Hiring product designers: processes explained

Spend 2-3 weeks preparing to maximize your chances of success, as a failure could set you back several months.
If rejected, they might consider your application no sooner than 6-12 months.
Eliminate basic mistakes to increase your chances of getting an offer. Practice with peers to feel confident.
Apply to as many companies as possible and collect offers instead of feedback.
Treat every job interview as an opportunity to get an offer rather than just practice.

On average, it takes about 55 seconds for a hiring manager to evaluate both resume and portfolio and decide if they want to interview a candidate.
Hiring managers can afford to be picky because of large amounts of applications.
Evaluating dozens of applications helps recognize relevant applications faster.

Hiring managers have to be very careful when choosing candidates because the process is lengthy, costly, and can affect their own personal careers if they make a mistake.
It is easier for companies to reject candidates if they are doubtful.

On the final day of the interviews, 4 to 10 people will interview you.
Most of them are managers or tech people.
They will submit feedback on you in the applicant tracking system after the interviews.
It all boils down to if they want to work with you.

Hiring processes are designed to eliminate prejudices and subjectivity (as humanly possible).
They want to hire ASAP, but also the best from the fittest.
In mature companies, a decision will be made by a person that has never seen you based on the feedback of your interviewers.
The magic of subjective objectivity: lots of people take part in interviews, and if done correctly, positives outweigh negatives, and at the end of the day, they want to hire ASAP.

Get ready.

Practice with designers, get feedback, and improve your portfolio presentation.

Get hired.

Connect with hiring managers once you practiced your presentation.

The fast track to your portfolio presentation

These tasks are designed to get you interview-ready as soon as possible.

Review basic facts about interviews.

Explain one project.

Watch a candidate's presentation.

Design a presentation for just one project.

Practice your presentation.

Describe one more project.

Introduce yourself.

Update your presentation.

Book a peer for the next week.

Practice your presentation a second time.

Practice your presentation a third time.

Pick the video you want to share with hiring managers.

The video you picked becomes your profile.

Hiring managers reach out to you directly.

You can continue practicing and replace the video you share as you see fit.