What did YOU do?
Why UX hiring managers ask this question
I was reading chatter on some social platform (yes I know, my brain will rot out of my head), when I saw one particular young UX or design person getting quite upset about being asked repeatedly by an interviewer what exactly they were responsible for on a project.
Note: I was not the interviewer in question, but I easily could have been.
So for anyone else out there who has had a similar experience and taken it to heart, here’s what was probably going on.
You are an individual contributor; you are not a team
- If you are interviewing for a role as an IC (Individual Contributor) then the line manager wants to know what you can contribute as an individual
- Yes, you may have worked amazingly well as part of a team, but unless they are super-lucky, I doubt the hiring manager can hire a whole team — so what can YOU do as an individual hire?
Your new team is not your old team
- Once extracted from your team, what can YOU bring to a new team — what is your unique skill set?
- There are characteristics that are distinctly YOU even within the the previous team. You take those characteristics with you into a new environment — the good and the bad. The hiring manager needs to try and work out if you would fit and how would you perform in a different team profile.
Your level of comfort with personal responsibility
- In some cases, a team environment can be a good place to hide. Line managers will know this. One can unintentionally spend an entire team hiring budget on people who work at 50% effort because they know they have others around them. Sounds harsh, but it’s true. I’ve seen it.
- You might be interviewing for a role where your ‘team’ will not be other UX or designers. In this case, you will need to take a lead role and be confident to speak on behalf of a range of UX skill sets and methodologies.
- You might be interviewing for a role that just requires a high level of personal responsibility and accountability. Do you want that? Can do you do that?
This latter is the kind of team I work in currently — there is literally nowhere to hide. Each senior IC runs their own projects using their 360° skillset, is accountable daily and has to manage a number of external factors and processes. There is a cohesive and supporting UX team at an organisational level, but there is a highly competent and accountable UX individual at a project level.
Because of this, each individual senior hire is critical. If someone joins and doesn’t meet the standard of their peers, everyone in the team can see it. That’s not a good outcome for anyone.
Welcome to discomfort
The question of “what did YOU do” can be uncomfortable for some interviewees. It is not a question you can hide from, so it’s better to be prepared, and choose your interview opportunities accordingly. After all, you have control over the environments you choose to work in!
If you have never worked solo, or you’ve relied on other people in the team being better at a particular thing, that skill deficiency may be exposed in an interview. This isn’t necessarily bad. It means the interviewer wants to find out what YOU can and can’t do, independent of other people
Ultimately, if you want to hide skill deficiencies, or it’s something you don’t want to learn or do, then you may just want to look for another team environment.
Be ready with your answer
You are likely to get this question in many interviews. How you answer it actually puts YOU in control.
- “I only did XYZ but I would be willing to learn ABC” — this tells the interviewer you want to flex into more personal responsibility
- “I did XYZ and that’s my preferred specialism” — this tells the interviewer you are a specialist
- “We shared responsibility for all things across the team and that’s the kind of environment I prefer to work in” — this tells the interviewer that you should only really be working in a collaborative team with limited solo exposure.
None of these is the ‘wrong’ answer and each answer puts you back in control by telling the interview what you want.
It takes all sorts
Again, there is no wrong answer to this question. If the interviewer indicates that there is, then they are being an @_sshole.
Some people like working in a team because it’s just their preferred way of working. Some people like to just get on with things and do a whole project end-to-end, only asking for help when absolutely needed.
As the man said..
All people are different people — Ted Lasso
At the same time, different companies work in different ways and that’s alright too. The interview process is a matchmaking process on both sides.
Yes you might have a ‘no’ from an interview, but that’s because it’s a mismatch, and neither side would have been happy with the outcome.
Remember — what your interviewer asks you is just about the match they are trying to find for their team.
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