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Updated October 11, 2023You’re reading an excerpt of Land Your Dream Design Job, a book by Dan Shilov. Filled with hard-won, personal insights, it is a comprehensive guide to landing a product design role in a startup, agency, or tech company, and covers the entire design interview process from beginning to end, for experienced and aspriring designers. Purchase the book to support the author and the ad-free Holloway reading experience. You get instant digital access, commentary and future updates, and a high-quality PDF download.
| Time | Interview type | Present |
|---|---|---|
| 1 hour | Portfolio presentation | Cross-functional team and designers |
| 45 minutes | Whiteboard exercise | 1–2 designers |
| 30 minutes | App critique | 1–2 designers |
| 30 minutes | Product collaboration | Product manager |
| 30 minutes | Design collaboration | Designer |
| 30 minutes | Engineering collaboration | Engineering manager or engineer |
| 30 minutes | Team fit | Hiring manager |
| 30 minutes | Wrap up | Recruiter |
After learning the schedule, now’s the opportunity to learn more about your interviewers—if this company has already invested time in getting to know you, it’s only fair that you should get to know them too. Start with LinkedIn and look at each interviewer’s profile: their experience, common connections, and recent posts. Look for their other online social networks or sites where they were mentioned or shared their work. If you’re applying to a startup or a smaller company, be sure to research the leadership team too.
This info will be useful during the interview itself, as it will help you:
Anticipate types of questions you’ll get asked.