Identifying Design Company “Fit”

How to choose the best UX job for YOU

A year ago, I wrote a post about handling job rejections, but I found that I spent a lot of time talking about how one can go about improving interview skills, instead of identifying jobs and companies that would be a better fit for them.

From my experience of bulk applying to numerous companies, this is one thing you should not do: Apply to places with the only intention of finding a job or for the sake of applying because it’s easy.

I applied to many places in hopes that my portfolio would suffice, but I ended up not hearing back from majority of them. I wasn’t thinking about what I wanted to do and tactfully apply to places that would be a good fit for the company and a good fit for me.

It’s understandable why you might use this tactic for finding an internship. After all, finding your first job is HARD. When applying for full-time jobs, it’s even harder due to the expectation of having existing experience and skills.

Because the time you spend at a job is significantly longer than a 3 month internship, you should be picky or else you could waste your energy, at least for a year, working somewhere you really don’t like. Below is a walkthrough I used to determine the places that I would consider a good fit for myself before applying.

What do you want to learn?

You can gain experience in whatever you do, but where and how you gain experience can lead to more opportunities that align with your interests and values a lot faster than settling on a job just purely for “experience”.

Asking yourself the things you want to learn from a job can help you understand your interests and narrow down the number of jobs you apply for.

1. Determine your current value by listing out your strengths

Listing out your strengths will help you understand the value you are able to contribute. This will help you narrow down on companies that could really benefit from your skill set, and will make it easier to highlight your skills when applying.