Ace your next interview: advice for young product designers to impress

In my working lifetime, I never really considered the journey my career would take. Whether I wanted to manage people or whether I wanted to be a design expert. Something I did not manage to escape, was to be involved in finding the right people for the job.

At IoT.nxt we are looking for 6 new recruits. We have to double our team size. Finding 6 people that fit your culture, are able to impress and to deliver on the job is a lot hard than you might think.

We have exhausted all our referrals and started scouting on LinkedIn. Having had some success with some of the people we interviewed, we have also come across a couple of doozies.

Here are 5 things I think you can do that would make you an infinitely better candidate for the job.

1) Be yourself

I find people trying to impress me intolerable. Allow you to be you. Let your work speak for itself. We usually have a design exercise where you have time to shine. Dropping names and buzzwords are things you could have learned 5mins before the time. Don't try and inflate your ability by saying "Senior" in your title. You will be judged on that level and you are making an already difficult process harder on yourself.

2) Come prepared

With South Africa's electricity woes, it is painful to see how people are struggling. Plan around this:

• Make sure you find a spot where you can plugin. Ask if you can go to the offices of the company that are interviewing you. They are likely to offer you a quiet spot with guest wifi, power plug and if you are lucky, coffee.
• Cancel and reschedule ahead of time if you need too. Interviews are booked weeks in advance. Don't send them an email 5mins before the meeting to cancel. When in doubt, act!
• Open all the files you are about to demo and even forward the links ahead of time. The time you spend in the interview should be to showcase and not to wait for slow connectivity.

3) Do as the brief asks of you

We have an extensive design exercise. Every single word in the brief is the for a reason. Take time to read through it carefully. Make notes, understand what is asked from you. We even go as far as telling people how you will be judged. Despite this all, we find that people come ill-prepared. It is very telling of how you will take a brief in the workplace and it shows character traits that we try to avoid.

4) Respect people's time

In the design brief, we time-box conversations. An hour is a not a lot of time for an interview, but it is very telling if you are unable to manage your own time. Like mentioned before, every word is there with intent. Telling you how much time you have each step is for a reason. You ignoring all those reasons is disrespectful.

5) Have questions prepared

Go and stalk everyone in your meeting invite. Ask the meeting organiser who will be attending if you can't see the invitees. Know your audience and try to connect with them. Show an interest in the industry by doing a bit of research. Showing a bit of interest in the company would go a long way to show your ambition.

These things may not be universal to all interviews. The people who are giving you their time have seen quite tens of people just like you, so making an effort will allow you to stand out from the rest.

Oh, and if you are looking for a design job, have a look at our job post below...but for the love of God, come prepared!

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