I’ve been thinking about how dramatically UX hiring has changed over the past decade, and honestly, it’s kind of wild when you really look at it. Ten years ago, if you were a UXer looking for a job, the whole process was so much more relaxed. Companies would basically look at your portfolio for like 20 minutes, ask you a few questions about your process, and if you seemed smart and curious, you were probably getting an offer. No one was asking you to do homework assignments or going through ten rounds of interviews. Cultural fit? That wasn’t even a thing most places bothered with.
Back then, companies were betting on potential. They’d hire someone who showed promise, maybe had some design chops and could think through problems, and they’d figure the rest would work itself out. The field was exploding, everyone was still figuring out what UX even meant in their organization, and frankly, there weren’t enough experienced people to go around anyway. S…
