Recently, I’ve been talking with several interviewer friends, and one topic keeps coming up again and again: AI. But not just in a general sense. More specifically, how to tell whether a candidate is truly “AI-native.” At the same time, many of my students have been sharing similar experiences. Whether they are applying for design or research roles, they are almost always asked some version of: “How do you leverage AI in your work?” And simply saying “I use ChatGPT for resear

Most designers don’t struggle because of their design skills. They struggle because they don’t know how to communicate with people who don’t speak design. Executives don’t think in Figma files or visual hierarchy. They think in revenue, efficiency, risk, and outcomes. If you want your work to land, you need to translate design into something they care about. Here are 9 principles that will change how you present your work. 1. Speak Business, Not Design ❌ Saying “we improved u

Ten years ago, I graduated with an HCI degree and landed a full-time offer in Los Angeles after casually applying for a month. Today, many candidates from top schools, with strong internships and polished portfolios, struggle to even get interviews. This is not because you are not good enough. The market has changed. The bar is higher, competition is stronger, and hiring has become much more selective. In this environment, being good is no longer enough. What you need is stra

Job searching can feel exhausting. You revise your resume over and over again. You go through rounds of interviews. Sometimes you even get close, only to be rejected, or worse, have an offer taken away. Every day, you push yourself to keep going. But the more you try, the more lost you may start to feel. If this sounds familiar, I want to tell you something simple. You are not alone. And in today’s environment, getting a job is no longer just a test of your skills. It is also

As our society undergoes rapid technological transformation, working at a startup has become part of many people’s journey. Yet, startup experience comes with both strengths and weaknesses. On the positive side, you move fast, take end to end ownership, and can turn ideas into execution quickly. You are also used to working under pressure and navigating ambiguity. On the downside, processes are often unstructured, systems are not mature, and decisions are rarely driven by str

When a company does layoffs, the "kill list" isn't built by auditing who worked the hardest. It's built from impressions — what your skip-level remembers about you, what your cross-functional partners would say if asked, how you show up in people's mental models of the team. The same dynamic applies to intern conversions and promotions. The decision-maker isn't reviewing your Figma file count or code base. They're going off their perception of your skills, your impact, and yo

Starting a new job is exciting, but it can also feel overwhelming. Especially if you’ve just joined a larger organization, the volume of information, stakeholders, and expectations can hit all at once. Many new hires feel pressure to prove themselves quickly and rush into output. But in reality, the fastest way to grow is rarely by moving fast in the beginning. Start by Building Your Foundation System Before focusing on output, make sure your setup is stable. This includes

I didn’t wake up one day and decide to become a coach. For years, I was just doing my job: UX research, product strategy, mentoring junior UXers & college students, sitting in hiring committees, interviewing candidates. But a pattern kept showing up. Some of the most capable, thoughtful product builders I met were the ones struggling the most to get offers, recognition, or promotions. That’s when something clicked. Doing the Work ≠ Getting the Outcome We like to believe that

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Are you a college student or recent grad trying to get a job in UX, or are you pivoting to UX from a different function? There is a good...