It’s time to say NO to bad hiring practices in UX research

One of my purposes as a person is to listen to other people to help them grow and shine. That’s why, six years ago, I started mentoring others as a user experience researcher. I’ve always liked it. Besides, when I listen and share my knowledge and experiences with another person, I learn and grow, too. After more than a decade in the field, this is my way of giving back to the universe what I have received.

Questionable mentoring questions

I’ve mentored many (aspiring) UX researchers in Mexico, India, the United States, Peru, Spain, Colombia, and I’ve found many feeling insecure and lost…Here are some of the questions they came to mentorship sessions with:

“I started studying Figma, but I don’t have a prototype for my portfolio because I’m a UX Researcher. What should I do?”

“What should I do to learn UI?”

“I need to get an agile certification, which one do you suggest?”

“What programming knowledge should I acquire?”

“I have to submit a portfolio with my projects, how do I deal with confidentiality?”

“I’m doing a 2-day design challenge, what is your advice?”

“I changed my title to UX/UI, what other changes do I make to my resume?”

“I have to create a design system, where do I start?”

Conversation after conversation, all of this raised alerts. To all those questions my answer was why. We asked so many why’s, until I discovered that these were all requirements they ask for in UX research job recruitment. Or things that they were told in boot camps they needed to have better job prospects.

Questionable UXR hiring processes

Colleagues in Mexico, India, the United States, Peru, Spain, and Colombia were also in similar situations, experiencing bad hiring processes for UX research roles.

UX researchers studying Figma, UI, programming…because a recruitment process asked them to, while these skills correspond to other UX and Development roles. Them doing design challenges that take 4 weeks in 2 days, without real information, without a concrete problem or context. UX Researchers forced to submit portfolios without being told how they would be used. Or, being expected to showcase designs or confidential information.

Bad hiring practices put such pressure on UX research professionals to complete a course or certification that has nothing to do with them. And they end up feeling insecure, confused, or lost. They end up becoming someone else.

This has consequences not only for those UX researchers I met, but for the entire industry. For future colleagues, for the discipline, for the other disciplines which we interact with in our work, for companies.

Let’s stand up to this

It is important to talk about bad recruitment practices and the consequences they can have for UX researchers, or colleagues in any role.

We have to prevent more colleagues from getting lost. Let’s not accept bad hiring processes in UX research.

Every time we hear of a situation like this, instead of doing nothing, let’s do something.

Let’s:

• Educate the people in our organization, clients, recruiters, stakeholders about our role and our discipline.
• Mentor others, especially those starting out in UX (research).
• Correct the misinformation we often see posted on social media.
• Carry out good recruitment practices for our own teams.
• Talk about good UX research hiring practices at industry events.

Let ‘s do something.

In this way, we will collectively help improve the health of UX research, the wellbeing of our peers, the quality of our work and the image of our discipline.

>>>

EXTRA: Poster presentation on this topic by Miguel Baeza Menz at UXinsight Festival 2023 👇

Cover photo by Andrew Teoh on Unsplash