The right person for the job
Hiring is only the beginning
When you work in a small studio, every person you bring on board has an enormous impact on the day-to-day experience and culture of your company.
We don’t hire very often, and when we do there’s often a sense of urgency. But there’s also a desire to wait for the right person. Because the stakes are high. For starters, we’re going to be spending more time together than almost anyone else in our lives. Beyond that, we want to make sure we’re bringing someone into the mix who’s not only going to thrive in their own right but is also going to add something ineffable to the team as a whole. So…how do you hire for the ineffable?
We’ve put a lot of thought into this over the years. And we’ve learned so much from every person who has made our studio a part of their lives. Here’s a look into how we think about building our team, which in turn informs how every project we work on actually works.
We hire curious people who are good with words—not people who studied marketing.
Companies hire us to help them use language more effectively. Anyone applying for a job should know that about us. But you would be surprised at how many people interested in joining the team send us a poorly written email. I’m not necessarily talking about bad grammar or typos, though we get those, too. Mostly, I’m talking about something that resembles a formula. I mean, if you knew me, you would know I’m neither a Sir nor a Madam.
Every step of every project we work on requires pitch-perfect communication. Which means, in any interview, we are evaluating the form of the conversation as well as the content. And when we do come across that rare gem of a candidate, we also evaluate their writing style—with a test. Anyone who wants to use words for a living should enjoy this.
The writing should feel like a representation of their own voice—how they think and articulate their ideas. We want their response to sound like they do.
We believe in the lost art of apprenticeship.
While many people write to us saying they’ve always wanted to name companies or products, the practice of naming is not a gift you are born with—it’s something you have to learn. We don’t expect people to know how to do what we do before they join the team. But we do expect them to want to be the best they can be at it. We value skill-building in every aspect of our business. Every person who joins our team is paired with a mentor to work on specific skills, and encouraged to contribute to client projects and our own internal processes.
No two people learn the same way, or need to strengthen the same skills. Taking this individualized approach to training has allowed us to get new team members prepared for running client projects after only a few months.
We’re small. And we’re not trying to be big.
We’re currently a team of 7. A few years ago we were only 5. We’ve been growing slowly because it’s in everyone’s best interest if we only hire when we’re confident we have the right work to sustain us. This isn’t just about numbers. We’d rather be selective with which projects we take on than to say yes to projects because we need to.
Being small is advantageous because it allows us to evolve quickly. If something isn’t working right in our process, we can implement new changes immediately. It’s also ideal for our clients. They get to work directly with their creative team, not messengers. And the work is all the better for it.
Hiring can often feel like a search out there. But before you scan the horizon, you have to turn the gaze within. A little reflection can go a long way. Think about where you are as a studio. Then think about where you want to go. Then hire accordingly. And know that the real work has just begun.
