I've seen a lot of posts on LinkedIn lately discussing hiring in UX, especially highlighting how tough the UX job market is right now. There's absolutely no doubt that we're in a difficult job market -- I myself was just recently job hunting and know how few fully remote UX Research roles there were.
We can’t control the nature of the market right now. But what we can do is focus on the aspects of your job search that *are* within your control to help position yourself for success (and get that initial interview!).
🗂️ Portfolio:
I know portfolios are newer for UX researchers but, in a market this rough, do anything and everything in your control to present your skills as a candidate. A portfolio provides another way to showcase your abilities so take advantage of that! Remember, a resume talks about your history, but a portfolio shows how you think -- this is what hiring managers are looking for, regardless of the type of UX role you’re looking for.
📄 Resume:
I always recommend following the "what I did, how I did it, why I did it (impact or projected impact)" formula for writing your resume bullet points. I did a whole post on it here. You can also check out my LinkedIn because the bullet points on my profile are written in the same format.
🤝 Users:
As a UX professional, approach building your resume and portfolio as UX projects. Who are your users? Recruiters, hiring managers, maybe even the ATS! What are their needs? Think about what a recruiter is looking for compared to a hiring manager. And then build your resume and portfolio case studies to be usable and skimmable for both of them. On an initial pass, no one can sit down and read every single sentence of either a resume or a portfolio, even in a "normal" job market. Right now, especially, every role has 100s of applicants! The easier your resume and portfolio are to skim, the better! If you want feedback, use adplist.org to sign up for free mentorship and have multiple mentors review your resume and portfolio.
I personally iterated on my resume and portfolio multiple times throughout my recent job search! Though this job market is a difficult one, I'm hoping that these tips can help you prepare as you search for your next role! 🙌