What I wish someone told me early in my design career
I can recall sitting in my home in Cincinnati, Ohio after I graduated from college, spending my newlywed days with my husband and I both spending hours each day applying to jobs and trying to make ‘fancy’ recipes with the most basic ingredients around. For both of us, there were months of searching, nearly a full-time job, for the early years of our careers to find our first jobs. Here are the things I really wish I knew looking back.
It’s really not you
I am thirteen years into my career and still get canned responses, or worse, no response at all. I’ve still had companies ghost me mid-interview. I have had companies make me perform in-depth design tests only to reply with a canned response. The last two things occurred with ten years of experience, or more, under my belt.
I have often wondered what I did wrong. After years, I finally got answers. It isn’t you. It’s often the position being a slightly wrong fit for your skills, a better candidate interviewing, or, so so so much more often than you think, the result of something within the organization going in that is not related to you or your skills and experience in the least.
I have interviewed candidates I have loved and outlined their strengths, only to realize that my hiring needs at the time were a little outside their strengths. I keep people’s names and notes on them, and if a role comes up later, I reach out. I was able to do this and got lucky that the woman I interviewed was available when I was hiring for a different opportunity. Working with her was a dream, but I’m glad I didn’t hire her for the first position as it would have not been the success it was.
There is an algorithm for job applications too
I hate canned responses. I really, really do. I think they are the result of our always busy culture. The reality is that you are getting some of the canned responses because your resume didn’t hit the keywords filter in whatever system the company is using. Tailoring your resume becomes key here — and if you are young in your career, chances are you should create a few versions for different jobs. It’s not ideal, but it’s our reality. Take a look at resumes of people with similar job titles to what you commonly apply to and use key phrases from their resumes. They got through someone’s system to get their job, right?
People are just biased
We all look for connections. As you gain experience in a variety of positions, you’ll notice people tend to have some sort of link to one another. People who take peers with them from one company to another. People that recommend one another for jobs. It makes it hard to find entry into a world you have no foot in.
Personally, I’ve never managed to get a job from a connection. I’ve always gone in blindly without knowing a soul and having applied online randomly, with the exception of the time I applied online to a position on my husband’s team. And even then, my husband did not recommend me or speak about my skills to his team, he stayed out. A lot of finding positions without any connection is luck, good branding of yourself, an understanding of buzzwords, and a good finger on the pulse of current trends in portfolios and resumes. Even then, it is hard and will take some time — but it does happen. You’ll probably get 50 rejections first.
Confidence is key, and fake it until you make it is real
Believe you deserve nice things. Be a little angry and complain when you get your 100th rejection. End the call with the crazy company that gives you a 50 question survey that asks incredibly intrusive questions about if you pay alimony and how much before interviewing you (true story). It helps to know you have value, even if you are new to a field.
Never apologize for your work. Try to avoid blaming deadlines or political drama in your explanations, and instead focus on the best part. Instead, save any small squabbles as examples to the age-old question of ‘tell me a time when you had a disagreement with a stakeholder and how you handled it’ because it’s coming, I promise.
Many companies hire their interns as if they are entry-level positions
This is big: I stopped applying to internships when I graduated. I had two years of experience at that point under my belt with internships. I wish I had realized that many companies hire summer interns and convert them to full-time employees. Many companies do this with mid-level employees by hiring them as contract employees and then hiring them after a period of time. Apply to internships and inquire about the possibility of converting to a full-time hire. It’s a lot more common than you may think.
Find your strength
Figure out your strengths and how to play them. We all have strengths and weaknesses, and the key is to know how to use yours well. We are all playing a Mario Kart race, and if you’re a heavy-dinosaur lizard king you’ll need to choose a vehicle that works well with your character’s weight. Similarly, we use our resumes and websites as vehicles to deliver ourselves, so ensure you are showing your good side and not forcing yourself to show a weakness just because it’s what others do.
Just keep swimming
It gets easier, in some ways, to find jobs as you grow in your career. You just gotta push through the first part. It sucks, and our system isn’t ideal, but I don’t have the magical power to fix it, only to tell you someone will eventually mesh with you and hire you.
For all it’s worth, here’s the general timeline I spent getting my first two roles after my internships:
First job (7 months of applying, over 200 applications, 7 interviews, 1 offer)
Second job (9 months of applying, over 200 applications, 10 interviews, 2 offers)
Once you get the magical 3–5 years of experience, life gets a little easier. Apply up and down. You never know what someone will be willing to pay you for a ‘lesser’ title, which brings me to…
Job titles mean little
I’ve been a Senior or Lead Designer for 10 years. It has meant so many different things at different places — from managing product roadmaps to being the lead on complex projects to hiring and building a team, the title has meant little to indicate my actual responsibilities. Apply to things above and below your title because you never know. Sometimes you run into a fancier title that wants to pay you nearly half what you currently get paid. Or you’ll discover an equal or lesser title that will give you a 30% pay increase. Try everything. There is no harm in accepting an interview, practice makes perfect(ish).
I wish you the best in your career, new designers. I know how discouraging it can get. You aren’t alone! Keep trying. Keep making new connections. Accept interviews that aren’t glamorous. Go outside of your comfort zone, try new things. Be like Dory, just keep swimming.
