How to get a job with Shopify UX
A four-step guide to take you from interested to interviewing
In the summer of 2017, on the back of a tweet from Amy Thibodeau, I speculatively applied for a role as a Content Strategist at Shopify. I had literally no expectation of it going anywhere. Zilch. Zero. I mean this was Shopify, with its famous Polaris design system and roster of high-profile UXers.
I’d read that only 0.03% of people who applied to Shopify were hired. They’d surely want people who came from Apple or Google? Not me, from a relatively unknown tech firm based in England.
But apply I did and, as always, I tailored my application to the job. Sure, my current job title wasn’t Content Strategist, but I’d made UX writing a thing at my company over the previous two or three years. I’d been doing all the things that the job ad mentioned. So, I made sure that my resume was aligned to the job ad, and included a short covering letter saying why I’d love to work at Shopify.
A month later, I was on holiday on a small island with limited internet, and I received an email with the enigmatic subject line “Shopify”, proposing a first interview the following week. Less than seven days later I sat in my hotel room, batting away mosquitos in the tropical heat while speaking with Shane from the Talent Acquisition (TA) team at Shopify. And a few months later I was flying to Montreal, Canada, to start my new job.
Fast-forward a few years and I’m now a UX Manager, hiring for folks to join my team. And it’s not just me who’s hiring: Shopify is growing at a fast clip. At any given time we have multiple positions open for a range of roles and levels of experience. Over the last 12 months I’ve been in 10s of interviews, I’ve read 100s of resumes, and looked through 1000s of LinkedIn profiles.
So why am I writing this now? Because we don’t want the interview process to be scary and unknown. I want to help you to show us why we should hire you.
This four-step process isn’t a prescriptive list, and, as you’ll see, I encourage you to make your application personal. If you’re serious about joining the Shopify UX team, there are some basics that you’ll want to do.
1. Before you apply
You’ve seen a job at Shopify, maybe someone you met at a conference sent you a link, and you’re buzzing to get your application in. Slow down for a moment. Before you apply, the first thing that you’ll want to do is to read the job ad again.
Do your skills match the job description? Is there a location mentioned? A level of seniority? Let’s unpack this a little.
Location
Shopify is Digital by Default. This means that unless a job is specifically marked as not remote, then it will be work from home (WFH). Before you apply, ask yourself if you like the freedom of WFH, or if you prefer to work in a bustling office.
While the jobs are remote, many teams are built around folks sharing the same core hours; in other words they’re located in the same or similar time zones. So if the location is marked as Americas, that doesn’t exclude Europeans, but you may be expected to work hours that line up with your North American-based colleagues. Great if you’re a night owl, not so great if you do your best work at the crack of dawn.
Seniority
There are a few levels that we hire at. The recruitment process at Shopify is conducted with high care, and we do our best to fit people to roles, but you’ll increase your chances by applying for the right job. Our hiring team prioritizes the most important roles to fill every three months. So if there’s not a role that you’re interested in right now, keep checking!
It helps to apply at a level that matches your experience.
- Intern — You’ll have some relevant experience, either through your studies or work experience. The application process for interns is every quarter and you’ll be expected to demonstrate that you can bring value to your team.
- Content/Product Designer — You’ll need some years of direct experience and/or clear transferable skills. Even if you don’t have the same job title you might have the right experience.
- Senior Content/Product Designer — You’ll have multiple years’ direct experience of working in a UX role at least at a senior level.
- Staff Content/Product Designer — You’ll have many years’ direct experience of working in a UX role at very senior levels. You’ll be expected to lead the development of UX within your product area, and mentor other UXers.
- Content Manager/UX Manager — The same seniority level as a Staff Content/Product Designer, you’ll have experience leading a team of UXers.
Job description
Can you do this job? Do you have the skills and experience required?
If you’re a Product Designer then you’ll likely have the most success with a Product Designer role. If there isn’t a Product Designer role advertised right now then hang on, there will be soon :-).
If you’re a realtor or an airline pilot, then the Content Designer role may not be the best fit for you. But, if you have a background in journalism or copy-writing then consider applying.
We’re 100% open to folks with transferable skills — some of the Content Design team come from backgrounds such as journalism and creating library taxonomies.
2. Applying
So, you know this is the right role for you. You’re excited. But how do you make your application stand out? Here’s a few things that you can try.
Have a well-designed resume
This is less about making it visually beautiful, but more about making the information architecture effective. In other words, putting the right content in the right order.
- Start with a summary to get the person reading interested (known as front-loading).
- Where possible align it to the responsibilities and qualifications in the job ad — make it easy for the recruiter to see that you’re a good fit.
- Show clear evidence of the impact you’ve had in previous roles.
- Include relevant items from outside your day job, for example, if you do volunteer work in the design community.
- Keep it to two pages maximum, and focus on your most recent roles. If you’re applying for a Content Designer role then this is a great time to show off your editorial skills.
- Consider a covering letter or note, summarizing why you’d be a good fit, and what about the role excites you.
- Triple check for typos — demonstrate your attention to detail and read it out loud, slowly, before you hit submit.
Have a well-designed portfolio
I want to be clear here, this is 100% not required. But if I want to learn more about a candidate, being able to easily see examples of their work online is a great place to start. If you’d like some tips for how to build a great portfolio, this oldish Shopify blog will help you to get started.
3. Before you interview
So you’ve had an email from Shopify saying they want to interview you, and WOW THAT’S EXCITING! 💥😁.
Here are three things to think about as you prepare.
Context
This is where you really want to do some groundwork. For example, you’ll probably want to read more about interviewing at Shopify.
You may want to listen to a podcast with Shopify’s own Holly Fortier, the Recruitment Lead for UX, which is gold-dust, full of nuggets such as how to approach the famous “life story” interview.
“We’re really looking to get to know the person that we’re talking to, and through that interview, we’re looking for specific qualities around self-awareness, indications of impact and engagement in people’s past roles, if their skills and experience are aligned to what we’re looking for in this opportunity. And really those kinds of non-tangible skills that will kind of predict if we think someone’s going to be successful with Shopify.”
You’ll likely want to read up on Shopify and your potential future team. You’ll learn what’s valuable to them, what they’re building, and how to frame your conversations with them.
You could even set up your own Shopify store to play with using the free trial.
Storytelling
We have a lot of candidate applications at Shopify, and one thing that’s guaranteed to help you stand out is having a story to tell us about yourself.
- Who are you?
- How did you get to where you are in your career, and how will that add value to Shopify?
- What about Shopify excites you?
- What makes you the right person for this role?
- Do you have examples of where you’ve demonstrated an entrepreneurial spirit?
We want to see you’re as enthusiastic to be here as we are. We want to work with people who’ll make us think. We want to understand how you can help our team. Plan out the story you’re going to tell us to get us excited to work alongside you.
Practice
For my interviews I was flown out to Ottawa for four days. The day before the interview I spent the entire day in my hotel room practicing. I had to present a deck and I wanted it to go smoothly.
I just dug out the deck, here’s a slide from it.
Of course now all our interviews are remote, and you can have notes up on your screen. You do have some notes prepared right? It’s a great way to help you clarify your story.
The interview steps generally follow this order, though we do sometimes tweak them to help them fit your calendar.
- Initial call with someone from our Talent team.
- Life story interview then an initial work/portfolio review.
- Pair working session, then a Hiring Manager interview.
When you get to the work/portfolio review, you’ll be expected to walk through some relevant work examples. Sharing two specific pieces is a good approach. This isn’t just a moment to show off your visual design skills (though of course we’re interested in that too), or to go through all the things you’ve ever worked on. You have a story to tell about yourself; you need one to tell about your work as well:
- About the user problems it solved
- The UX processes you invoked
- The options you explored
- The constraints you worked under
- How you collaborated with colleagues
- Data on the business value it’s brought
- Things you might have done differently in retrospect
Can you show it all in about 40 minutes, including time for questions? Only one way to find out. Well there’s two, but one of them is sub-optimal 😅
And if you’re doing a Product Designer pair working session, can you find your way around Figma? If you’re used to using other tools, then that’s fine, but ideally you don’t want to learn from scratch on the day.
Ask the recruiter what tech will be used (such as Google Hangouts), try out your setup, and go into the interviews feeling confident.
4. Interviewing
This is it. You’ve done your research, you have a winning story to tell, you’re excited to speak with some Shopifolk. Let’s check in with Holly Fortier again:
“We want people just to feel comfortable and relaxed when they’re chatting to us. And really our process is designed around setting them up for success to showcase their skills to us. And we want to give them the best possible chance to do that. And at the same time, recognizing that it’s a two-way street. So as much as we’re choosing people, people are choosing to spend most of their waking hours in a day with us.”
To make it to the interview stage, someone in the recruitment process thinks you might be the person we’re looking for. It’s up to you to prove them right. Whether it’s your first interview with a recruiter or your final stage interview with your potential future manager, there are a few simple things you can do.
- Be open and honest. Shopify hires individuals: the school you went to and companies you’ve worked for aren’t the most important thing. Your experience, and even more importantly your attitude, do matter. Do you want to learn and grow? Tell us.
- Be inquisitive. In most interviews you’ll have the opportunity to ask questions. Have some prepared, we want to know what’s important to you and how you think.
- Relax. There are no trick questions or gotchas. The interview process is intended to help you show us your best side.
Summary
Hopefully what I’ve shared here will encourage you to apply to Shopify, and to make the process a little easier and clearer. Successful applicants, while often hired by showing what they can do, also often stand out for the quality of their storytelling — about themselves, their work, and their motivations to join Shopify.
This year Shopify has hired 75 new UXers to date, and we will hire many more. There’s really no better place to grow yourself and your career, so what are you waiting for?
