7 Red Flags During Your Interview With a Digital Agency

Navigating the digital waters of UX and UI design on your own can be challenging. As I searched for a full-time job as a Product Designer, I stumbled across many companies and positions. I thought it would be helpful to share what questions to ask and what red flags to pay attention to during an interview.

So, here are some things I noticed, and I hope this can help you make the right decision and avoid companies with toxic work environments.

The thing is that when you are a junior designer or junior anything, is that you are still learning — you are not an expert [yet], so you might feel vulnerable during interviews. Many employers take advantage of this by increasing your workload, underpaying you or making you figure out everything yourself without guidance. Many of us don’t have an established network of other designers to get information from, and we search the internet trying to understand what to expect on the job, what salaries to ask for, what would day-to-day look like, how our performance will be measured and so on. Some answers you can find online. But the truth is every company has their design process, team structure, expectations and, as a result, salary. Heck, some companies don’t even know the difference between UX and UI. So read further to learn about common red flags.

1. The company doesn’t distinguish between UX and UI and Product Design. Honestly, I am still trying to understand what the market wants from a Product Designer vs UX/UI designer because two years ago, this title exploded. I’ve stumbled upon job descriptions where the duties fitted UX/UI designer title more, yet the role was called Product Designer. After a few interviews with senior designers, I realized that the Product Designer is responsible for creating a design that achieves specific business metrics. So not only do you have to design accessible and user-centric wireframes — you have to address business problems. The difference between UX and UI is more straightforward. As a UX designer, you are responsible for performing user research, usability testing, and figuring out various user flows and paths. UI focuses more on pixels, margins, visual design and interactions on the final prototype. Usually, larger companies hire specifically UI designers and UX designers, while smaller ones or startups want one person to do both. So pay attention to the job description and, during the interview, ask if you are responsible for product metrics or gathering requirements directly from stakeholders. If they don’t know the difference, it’s a bad signal because the job might say “UI designer,” but you have to do it all and get paid less. Also, it means they don’t even know what to expect from the designer, and there might be little guidance for you. Be careful.
2. “We wear many hats” — this a red flag unless you want to do everything. You might be asked to create marketing copy, graphic design for marketing campaigns, digital marketing or even development. This phrase might suggest that the company wants you to be able to do a lot more than the job title might ask. Again, I’d be careful and probe more to figure out precisely what are the expectations. For example, some people can freak out if a client even expects them to do graphic design. Define your boundaries and what you are comfortable delivering. For me, a small logo and vector work and some branding are okay because I am creative and like to play around with them. Still, I want my main job to be focused on understanding users and user problems, ideating, creating hypotheses and prototypes and performing user testing. That’s already a handful, so set your limits and don’t let the company take advantage of you.
3. “Our agency (or company or organization) is not cut out for everyone…” is a CLEAR sign that you should walk away. — taken from a Reddit thread. I heard this from several agencies in Toronto. Many of them are small, and sometimes they get more clients than they can handle, which means extra crunch time for everyone: from design to development to marketing. I’ve read stories from people who work in marketing/digital agencies until 9 PM. In 2019, I interviewed for a recruiter position at an agency, where Hiring Manager kept trying to scare me that this agency was only for strong performers who are okay with working late hours. I know how stressful agency life can be, and even though the base salary was hired by 10K from the current job I had, I didn’t take the job. Again, everyone has different capabilities and circumstances, but overworking will not help you to succeed in the long run. This kind of “high performance” narrative suggests a toxic work environment, which causes burnout.
4. Similar to the third one: “We work hard so we can play hard” (meaning they overwork you and try to compensate you with a free lunch every few weeks) — another one from Reddit, which I think is gold. This phrase tells you a lot about their culture. More than those fancy words like “We fly together” or “Leading from the front” or something cheesy like that. It potentially means that you’ll be in a high-performing, ass-busting culture. They’ll say that it won’t suit everyone. So check the people who worked there and how many years they worked. If many people leave after a year or even less, I’d definitely steer away from places like that. Yes, getting that first job in UX is important, but so is getting the right position where you can work and grow in a safe environment.
5. Unlimited PTO (Paid Time Off). It could be a curse in disguise. Many companies have switched to this model in the last 4–5 years, but in reality, for many companies, this led to a decrease in the number of vacation days taken. For example, here is a post from a company that ditched this model. “Companies with unlimited vacation don’t have to pay out unused vacation time. You lose out on $5,000-$25,000 in unused vacation pay when you leave. Companies like that too.” The problem with unlimited PTO is that before, you knew exactly how many days you were entitled to, but now you don’t know how much is okay, and you have to ask permission from your manager. If the company or a team thrives on overworking and high-performance culture, then most likely, taking more vacation days is considered “bad,” and people naturally take fewer days off. It is good for the company but not good for your mental health. Again, red flag, in my opinion.
6. There is no job description. I’ve interviewed with a company like that, and yes, it seems sketchy because you don’t know what your exact responsibilities are. In this case, I went for an interview, but I asked questions like the expectations and projects. Ask for a job description. And if things go further and you still don’t get the job description, then make sure that Hiring Manager writes down your tasks/responsibilities in your contract.
7. Look at the projects the agency shared on its website. Is this something you’d like to work on? Is it something you’d be proud to work on or help advance your skills? Because most likely it will be very similar things. Be aware if they have many different services but a small staff. For example, a small family-like agency of 10 people does it all: advertising, digital marketing, print design, UX/UI design, website development and more. Don’t sound the alarm, but be careful and ask them how they manage so many services, how many clients and their deadlines. Ideally, if it’s a small team, they should have found their niches within specific services or industries. Of course, if it’s a nationwide or international digital agency with over 100 people — then they have enough resources to take on many clients.

So pretty these are some of the things I found online and through friends. Seeing one of these flags doesn’t mean that it’s a horrible workplace or that you shouldn’t take the job. It just means you should think more about it and learn more about the company before making a decision. You’ll never know everything, much like in dating someone — we humans like to put our best foot forward and hide our shortcomings, yet with time and attention, you can still identify things that might not work for you. These “triggers” can open up an honest and open discussion if there is something you are concerned about. Don’t be afraid to ask Hiring Managers directly: what does a day look like? Around what time do the majority of people log off? What are the deadlines for a specific project? Will you have to engage with clients directly, or will you get requirements from the Account Manager? How hard are the deadlines? Who is the decision market on final designs? It’s better to know than to guess.

I’ll be sure to keep this post updated. What are some of the red flags you noticed during your job search or interview process? Please share so we can all be aware of them.