Get direct and tell employers what you want.

Every spring, most designers I know get the following inquiries from various companies sent to them via email, text message and sometimes by fax:

• URGENT! Senior UX Designer needed for 12/Month Contract in Irving, TX
• 120k+ Opportunity w/Digital Client in Houston, TX — UX Architect
• Still looking? Sign up for Squiggle and get top placement with employers!
• NEEDED NOW! Principal UI/UX Designer who cooks, cleans and juggles.

It’s a seasonal occurrence, with the majority of them coming in early spring or late summer. Some will engage with a follow-up phone call that pretty much copies what’s said in the email. I half expect Google Home to start asking me “Hi Robert. Are you still looking for a job? Someone needs you right now for a 6-month contract.”

Most are headhunters or small contracting outfits that are looking to make money w/finders fees and contractual agreements for representation in case you do eventually succeed in landing the job. It’s part of the game, and you’re just a means to an end for the most part, provided you are also looking to eat and live in a lighted, heated home.

However, there’s another brand of inquiry altogether. One that’s much more lucrative and compelling for most.

You get invited to have a conversation.

These engagements are more meet-n-greet in nature. You get a general idea of what the person wants to talk about (situation and context) and what they’d like to cover. Eventually, the conversation steers towards what you’re looking for as a designer and your next opportunity.

In my experience, very few designers are prepared to speak at length about what they really want. The ones that are prepared have been doing a lot of interviews and are naturally oriented to respond (given the amount of practice they’ve had).

I believe you should always be open to opportunities. Most of the designers I manage are like that. They’re happy where they are, but wouldn’t mind having a conversation about where things could go… especially if an opportunity aligns with their strengths and professional goals.

So, I’m proposing that we get prepared… way in advance.

We do that by publishing, in full view for everyone to consider, what we really want out of our next engagement.

Now… I can hear you mumble to yourself as you read this:

“No way! My current employer/manager/company would rage quit me on the spot!”

Really? Do you know how hard it is to fire people?
And why would they fire you?

Chances are they’d rather keep you than get rid of you, given how painful it is to ramp people up in a short period of time. You have tribal/contextual knowledge that is really hard to replace.

So let’s dispel that fear right off the bat.

What we’re really doing here is telling perspective employers well in advance what you’re after, even when you’re not available to tell them directly. If your company wants to keep you around, they should be paying attention as well.

I’ll start by listing my own.

1. I have to work for a servant leader.
   I need to work with someone who’s into servant leadership. If I’m reporting to someone that sees employees as a fundamental means to an end, or leans towards a coin-operated style where results are all that matters, I’m just not interested.
2. I need to be involved with Design Sprints as part of my duties.
   Design Sprints are the modern recipe for applying design thinking. While the original process was published in 2016 in the book ‘Sprint’, it’s been steadily gaining relevance. First with agencies, and then with academia and Fortune 500 companies. McKinsey, one of the largest consulting firms in the world, have published their own version of the process. It’s getting stickier every year, and I’m a true believer of the process.
3. I need to manage a team of design professionals
   I enjoy managing others and being invested in their success. If I can be part of their development and professional growth while positioning them for relevance, there’s where I need to be.
4. I need to be part of the greater conversation on company growth.
   I’m concerned about growth, revenue and profitability. I want to make an impact on the market I’m focused on. I’ve run my own business, and I’ve mentored others on startups. I understand how knowing the business you’re in is table stakes for designers these days. Make me part of that conversation.
5. I need direct access to customers and users.
   No proxies, go-betweens, or arranged meetings with a third party. I want the user experience I’m concerned with to truly be about our customers, their issues, the problems they’re trying to solve, and what matters to them.
6. I’m not going to sacrifice my personal time for work.
   I maximize whatever hours I have for my work engagement. I can flex when needed, but I’m not a workaholic. There’s enough research to show that the philosophy of never turning off is catastrophic in so many ways. I’m not joining an organization that can’t draw rational, realistic lines of expectation on the use of my available time.

Btw, did you notice what I didn’t put in there?

Money, salary and benefits.
And here’s why…

Those monetary aspects of any job can be replenished. I can be unemployed for a while, and scrape by on what I can get. I can afford to be out of pocket, as I have other means of income I can lean on.

What I can’t take back is time.

I’m at a point in my career where time wasted at work is a horrible nightmarish scenario. I can never get that back. It’s gone. I’ve been at jobs where I was fine dialing it in and collecting a paycheck. No longer.

I’ll never let any particular engagement attempt to marginalize the impact I can bring. If I’m properly aligned and engaged, I’m one of the best there is at what I do. I’ve proven it over and over again, and I’m more than happy to showcase it for other audiences in my work and approach.

So if you’re reading this, and thinking about writing up your own list for others to consider, please do! Feel free to send me the URL when you get it done, and I’d be really interested in reading it.