Challenges in the Design Hiring Process

I went through the job searching process as a designer at various stages of my career. In the beginning it was about getting into a well known agency and then it evolved into finding places to work that fit my personality and lifestyle. Going over and over the process got me thinking:

What do other designers care about, and what do hiring companies want from them?

Fortunately, Yeh Ideology reached out to me to work on a visual and interactive survey together to understand the design job market situation at the Yeh Ideology Design Summit in April 2016.

I was excited to work with Yeh Ideology team because they were a perfect organization to work with to answer the questions I had. Yeh Ideology have many years of experience on helping organizations and design professionals find the right match for each other and also advise them throughout the job placement process and talent strategy. The combination of their knowledge in the field and my expertise in designing engaging workshop enabled us to design a survey to get to the bottom of these questions as an interactive audience session at their annual design summit.

Survey Setup

I worked closely with the team at Yeh Ideology to create this interactive survey that will be relevant and interesting to people attending the event. To collect meaningful data, Yeh Ideology team used their knowledge to first categorized designers and organizations wants and needs into five different categories.

We asked participants to write down the factors they considered during their own search, categorize the factors and rate them in terms of their importance as well as their availability in the job market.

Designers Want…

Work culture of an organization was the most important criteria for designers. Around 44 percent of the post-its were under the culture category. Designers said they want to work at a place where there is collaboration, support, diversity and clear decision making. Since most people spend many hours at their work, they wanted those hours to be enjoyable.

The second highest post it count of 24 percent was about the quality of work. Designers stated that they ideally wanted to work on projects that match their design skills and interests. They wanted their work outcomes to be satisfying, meaningful and impactful.

Participants felt that it was difficult to find these characteristics in companies offering jobs. They suggested that finding a combination of various positive traits in an organization was extremely difficult and proves to be a continuing challenge for them.

Organizations Want…

Majority (38 percent) of the post-it for the organization board was related with character of the talent. They wanted someone who is a “big picture thinker, problem solver, fluid, friendly and fast.”

Even though majority of the post-its discuss the talent’s ability to think, the organization feels that the quality of work is more important for them when they are hiring.

Organizations are looking for a connection between intuition, balanced thinking and effective output as a sort of ‘holy trinity’ in an ideal candidate.

As with designers, companies feel that finding a candidate with a combination of positive traits is extremely difficult.

Another interesting and honest opinion on the board that ranked very high as something important but difficult to find was “more work for less money.”

Summary

Even with a small data pool, we were able to gather valued insights from this interactive exercise.

Knowing that the organization cares about the quality of work and character of an employee, designers can focus on improving the way they present their work and emphasize their thought process in a creative way. An effective portrayal of ones process as well as an end product can elevate the candidate’s value in the eyes of an organization thus allowing for greater negotiation power for the job seekers.

On the other hands, organizations can focus on providing a better work environment and culture, thus creating a more nurturing creative atmosphere which would make design employees feel more valuable and may also help in the production of more effective and impactful work. As designers are continuously evolving and highly specialized, it is extremely important for organizations to choose a candidate who is ideally suited their specific requirements and working style. The emphasis on a ‘good fit’ is probably more important as a single factor than any other factor in choosing the right candidate.

This brief study also proves the importance of a hiring process or agency that is capable of understanding the extreme complexity involved in the task of matching the ideal candidate to the ideal job.

Time changes rapidly in the design world which necessitates a dynamic process that adapts to the changing environment. The design hiring process needs to evolve quickly away from the traditional recruitment where the decision is based only on resume, portfolio and quick interviews. This can help in reducing rapid employee turn over and will benefit both organization and designers positively.

*Side note: I would like to thank Yeh Ideology for inviting me to their summit and giving me the opportunity to work on this survey with them.