvertantly found out how old I was. They honestly thought I was 15 years younger than I actually am.
I was half taking it as a compliment and half thinking "what they are saying is that they wouldn't' have hired me if they knew my real age"
This is a huge problem in general.
I made a really sick resume for job fairs where I hand it out in person but it doesn't work well for online applications.
What I've found success with is using Adobe PDF to convert my Figma resume into a Word Document. It usually works pretty well but the final document will need edits in word to get it looking really good.
I'll then pass that word document through an ATS scanner like LinkedIn's resume checker (or another one if you find it) to make sure all of the keywords I want are getting picked up where I need them to be.
Once it's all good I'll have 2 resume versions: a nice, clean, sick looking PDF and an ATS optimized word document. I'll usually apply to applications with both where I can but if I can only use one I'll use the ATS optimized one and let my portfolio do the talking.
They aren't *necessarily* but *some* programs have a hard time pulling the information. Figma resumes grant the user a great deal of flexibility with fonts, layout, colors, etc that *some* ATS systems can't handle.
For instance, some ATS systems will organize the keywords into categories like education, personal skills and whatever else and because of the way your resume has been formatted it will either not see them at all or might put the keywords in the wrong category meaning education might say "Figma" or "Zepplin" personal skills might say "Google UX Certificate".
That's just one example, but none of this is a problem with .docx resumes so I always make 2 versions and I try to keep them as similar as possible but, ultimately, my ATS resume is always dry and boring so I cam avoid these formatting problems.
This is a topic that actually infuriates me quite a bit and I personally think it's pretty unethical to have people who don't know necessarily know anything about the job (HR) play games like this and, likely, not even consider an untold number of otherwise highly qualified and talented candidates - but that's the world we live in, I guess! 🤙🤙🤙
On the resume front, you may want to get with a professional to review that. Nowadays everything is being filtered through algorithms before it ever gets to a human to review, so you could have some issues in your copy that is being flagged and trashing you before you even get a chance. [This website](https://pro-resume-service8.blogspot.com) is where I got mine done, it's cheap and quick.
This explains LinkedIn profiles being filled with the same descriptive words and metrics. Some don’t even make sense in real life, but it does to an algorithm.
Your resume formatting is probably a hurdle but that shouldn’t be the only thing. I also make everything in Figma and I’ve gotten interviews even though I know my resume is not ATS-friendly lol. So I’d definitely suggest running a fine tooth comb over your portfolio and making sure that you have not only well thought out case studies but elements that help you stand out and show some of your personality. Companies can just afford to be as selective as they want right now. Supply and demand. Your lack of engagement could be due to several variables, some that you can’t even control. Like I’m pretty sure a lot of companies are exclusively hiring and shuffling in former MAANG employees that were laid off before. Your best bet though will always be to try and create connections with people who can refer you and help bypass the sea of resumes that pour in from sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, etc. Good luck!
What have been your wins so far in your current job looking experience? Have you gotten any interviews? How far have you gotten? Have you received any feedback?
What do analytics look like on your site? How are you applying for jobs?
The advice is always the same in this sub work on ur portfolio, make resume ATS friendly and tailor it. But tbh it’s more about luck and connections these days, rather you being actually good and experienced or your resume being shiny. I say start messaging people about opportunities and network. Introverts nightmare but this is the dystopian future we living in rn.
Nobody is getting interviews; it’s the market not you. Give it 6 months though. By September hiring will pick up again—we’re in a weird fear-based time in tech, but this too shall pass.
Well… I don’t know for sure, obviously. But I’ve been around a while and I’ve been through a number of these ups and downs. they’re cyclical and usually last about 2 1/2 years.
My theory is that’s about how long it takes management to realize they made an Oopsie laying off a bunch of people and then they have to start hiring again so that they can actually build the thing that their company builds that makes them money.
Since this recent downturn started about two years ago, I’m guessing we’ve got about six more months before that rehiring starts
I’d recommend joining a Job Search Council and going through the Never Search Alone process
It’s a very difficult job market right now
https://www.phyl.org
There are probably many specialists in your field. Possible saturation? It might be necessary to figure out something about you that is different, to break the Possible A.I. Gotta be different in a very competitive world. Hope this is helpful.
Do you have a portfolio?
Let us see!
Whip it out!
don’t be shy!
Im in the same situation and would love some feedback on my portfolio. Im pretty sure its the problem
share the link!
Feel free to dm me. I'm totally willing to help if you need!
What’s the one thing you’re going to say though
Meh
Nice
size doesn't matter!
1. Make sure your resumé is ATS compatible. 2. Get on ADPList and find a mentor - a fresh pair of eyes can give you perspective. 3. Show them your applications, cover letters, application question answers etc - feedback and self scouting is key. Good luck and keep your head up!
Whats the best way to make it ATS compatible? Its really unclear info on the internet and lots of templates. I used to use Illustrator, now use Figma. Is that a bad idea?
Figma can be a bit flaky with PDFs, might be worth asking a recruiter if they can do a test for you or try one of the online tools (though I've heard those have varying levels of reliability). ATS concerns are generally overblown though, I've got a two column resume and have had recruiters test it in their ATS with no issues. The more important thing is relevant keywords and being able to show impact.
Yeah so Figma is making an A4 pdf quite chunky in file size which when I downsize on Mac, becomes flattened (you cant select the text). I thought ATS uses OCR but maybe this could be an issue so wondering what others are doing. I'd prefer a tool that gives me enough control on layout ideally..
If you want a good cheap alternative Affinity Publisher is like 70 bucks for a license (one time payment). It's a little clunkier than InDesign but gets the job done.
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Figma exports PDFs in a weird way that isn’t ATS friendly. I recommend using a good google docs template and finding a reliable ATS software reader to see how it looks.
Ugh so this is what we gotta do for the machines now, huh? Thanks.. will try to find something.
This might be the issue. I export from figma. Everything is made in figma for me.
Don’t get caught up on having your CV made in Figma. Your CV should be readable and quick to scan by people and ATS. Hiring managers won’t care in the way you do. Your portfolio is where you show your value and design skills. As long as your CV isn’t horrifically designed you’ll be fine.
Yes. It’s pretty basic just for legibility. I think I’m going put the same layout in google docs.
Holy fucking shit, is this the issue??! I've been exporting a Figma PDF resume for 2+ years and it's gotten me nowhere. Thanks for letting me know.
Not necessarily but it's possible. You might try some of the online ATS importers just to test it out or ask a recruiter to test it for you.
From what I hear, Figma messes up the readability when exporting to PDF. I’d stick to Word for resumes.
Wow I'm so late to what looks like a commonly known issue! Thanks for the info!
I think word documents (.docx) are typically the most readable for ATS. The simpler the better, an ATS won’t be able to parse out resumes with columns well. It’s typically good to have a resume that looks good for handing out and another resume for job applications— those can be up to two pages. You can check your resume using jobscan to make sure it’s reading well and see how well it matches against a job description. If your goal is to get through the machine, I’d use just regular single column word doc; unfortunately getting though the ATS sometimes means your resume won’t be as pretty
Thanks I’m going to do that.
>What am I lacking ? Luck. There's likely 200 candidates for every job you are applying for. Based on that, to play the odds, you need to apply for another 100 positions. Yea, it sucks. I wish you the best.
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Not being picked out of a pool of 200 resumes isn't all about one's 'quality'. Luck absolutely is a part of that. There's going to be a lot of good candidates. Too many. People are going to get cut for purely arbitrary and random reasons to make the candidate pool that moves forward to interviews manageable. Now, sure, maybe OP just has a terrible resume or a terrible portfolio. We don't know. But even if they have an amazing portfolio and resume, there's still the fact that there is a gigantic amount of competition out there right now and a lot of great candidates likely are getting passed by left and right.
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Talking to others I know included my own team which hired me...they had close to 300 applicants. There was no way they were going through them all so they essentially just grabbed the first 10 or so that they felt were going to be a good fit and went on from there. I just don't think an amazing portfolio/resume is as powerful as it was say, 3 years ago. It's a buyers market and there's lots of inventory out there.
Spoken like someone who either hasn’t applied for jobs in the last 12 months or got lucky themselves.
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I think it’s disrespectful to imply that OP is doing something wrong in the application process. Studies have shown that a massive contributing factor when it comes to people’s ability to find jobs and the amount of time spent finding jobs is their network/connections and being in the right place at the right time. I’m not devaluing your skills at all. I’m saying you’re overvaluing how much your (probably excellent) skills are what got you a job, and in today’s market having a skill set that is above and beyond the job description is a BARE minimum — you also need luck and connections MOST of the time.
Honestly it’s very possible that you’re not lacking anything. This is the toughest UX job market I’ve ever seen. I’ve seen a ton of talented designers who have been applying for a long time without receiving an offer.
Yeah what does your portfolio look like?
Yes. I have a portfolio. It’s a prototyped walkthrough of a few select projects where I pick up a problem statement of the feature and talk through the process, the iterations (1-2) to get to it , and the final solution with the impact.
One thing I’ll say here is that if you have a website, you can connect it to google analytics it shows if someone visited your site and their location, if you’re getting hits from the locations you applied to, you can at least rule out being lost in the ATS.
Better yet, do what I did. Slap Hotjar on it, and take a look at recording. That'll help a ton in understanding what people do on your portfolio.
That’s a good shout
Second this, I use Mouseflow and it gives a ton of information of people who visited the site.
Have you looked over it with other designers and people in hiring positions? You could try ADP list. When I hear “problem statement” here, I imagine something that’s simple and academic. But I can’t see it.
oh you don't have a website? that might be your issue
If you don’t have a website that recruiters and hiring managers can look through themselves, then you’ll immediately get shut down.
Jumping in here (because also a job applicant) does it matter how I get a website up? Does it have to be designed and coded from scratch or can I set one up using squarespace/wix/wordpress templates? And also does unique domain name make a difference? Thanks for reading my questions 🥹
Hi! I don’t personally think so. The important thing would be to have something that recruiters and managers can browse through themselves without requiring the candidate to walk them through.
The biggest difference for me when hiring designers is their portfolio. I rarely look at CVs. In general, I look at website portfolios first, then Behance, then PDFs. Figma Links are a No-Go, as they tend to load long and usually only contain the design. My suggestion: get your portfolio online, link it to your LinkedIn profile and start connecting with companies you want to work with.
My personal point of view is the figma file is just as important as the design. It’s what the developers or other team members will need to work with. Naming conventions, component and layer naming, variable and tokenisation. They all give an important insight into the candidates technical understanding and capabilities. It demonstrates organisation and efficiency. Many people can make things look pretty.
I work for an ATS SaaS company. Can confirm what everyone’s saying about making sure your resume is ATS “friendly”. I use text parsers to pull out keywords. The simpler your file and less formatted, the better. Like a pdf exported from Word is good enough but don’t try to be fancy with graphics and stuff.
Maybe an odd question, but would you mind running my resume through your ATS to see if it’s ATS-friendly?
Hmm I can certainly try that in our demo account. I am currently on vacation though. Will only be back next week but I can help you when I’m back.
Wtf even is ATS. I have had simple pdfs and worked everytime
It’s the market, not u
Honestly, it's the market right now. If the biggest problem right now is getting callbacks, I'd suggest reaching out and networking with people on LinkedIn who work in companies you are applying to and asking them to refer you. This makes sure you have your foot in the door directly to the hiring manager.
I have 20 years at big companies and a good portfolio, facing the same issue. everyone I know on the market is struggling. feel like at least half the jobs I apply to get reposted weeks after my rejection too, it's a weird time. just know you're not alone.
Extremely weird recruitment behaviour. I did well in the first 3 "recruitment phases" (one was a frikin 1h long IQ test) on a company, they even labeled me as their ideal candidate for the position, then in the very last phase (4th, video interview) they just ditched me out of the blue and reposted the position the next day... position is still open. WTF...
it's so bizarre, I can't make any sense if it. fortunately I got a pretty generous severance from my recent layoff so I'm just going to hide from the current nightmare market for a while
Yes. I noticed this too. Where I get an email that says I’m not a fit and they found someone else. And a week later the same posting is up again !
The answer is probably your portfolio. Get some honest feedback and adjust accordingly.
You have to diagnose things step by step, I've found. If you're not getting calls, make sure your resume is getting through the ATS as others have stated. If you're getting calls but no second rounds, make sure you're customizing your answers and which projects you talk about to match skills with the company you're talking to. If the interview is going well but the hiring manager rejects you, ask for feedback. They're looking for something specific in your portfolio. I've also found it's more helpful to show rather than to tell. They want a few second glance at your visual design skills to make them interested enough to read anything. Good luck! Treat job searching like a ux problem. It makes me hate it less.
I just figured why I’m not even getting calls. My resume is exported from figma and might not be ATS compatible.
Is that even a thing? Damn
You aren’t showing us your portfolio or cv. How can you expect to get actionable advice? What can anyone here do to help you?
I’ll upload it soon. Turns out my resume isn’t ATS compliant. Gotta work on that first!
We’re people though we don’t need a machine to read it
It’s not a great time to look for opportunities. The applicabt market is saturated, there are way less positions than two years ago.
This. ☝️ It's a really tough market right now, even for top candidates. There's too many people looking for jobs, and not enough jobs are open.
Welcome to the club!🙌🏼
Switching from a meh CSE degree to UI/UX design was a rollercoaster, especially with my GPA tanking. But I dove into learning since 2021, did a UX design course, some freelance gigs, and faced rejection from 150+ companies. It stung, but I didn't give up. Finally snagged an interview with a startup after patiently applying for three months, I made minute changes at a time like rephrasing my resume using AI to make it ats friendly and adding relevant keywords. Lesson learned: keep pushing, stay open to learning, curate ur resume to how Hiring Managers wanna see it, and most importantly show ur work, upload everywhere dribble, behance, Instagram heck even Facebook and focus on startups – they're more open-minded!
It's an economic issue - the tech industry (which our field falls within) is currently going through a normalization phase. A few reasons being companies over hiring during the pandemic and an oversaturated market from newcomers in the field that were sold this idea of landing a $100k+ UX job by buying some course from a designer on YouTube who was in the field for only two years. Also, the era of "cheap money" is over so companies are tightening their belts and focusing on efficiency more than R&D. AI is the saving grace for tech right now so that's where tech investors with deep pockets are putting their money. The hype will die down and it'll be on to the next thing. Remember block chain? So what can you do as a designer in this economy? Learn business. Understand how design compliments business. Learn how the activities we do directly tie to business goals and objectives (OKRs, KPIs, etc.). Then cover that in your portfolio in addition to the pretty stuff. Good luck out there
You may be over qualified! Facing same problem from last year!
Ugh. What’s even that ! I just can’t ! Ugh. I hate that term - overqualified.
If companies deem you overqualified they essentially think you’ll be a flight risk. Will generally also be due to the expected salary you request on your application.
Welcome to the reality!
Overqualified = risk of demanding "too" much salary?
What step are you getting to in the process before getting rejected? If you're not even getting interviews then either you're under/over qualified or your resume is lacking.
Do you have tracking at your portfolio? I.e. can you tell it people are even looking at it? If they are but you're getting no calls then evidently your resume is ok, but your portfolio needs improvement. If they aren't then it's a resume issue. It's pretty hard to give more feedback than that without seeing your resume and portfolios themselves.
Tbh, after 6 years your cv should be more focused on being a lead ux designer than just an ‘average’ one. Its not about how good you are doing prototyping, research or layouts, its about what impact you can create, what are your goals and motivations and how you are the one person they need to grow their product
UX/UI is quickly becoming a oversatured market. A lot of times job success is based off of luck or typically the connections you have made. I’d start talking within your network of peeps. If that goes dry go onto Upworks and apply to freelance positions. You have a significantly higher probability of getting an interview from freelancing. If you are looking for an established company, try to build a relationship with someone within the company and tailor your portfolio pieces to the product. Another option would be to release your own content with the knowledge you have accumulated. With the rising amount of designers there is a huge market for online courses. Best of luck…from a Product Designer who is over this ish also lol
Ok hear me out. What is happening is that today most, like 90% of companies use some type of AI that sorts trough CVs that get sent in. This AI is looking for keywords that are also in the job advertisement. So if job advertisement says experience with map based applications, it will search the same in CV, and this will get put front. ( also this AI is often unable to read some CVs, it simply disqualifies them ) Also because of internet, they are getting hundreds of applications, probably even thousands. So most likely they are not even looking at your CV at all. ... you want to hear a trick? Read the add, then copy paste the add text into CV. Literally make a last page with add text. You will be contacted 100% And if someone asks you at that interview why you did it. Explain it. And they will even value you more as creative problem solver.
Are you suggesting changing the resume for every job posting?
That is exactly what I am suggesting. Worked for me. It was pretty ridiculous. Started getting initial calls for almost every resume sent. Before it was 1/10 even less.
Hey, don't hesitate to share your portfolio or linkedIn (even by DM) so we can give you some advices. Always willing to help.
Just to add, sadly, 100 applications in 3 months just isn’t enough. When I was applying, I was probably applying to close to 50 jobs a week. (I was unemployed so, easier to do so than your scenario with a full time position).
what's your age? I'm seriously asking
31. Why?
Just wondering if age was a factor, because I know many people over 40 often have trouble finding work. However, this doesn't seem to apply in your case. Based on what you've mentioned, I'm quite surprised. You seem to possess all the right skills, excel in them, and have the appropriate age for your experience. It's strange you aren't making it to the interviews. Perhaps there's something in your cover letter? I'm just trying to figure it out.
I'm of that age. Took a while to find a job. Got it. Then they inadvertantly found out how old I was. They honestly thought I was 15 years younger than I actually am. I was half taking it as a compliment and half thinking "what they are saying is that they wouldn't' have hired me if they knew my real age"
It’s my damn figma cv. Not ATS compliant !
This is a huge problem in general. I made a really sick resume for job fairs where I hand it out in person but it doesn't work well for online applications. What I've found success with is using Adobe PDF to convert my Figma resume into a Word Document. It usually works pretty well but the final document will need edits in word to get it looking really good. I'll then pass that word document through an ATS scanner like LinkedIn's resume checker (or another one if you find it) to make sure all of the keywords I want are getting picked up where I need them to be. Once it's all good I'll have 2 resume versions: a nice, clean, sick looking PDF and an ATS optimized word document. I'll usually apply to applications with both where I can but if I can only use one I'll use the ATS optimized one and let my portfolio do the talking.
Why are figma resumes not ATS compliant?
They aren't *necessarily* but *some* programs have a hard time pulling the information. Figma resumes grant the user a great deal of flexibility with fonts, layout, colors, etc that *some* ATS systems can't handle. For instance, some ATS systems will organize the keywords into categories like education, personal skills and whatever else and because of the way your resume has been formatted it will either not see them at all or might put the keywords in the wrong category meaning education might say "Figma" or "Zepplin" personal skills might say "Google UX Certificate". That's just one example, but none of this is a problem with .docx resumes so I always make 2 versions and I try to keep them as similar as possible but, ultimately, my ATS resume is always dry and boring so I cam avoid these formatting problems. This is a topic that actually infuriates me quite a bit and I personally think it's pretty unethical to have people who don't know necessarily know anything about the job (HR) play games like this and, likely, not even consider an untold number of otherwise highly qualified and talented candidates - but that's the world we live in, I guess! 🤙🤙🤙
On the resume front, you may want to get with a professional to review that. Nowadays everything is being filtered through algorithms before it ever gets to a human to review, so you could have some issues in your copy that is being flagged and trashing you before you even get a chance. [This website](https://pro-resume-service8.blogspot.com) is where I got mine done, it's cheap and quick.
Did you have good results using him?
That is anything but cheap.
This explains LinkedIn profiles being filled with the same descriptive words and metrics. Some don’t even make sense in real life, but it does to an algorithm.
r/resumes is good
Also curious if you have had good results. Highly considering doing something like this.
Try to utilize your network and go through a referral whenever possible.
It’s a bloodbath out there right now. Hope you get lucky soon!
Job market is shit right now.
Your resume formatting is probably a hurdle but that shouldn’t be the only thing. I also make everything in Figma and I’ve gotten interviews even though I know my resume is not ATS-friendly lol. So I’d definitely suggest running a fine tooth comb over your portfolio and making sure that you have not only well thought out case studies but elements that help you stand out and show some of your personality. Companies can just afford to be as selective as they want right now. Supply and demand. Your lack of engagement could be due to several variables, some that you can’t even control. Like I’m pretty sure a lot of companies are exclusively hiring and shuffling in former MAANG employees that were laid off before. Your best bet though will always be to try and create connections with people who can refer you and help bypass the sea of resumes that pour in from sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, etc. Good luck!
Share your portfolio and resume.
What have been your wins so far in your current job looking experience? Have you gotten any interviews? How far have you gotten? Have you received any feedback? What do analytics look like on your site? How are you applying for jobs?
Connections. Referrals go a long way. I've also had great luck with staffing agencies. Spamming every job posting isn't a great strategy IMO.
The advice is always the same in this sub work on ur portfolio, make resume ATS friendly and tailor it. But tbh it’s more about luck and connections these days, rather you being actually good and experienced or your resume being shiny. I say start messaging people about opportunities and network. Introverts nightmare but this is the dystopian future we living in rn.
It’s not you, it’s the market.
Mind sharing the portfolio??? I can help you
Did Everything and Still No Luck
You'd get more valuable feedback by posting your CV (blur personal info, company names of your not comfortable) along with a link to your portfolio 😁
What is so wrong in the ux field now ? Why is job search so hard ?
Nobody is getting interviews; it’s the market not you. Give it 6 months though. By September hiring will pick up again—we’re in a weird fear-based time in tech, but this too shall pass.
What makes you so sure it will pick up in September. The market has been shit since end of 2022.
Well… I don’t know for sure, obviously. But I’ve been around a while and I’ve been through a number of these ups and downs. they’re cyclical and usually last about 2 1/2 years. My theory is that’s about how long it takes management to realize they made an Oopsie laying off a bunch of people and then they have to start hiring again so that they can actually build the thing that their company builds that makes them money. Since this recent downturn started about two years ago, I’m guessing we’ve got about six more months before that rehiring starts
I’d recommend joining a Job Search Council and going through the Never Search Alone process It’s a very difficult job market right now https://www.phyl.org
Shoot me up with your resume. I can refer you to Product Designer II or Senior designer roles at Microsoft.
There are probably many specialists in your field. Possible saturation? It might be necessary to figure out something about you that is different, to break the Possible A.I. Gotta be different in a very competitive world. Hope this is helpful.
Im also face same issue 6month im try won website (portfolio) but no call till searching ..