The Surprising Facts Regarding Design Recruitment Nobody Has Ever Told You

Looking for the best designers is never an easy thing. A few months ago, a friend asked me to help him to find a good designer. I initially thought that it would easy as long considering they possess great design skills and an impressive portfolio. A good display of work is always the most direct reflection of the designer’s ability; However, my friend insisted on having a face to face interview as he is more interested in personality rather than design ability. I didn’t understand what was behind his thought process until I read this article in a magazine:

The recruitment standards of the world-class Vuitton- Kennedy advertising company is very special. They value one’s personality and attitude, rather than design capabilities. They claimed that the professional creative ability can be trained, but the personality cannot.

I now have a more expansive understanding of why my friend said:“recruiting is never an easy thing”. What is important in recruiting a good designer? One must consider the following points:

1. An optimistic and sincere person is going to be more valuable in a team environment

An optimistic and enthusiastic person is the driving force of a creative team. What’s more important is that if the person is happy they will drive the morale of the whole team. A happy person is usually not going to be arrogant and indifferent. They always possess a strong capacity of organization and coordination, and they can get new people quickly involved in the team.

A sincere person will more than likely not possess hypocritical traits. In a team environment, the most time is wasted beating around the bush. With a sincere person leading a team or being majorly involved, we can spend more time on the work, trust each other, and feel free to speak about what is on our minds. We can make reasonable suggestions that will not be distorted by others; we’re more likely to treat others sincerely, and also be honest and find ways to better our work.

2. Innocent children have the best creativity

“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” — Pablo Picasso

In my first interview, I was asked what my strongest skill was. I replied, “Innocence and curiosity.” The main reason I chose this response was because innocence will not be secular and always maintain a child-like curiosity. “Be curious like a child. Look at things with a child’s eye, and ask questions you have never asked before, explore with a beginner’s mind. Don’t be afraid to ask why, and what if, and why not? Always keep curiosity and love of things, you will find the subtle beauty of life.

3. Always choose the best people to work with

Would you like to be a team leader or a team player? How could you answer that?

If I was asked this question I would choose to be a team player because I want to work with the best people, that way I can consistently continue to improve myself, make progress, and gain experience from the best people. When you work with the best people, you will find that their work intensity can replace the work of 2–3 people, and they are experienced in a sense that they are able to deal with different situations, and maintain a high comprehensive ability, consistently. They are not only good at one aspect. They maintain versatility and self-discipline with their own goals in mind, and do not need supervision.

As Joel Spolsky said: “A single good programmer working on a single task has no coordination or communication overhead. Five programmers working on the same task must coordinate and communicate. That takes a lot of time. The real trouble with using a lot of mediocre programmers instead of a couple of great ones is that no matter how long they work, they never produce something as good as what the great programmers can produce. Five Antonio Salieris won’t produce Mozart’s Requiem. Ever. Not if they work for 100 years.”

4. Match the team.

A predecessor told me that she had a wide variety of people who wanted to work for her company. She told them the following: “You are all very talented, but we need people who can match our team.” A humble person who can get quickly involved in the team is more valuable than an egotistical master.

5.Previous work experience and education are not the most important in finding a great designer

The first two years before starting work is the most optimal time to create value and desire to learn things. Here are some advice: master one or two design tools that would be useful for your job, like Axure, Mockplus, UXPin, Justinmind and so on. If you want to be more professional in this industry, these 30 best online course websites would be your first step to a successful career.

Last but not at least, designers should label themselves not as a “designer”, but as a salesman. You’re selling the most important thing which is your ideas. Salesmen are inclined to possess great communication skills, which should be possessed by a designer also. A designer that possesses great communication and writing skills will greatly improve the productivity of a company.

Special thanks to Michael Mahrt for helping me with this article.

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