A resume plays a key role in your UX job search, acting as an introduction to potential employers.
Your UX design resume works alongside your design portfolio to ensure that you stand out from other job applicants in the initial review process.
But therein lies the challenge: your resume might be reviewed by a hiring manager in a matter of seconds, rather than minutes, and will be looked at alongside dozens or even hundreds of other resumes.
What Hiring Managers Look for in a UX Designer's Resume
Standard resume optimization protocol suggests that you tailor your resume to align with the job requirements for each position that you apply for.
This can help ensure that your resume has the appropriate keywords and relevancy to be shortlisted, whether a live human or an algorithm is the one in charge of reviewing applications.
But there’s far more to think about than just “keywords”, particularly when your resume lands in the hands of the design lead at the company.
Design lead Stephanie Poce shares some insight into the key areas that she looks at when reviewing resumes for a UX position:
“In a UX design resume, I look for explanations of how a designer's work influenced user goals and contributed to overall objectives—whether at the company, project, or product level. I want to understand the people/teams a designer has collaborated with and the problems they've tackled.”