Rosenverse
UX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer

Log in or create a free Rosenverse account to watch this video.

Log in Create free account

100s of community videos are available to free members. Conference talks are generally available to Gold members.

UX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer

Thursday, April 3, 2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Share the love for this talk
UX Job Search AMA #2 with Joanne Weaver and Dave Hoffer
Speakers: Dave Hoffer and Joanne Weaver
Link:

Summary

We’re thrilled to bring to the Rosenverse an AMA dedicated to finding and getting UX jobs! Co-led by Dave Hoffer, a design leader / hiring manager (from PwC, McKinsey, frog design) and Joanne Weaver, a recruiting agency owner (clients include: Mailchimp, Etsy, Justworks, Grubhub, NY Life), we held an insightful one-hour AMA to address all your job search questions. Join us!

Whether seeking advice on crafting your ideal resume, how to nail your interviews, or understanding what employers are looking for in candidates today, attendees brought their best questions. Dave and Joanne are longtime design career coaches and know how to help. Gain valuable insights from us and each other!

Key Insights

  • •

    Self-care, even small acts, supports resilience during tough job searches.

  • •

    NDA constraints require tact: seek permissions, redact details, or build spec portfolios.

  • •

    Older portfolio work still demonstrates thought process and structure despite domain changes.

  • •

    In a competitive market, having any portfolio work is better than none; spec work helps fill gaps.

  • •

    Salary negotiation is limited in a tight market, but building relationships can reveal future opportunities.

  • •

    Career gaps can be reframed positively by transparency and framing as freelancing or personal growth.

  • •

    AI is becoming integral in design; learning its capabilities is crucial without being intimidated.

  • •

    Authenticity and uniqueness in portfolios and interviews make candidates memorable.

  • •

    Building community connections in-person or virtually is key for learning and job search support.

  • •

    Storytelling exercises like 360 feedback and reflecting on past work enhance candidates’ personal narratives.

Notable Quotes

"Hopefulness is hard earned, it lays waste to cynicism and says the world is worth believing in."

"If you don’t have any work, make some spec work just to show your skills."

"Showing up is half the battle; being on calls and asking questions makes you visible."

"Everything is designed around us; recognize that and use it to your advantage."

"A portfolio is a portfolio piece itself; structure and white space matter as much as content."

"Don’t lead with salary negotiation; build trust first and then explore possibilities."

"Launching and shipping things is a big deal and shows real impact beyond metrics."

"Being authentic and sharing what makes you different is what really stands out."

"AI is important and here to stay; ignoring it is ignoring the future of design."

"Put yourself in the hiring manager’s shoes; they scan quickly and want to see a fit fast."

Ask the Rosenbot
Neema Mahdavi
Operationalizing DesignOps
2018 • DesignOps Summit 2018
Gold
Mansi Gupta
Women-Centric Research: What, Why, How
2023 • Advancing Research 2023
Gold
Amahra Spence
Designing for Liberation, Rehearsing Freedom
2022 • Civic Design 2022
Gold
Sheri Byrne-Haber
Accessibility at Scale
2021 • Design at Scale 2021
Gold
Sara Asche Anderson
Not Your Ordinary Re-Brand: Design's Path to Driving Customer Obsession at Best Buy
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Bria Alexander
Welcome
2024 • Enterprise Experience 2020
Gold
Aiyana Bodi
Three Key Climate Initiatives and How You Can Help
2024 • Climate UX Interest Group
Farid Sabitov
Automatization for Large Enterprise Teams
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Mariesa Lenz
What Beekeeping Taught me about Product Teams
2025 • Rosenfeld Community
Harry Max
Priority Zero: Some Things are More Equal than Others
2016 • Enterprise UX 2016
Gold
Luke Roberts
Panel Discussion
2024 • Advancing Service Design 2024
Gold
Lisa Gironda
Opener: Chief of Staff–An unexpected journey
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2020
Gold
Patrizia Bertini
The (r)evolution of designOps: It’s Time to Think (really) BIG
2025 • DesignOps Summit 2025
Gold
Brendan Jarvis
It was the Best of Times. It was the Worst of Times.
2024 • DesignOps Summit 2024
Gold
Louis Rosenfeld
Coffee with Lou
2024 • Rosenfeld Community
Failure Friday #4: Invisible Work: How I Stalled My Career by Not Showing My Work
2025 • Rosenfeld Community

More Videos

Marc Fonteijn

"If you don’t feel connected and you’re standing alone, the challenge looks much bigger."

Marc Fonteijn Ru Butler

Increase your confidence, influence, and impact (through a Professional Community)

December 3, 2024

Dem Gerolemou

"Design’s value is in asking meaningful questions and steering towards the right outcome, not getting bogged down in technical parameters."

Dem Gerolemou Alexis Oh Neef Rehman

Climate technology fundamentals

May 15, 2024

Daniela Magaña Flores

"We use a holistic methodological approach combining explicit and implicit quantitative methods to fully get the user's perspective."

Daniela Magaña Flores Ariane Rahn Jeff Ephraim Bander

Ahead of Competition: Learn What UX Benchmarking Can Do for Your Business Today

March 10, 2022

Abbey Smalley

"Target’s internal teams varied in design maturity from totally nonexistent to full design strategy, so we had to meet them where they were."

Abbey Smalley Sylas Souza

Scaling UX Past the Size of Your Team

January 8, 2024

Patrick Commarford

"Our CIO, Fletcher Prev, has always made the employee experience his North Star."

Patrick Commarford

Design Staffing for Impact

January 8, 2024

Xenia Adjoubei

"The tapestry exhibition will be a three-dimensional map co-created with refugees and local school kids to reflect their stories."

Xenia Adjoubei Sean Bruce

Empowering Communities Through the Researcher in Residence Program

March 29, 2023

Craig Villamor

"Under a system which promotes growth at all cost and views engagement of time and data as monetary gain, digital products converge as they all race to employ the design patterns that generate the fattest bottom line."

Craig Villamor

Design Systems for Ethical Design

January 26, 2023

Jon Fukuda

"Design teams face challenges because inputs live in PDFs, Figma files, Slack messages, spreadsheets, and more."

Jon Fukuda Ellie Krysl

Design Planning and Management Support

October 3, 2023

Iain McMaster

"Our hypothesis was we could create better product faster with more eyes looking at the problem, not just product."

Iain McMaster IHan Cheng

Design and Product: from Frenemy to Harmony

November 29, 2023