How do hiring managers determine a candidate’s seniority? You might think years of experience or previous titles, but in reality, those are just references. There are signs in your resume, your portfolio, and your interview responses can give them a more accurate idea of your true leveling.
What are the signs that immediately tell apart a junior vs. senior UX person?
You only show “What” but not “Why” and “So What”
This is the No.1 issue of resumes and portfolios. Anyone who knows the very basics of UX can show that they can do personas, wireframes, prototypes, usability testing… These are table stakes, and they don’t mean a thing if you can’t demonstrate your thinking behind these steps - Why this problem needs to be solved? Why did you create these personas? You did user research, so what? Showing your critical thinking and your ability to articulate your rationales is a core capability of a senior IC, regardless of the role.
The scope of your work is limited
If your portfolio projects only include straightforward UX problems such as improving usability； or projects without clear business impact and measurement, will make your experience look thin. Unless it’s a school project, there’s always business motivation for your project, you might just need a little help from someone else to identify it.
You take orders from PMs instead of being their true partners
It is not uncommon that PMs give junior designers specific requests, and you might feel no choice but to execute them. But as you grow, this dynamic should change. You should always propose multiple design options and influence your cross-functional partners with your design rationales; You can also initiate projects, and get people’s buy-in for your design proposals.
Your work lacks diversity
You should show that you have experience working on various surfaces (mobile, desktop, etc), various audience (B2B, B2C), various research methodologies (interview, card sort, concept testing, usability, etc), various product maturity (redesign, 0 to 1), and worked with different stakeholders (product, marketing, customer support, etc.)
You can be perceived as senior even with less than 5 years of experience, it's all about the storytelling. If you'd like to discuss ways to uplevel your experience feel free to book a free 15 minute intro session with me below!
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