Applications

What to include before you click submit.

Overview

Applications for design roles generally require just a few things:

Resume

Portfolio

Cover Letter*

Short essay questions (rarely required or asked for)

*Should I include a cover letter for design roles?

While a cover letter requirement is rare, if there’s a place to submit one and you really care about the role, it never hurts to write one. You can also create a personal cover letter template and adjust it for each application to save time.

Timeline

Start looking for roles in the beginning of fall for roles in the following summer, but don’t panic if there aren’t many UX postings - design recruiting occurs primarily in the spring, after the big push in the fall for SWE recruiting, and interviews can continue close to summer.

Some companies evaluate applications on a rolling basis and some have set deadlines after which they begin the first screening. When you hear back really depends, and like for SWEs, ghosting is not uncommon. :/