UX Hiring Managers Panel

How do I get a job in UX? What should I put on my resume? Do I need a portfolio? What skills do I need? What do they ask in the interview?

We hear these questions all the time, so we thought we’d go straight to the source for the answers. We’ll hear from a panel of local UX hiring managers—the ones actually reviewing resumes and conducting interviews—to answer your questions about getting hired in UX.

We’ll be collecting questions in advance for our panel to answer, so submit your questions today! There will also be some live Q&A time.

Panelists

Derren Hermann
Director, Interaction Design
Nationwide

Derren has worked in the field of user experience for over 15 years now. Today he is a director on Nationwide’s User Experience team and oversees a group of interaction designers and information architects. Derren has both an undergraduate degree in Cultural Anthropology and a Master of Information Science degree focused on Human-Computer Interaction. He tends to think that these two things go well together. Anyway, after school he did some UX work for an agency in Michigan prior to spending the last 10 years at Nationwide. At times he may seem unapproachable, but he actually likes talking to people.

Anne Leonard-Palmer
Senior Manager, User Experience and Content Management Team
Alliance Data

Anne Leonard-Palmer is a Senior Manager of the User Experience and Content Management teams at Alliance Data. Her group at Alliance Data is focused on web user experiences for loyalty, marketing, credit and account management for the credit card customers of more than 160+ national brands. Including her UX work at Alliance, Anne has 13+ years of leading user experiences ranging from running an ecommerce site to non-profit legal resource sites and leading Bob Evans digital marketing. In her spare time, Anne likes to bake. In 2015, she baked 50 unique pies–about one a week–to celebrate her 50th birthday.  Her resolution for 2016 is to not make as many pies.

Ashli Nixon
Director of Digital User Experience
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

With a background as a web designer, front-end developer and creative director at a digital agency, Ashli now leads the UX team at The Ohio State University Wexner Center and oversees a team of designers, front-end developers, analysts and strategists as we create innovative, insight-driven web experiences.

Bill Robinson
VP, Director of User Experience
GSW Advertising

Bill’s career has spanned the length and breadth of interactive design. He started his career in LA at ABC Television designing broadcast graphics on the Quantel Paintbox system. Not long after, he bought a black and white Mac Plus, set up shop and never looked back. Since then he has worked as an award-winning illustrator, designer, animator, producer, creative director, web and interactive developer, and most recently, UX expert. His work has benefitted big-name clients in entertainment, high tech, finance and healthcare.

For the past four years, Bill has been VP, Director of User Experience for GSW, where he helps the agency define best practices and methods for UX across existing and emerging digital platforms.

Marty Vian
Mgr. User Experience
Fuse by Cardinal Health

Marty has put in over 20 years as an information architect, interaction & visual designer, creative director, and has held multiple UX design leadership roles. Over that time, he built UX teams at 4 different companies—along the way co-founding and selling a start-up serving the U.S. philanthropic sector. In addition to years of client work, he’s been on product teams in other diverse markets including massive scale small business promotion, online equity crowdfunding, and most recently the target-rich field of healthcare. Currently at Fuse—Cardinal Health’s innovation lab—Marty is building his 5th UX team and together, they’re designing products they truly believe will make people’s lives easier, better, and longer.

Schedule

6 – 6:30pm: Food, drinks, and networking 
6:30 – 7:30pm: Panel discussion 
7:30 – 8pm: Questions and after-event mingling

Driving Directions

The Satellite address has just changed to 7400 Safelite Way, Columbus, OH 43235, though not all maps can find it yet. If that doesn’t work, use 2400 Farmers Drive. 

Take 270 toward Dublin and take exit #20 to Sawmill Rd. Go South on Sawmill Road. At the first light, turn left onto Snouffer Rd. Go straight through the first light on Snouffer Rd. The third street on your left will be Skyline Dr/SafeliteAutoGlass Way. Turn left onto that. As you start to curve left, the Safelite parking lot is right in front of you. They do have visitor spots, but you can park anywhere there isn’t a sign restricting parking.

When you come into the lobby, there will be a sign just past the front desk pointing you to the multi-purpose room. The room is to the left just past the front desk.