7 UX Designer CV Examples and a Template

As an aspiring UX designer, consulting samples and templates to compile your CV can answer many questions to help you craft your best CV. For example, how should you list the skills you have? What kind of design can you use so that it looks appealing but not over-designed?

Explore several UX designer CV examples to inspire your own CV, plus a template to help you begin. 

UX designer CVs: From current learners to senior designers

The following seven CVs are from designers at various stages in their careers. Though no CV is ever perfect, you can learn a lot by seeing what other people have done before you. Each has several takeaways you can incorporate into your own.

1. Current learner

What you can learn:

• Emphasise any relevant experience, including internships or extracurriculars, to build out your CV. Look for opportunities on campus to exercise the skills you’ll want to use professionally. Join a student group that will let you use your design skills. You can also approach the leadership of a group in which you’re already a member to see if you can take on any design projects, like designing social media posts or a website. Visit your career centre to see if they can connect you with design internships and other opportunities. 

• As a learner, you might have limited work experience. Don’t be afraid to add experience that doesn’t directly involve design. Work or club involvement that shows your passions or workplace skills, like time management, collaboration, or communication, can also be beneficial.

2. UX design intern

What you can learn:

• As an intern, you might not have led teams yet. However, you probably learned new skills and left an impression. Thinking about how your work impacted a product, team, or company can be a good starting point to decide what to emphasise.

3. UX designer

What you can learn: 

• At this stage, you have some solid experience, so it makes sense to list it before your completed education. 

• Generally, it’s a good idea to organise jobs chronologically to help hiring managers understand your career progression. However, you can make an exception if you want to emphasise something before everything else. A CV that prioritises your skills and areas of expertise is called a “functional” or “skills-based” CV

4. Product designer

What you can learn:

• You can describe your work experience in bullet-point lists or short sentences. Choose the format that allows

  you to convey your work accomplishments effectively.

5. Senior UX designer

What you can learn:

• Aarav transitioned his career from a systems analyst to a UX designer. If you are changing jobs, it can be helpful to briefly reference what you were doing before, if space allows. Doing so can give the recruiter a more complete picture of who you are and showcase your unique skills and background.

• If you feel squeezed for space, check to see if your CV has excessive white space or adjust your font sizes (though make sure it’s still easily readable). It’ll be a good idea to have somebody you trust review your CV to catch any errors you might have overlooked.

6. Creative director, UX designer, and leader

What you can learn:

• If you have the space, you can include some facts about yourself outside of your design experience that can help humanise you and make you memorable to a recruiter.

7. Senior product designer

What you can learn: 

• Giving more room to your relevant experiences can be a good idea. Keep in mind this doesn’t always have to mean the most recent. Consider the job you’re applying to and choose the projects and skills that align most closely with employers' requirements.

• Using whitespace and design elements can make a resume look clean and give it space to breathe. However, remember to prioritise the content you want to include. If you’re dying to incorporate a fun design element but find it just won’t fit, don’t worry—you’ll have your portfolio to show off your creativity too.

UX designer CV template

A blank page can be intimidating. This template can be used for inspiration.

The simple template makes it easy to customise your CV according to your tastes. Experiment with fonts, add a dash of colour, add another column, or rearrange any information to fit your needs. You may need to download the template and open it in a word processing program to make certain adjustments, like changing column widths.

The essentials

No matter how you format and design your CV, specific details are still necessary. You’ll want to make sure you have the following items in your CV:

• Name and contact information: Make sure you include your name, email address, link to a portfolio, and phone number listed somewhere easy to spot. You can also include your street address.

• Portfolio: UX design CVs often include links to online portfolios that showcase a designer’s previous work. Place this in a clearly visible place, like under your contact information. 

• Relevant experience: List your relevant experience in reverse chronological order, from most to least recent. Include the name of your employer, your title, applicable dates, and a short description of what you did and any significant achievements in a brief paragraph or bullet point list.

• Education: List your education history, including the name of your college or university, degree title, and the years you attended. 

• Skills: Having a separate list of skills can be good in design-oriented CVs because they allow hiring managers to see what technical skills you have quickly. List any tools you’re familiar with in this section. 

• What sets you apart: If you have the space, consider creating a section for achievements, recognitions, or even fun facts. If it won’t all fit on your CV, don’t worry—list what you think is essential and put the rest on your portfolio website.

What if I’ve never worked in UX design before?

Even if you haven't worked as a UX designer, chances are you have some skills and experiences lined up that relate to the job. These can be experiences you’ve had in related fields like graphic design or web development. They can also include roles where relevant workplace skills, like collaboration, communication, or time management, played an important part.

If you’re starting from scratch or looking to build up your technical skills in UX design, consider enrolling in the Google UX Design Professional Certificate. You’ll learn how to conduct user research, use design tools like Figma and Adobe XD, and create your own portfolio.

Designing your CV

Readability should be a priority in your CV, but you’ll find some elements you can play with:

• Colours: Your inner designer might tempt you to experiment with colour on your CV—pops of colour can certainly make a CV interesting. However, keep it simple and save any significant design efforts for your portfolio. Stick with black text to make it easy to read. Keep in mind that recruiters may print your CV, so make sure any elements you put in colour are still legible if printed in black and white ink.

• Typefaces: Choose a simple and clean font for your text. You can experiment with more interesting fonts for small elements like your name or specific headings, so long as they’re still clearly legible. Try bolding or italicise headings, or information like dates, for visual variety.

• PDF it: Using columns, colourful elements, or hard-to-find fonts can make for appealing CVs, but they increase the chance of formatting errors in a Microsoft Word doc. Saving and sending your CV as a PDF will make sure your recipient will see what you intended them to see.

What to avoid

The goal of an excellent UX designer CV is to help you stand out and catch recruiters’ attention. Review a few potential missteps to ensure you’re in as competitive a position as you can be:

• Typos and errors: Make sure to double-check for spelling mistakes and formatting errors. You’ll want to be sure the first impression you’re giving is your best. Try having somebody you trust look through your CV for any errors you might have missed.

• Multiple pages: Though it might be tempting to do otherwise, limit your CV to two pages as a maximum. Choose information that you think is relevant to the job. Any information you can’t fit can go into your portfolio or website.

Prepare for your UX designer career on Coursera

Putting together a CV can be a challenge, but it can also be an excellent opportunity to reflect on your past accomplishments and think deeply about your next career move. It might also identify gaps in your skill set or clarify your strengths. 

If you’re interested in sharpening your UX design skills—and earning a credential in the process—consider the Google UX Design Professional Certificate on Coursera. You’ll learn UX concepts, practice user research, and create a professional portfolio, leaving you job-ready in less than six months.