When biasses become suspicious.The perceived reality behind the UX job recruiting scene

Struggles of a candidate

I send many resumes -tens and tens every day — worldwide, but I receive very few visits if none for days, on my Behance portfolio, personal website or LinkedIn profile.

• Sometimes, I receive feedback with a ready-made e-mail saying the company opted for someone who better fits their expectations.
• I am invited to very few interviews with talent recruiters.
• I’m a typical candidate. Nothing different than anyone else is already experiencing. Maybe a bit more naif than the others.

But, what am I thinking of this whole experience?

• I have to understand how to cut corners and be more efficient in what I do. That is, get a job.
• I cannot accept one day like the other. I have to progress, all the time. I have to learn.
• I study behaviours. I look for patterns. I observe and funnel conclusions.
• I make my own biases, based on non-scientific methods, but that’s what I have at the moment, and I’m here to share it with you and invite you to share your feelings.
• I didn’t talk directly to anyone in the field or to tech recruiters to gather my conclusions or, better say suspicions. My suspicions come from my lack of understanding and frustration in these months of job hunting.

My suspicions:

• There is not such a thing as: “We are happy people who love people and design for people”. It seems to me a catchy phrase to look good to potential clients.
• If they are so humanly touched, why don’t they provide personal feedback to everyone?

Agencies are the pictograph of modern times: Ford mass production analogy.

• Talent scouts don’t look for talents.

My definition of talent:

Someone with high potential, who need to be discovered and polished. Think for example of the very young Luis Hamilton or Lionel Messi, to cite a few. They were discovered when very young, or better say, as soon as real talent scouts noticed their potential.

• Job ‘talent scouts’ look for fast task-solvers.

Task-solvers are good professionals, maybe ex-talents, who have already proven experience and are ready to start being efficient from day one. No training is needed. No soft skills are required. More human capital, more projects, more money. Hard to compete with that.

• UX soft skills?

I think companies don’t care much about soft skills. Not in the way they want to project. They just mention soft skills because it makes them look cool.

So, no matter how much I try to explain the vast contribution I can make through 17 years in education, observing the learning processes of students (neurolinguistics, cognitive science, behavioural psychology) and bringing these concepts to life in their companies -from an intrapreneurial perspective, they look at me making me feel I’m in a sketch of “Goodness Gracious Me” with the punch line: Yeah, but how big is your danda?
Figma being the danda.

• Job postings are fictional.
• Or at least, most of them seem to be. Companies are not in urgent need of professionals as they pretend. The job posting is free advertising or a good investiment. It’s a way to be present, all the time. Make people (prospects and candidates) aware of their presence. Make people be part of their culture: the one about “we are happy people who love people and care about people”.
• More job openings, more visibility. It also suggests that the company is growing at a high pace. It’s good to show to prospects and job seekers, whether they are seeking candidates or not.

Who’s not seen is not remembered.

• Job postings are useful to collect data.

Aren’t you annoyed to fill in application forms every time you apply for a job?

Why is that? Well, it seems to me, they don’t wanna pay for some robots to extract these free data from the resumes. They have already an army of anxious, positive-minded and hopeful people doing their diligence to get the aspired conquest.

• Agencies are cynics.

And after answering all those questions, after they ask you to record a video, then they ask you: Why do you want to work for us? — I’m looking for a job, dude!
Ok, I can understand someone is switching jobs to search for new opportunities, but it’s still a dumb question with usually a dumb answer. Or, they need their daily narcissistic dose to remind them how cool they are. Don’t play with people’s feelings. People genuinely feel they can make a difference in your company.

• The networks.
• If you don’t know anyone inside that company, your chances diminish. If you know many people working for many companies you’ll get first-hand information and you are then sure there is a true vacancy there. Your connection may even, and often does, put a good word for you.
• You are cut off from applying to the same company if you have already done it in the last 6 months. But they don’t tell you. And you, naifly fill in, again an application form and rely on faith -this time I’ll get it, you say. And when you are not successful, what do they tell you? Apply again!”, just to reinforce the ‘culture-trigger’ with a sentiment of craving.
• Sometimes, robots parse through keywords. No keywords? 6 months detention!

• There aren’t so many great designers, as they proud themselves of, in these companies.

Otherwise, I wouldn’t suffer so much navigating their sites. Talk about pain points. You know them all. Say, I’m applying through LinkedIn, why do you ask me where did I hear about the vacancy? 2022 and you can’t pay a coder to catch this information for you? I feel like saying ‘Didn’t you see I’ve just come from there?’ All the concers about cookies and privacy and they don’t know where I’m coming from? and then 4–0–4 pages, buttons positioned in the wrong place or with the wrong priority, shiny mouse cursors that give me headaches etc… — Many websites and apps they make, look the same. I ask myself: Where’s all this innovation they’re talking about?

• UX Designer is not a new profession.

It is just a fairly new definition that sells better and more profitably to the eyes of prospects.

• Task-solvers are Figmers.
• UX designers don’t do any ideation: they are just Figmers. The ideation is made by the boss. Figmers receive orders and comply with it.
• UX designers don’t know much about web design coding.
• UI designers are graphic designers, UX designers are information designers and user researchers are marketing researchers.

Professions that have already been present for decades.
I’m a ’90s information designer. Although I graduated in Information Design 22 years ago, I have never had the chance to practice. I observe these changes ever since.

• The UX bubble burst?

I think there is a lot of hype around UX — just like 2000. Nasdaq is down and a recession is coming. Eyes wide open.

Conclusion

I don’t think anyone in the UX or job recruiting is a bad person or simply apathetic. I want to believe it’s the opposite.

I think though, there are procedures in the market that force certain adjustments ruled by the ever-present condition of Competition. Job recruiters have to respond to a specific profile drawn by the agencies: task-solvers. We are pragmatical by nature. No feelings in the Kanban, just plain work. Work in the Kanban! Work in the Kanban! 🎸

Considering the world order as it is, I greatly believe that professionals in these areas have to be well paid because they provide a service and, this service is made by experts. And experts bring with them knowledge. We pay high rates to other professionals, it’s fair and just apply it to the design industry.

But I also believe UX professionals and recruiters, like teachers are agents of change. And these are not plain good loving words to gain the heart of a-wonderful-world believers.

We can certainly persuade clients that changes for the good bring more business to them — Equity-focus design, for example.

• Do you want to spread some real culture? Give!

Make some good investment in HR and start treating every single candidate as they deserve.

• Give personal feedback to every single candidate. A video, with captions, will be a plus.
• Make an online one-week sprint workshop (4 hours for 5 days) and choose those who better perform. If you are able to spot a real talent it’s good for them and the company. Those who weren’t successful learn how to better perform next time. They aren’t simply ignored. They come out one step closer to success.
• Make in-house tutorial videos showing the procedures people follow on a project in your company. If you use any Agile methods, components naming hierarchy, show what is the level of hard skills required on a video, not on a job description — because, the truth is, after a while, candidates don’t really read job descriptions, they all look the same. Don’t be vague, be specific, and be unique.

And then, only then, you can say that you care about people.

So, don’t just use catchy words if you don’t commit yourself to putting them into practice. No need to build fairy stories.