Hiring the Next Gen Designer

Hello 👋🏾 a small studio team, my name is blank and I am a blank with blank years of experience. I’d love the opportunity to bring my experience to your team and…

As I continue reading through the thousands of applications for our product designer role, it brings to mind my favorite childhood book, A Wrinkle In Time when Christopher Wallace is standing in a neighborhood of sameness: same houses, same children, same rhythm of the bouncing balls. Which made him say; “the repetition, it hurts.” My hopes for finding the next generation creative, one that would help usher a small studio into the next 8 years, began diminishing quickly.

Dread crept in quickly. You see, we haven’t posted a job description in over 2 years! Has the market changed that much? No, it couldn't have. Oh wait…that was before AI took over neural pathways and became our default for communication. Damn. I guess a lot has changed, I finally thought to myself.

Two years ago, we hired a Jr Product Designer and a copywriter. Both still with us today. I remember the 850 applications from all over the world being so tasteful and human. The portfolios for a Jr Product Designer were 10x better than what I was seeing today. How could that be? Is it because of AI? The lack of care to take the time to truly translate your designs through your unique perspective. Is it because of the over saturation of commoditized education? Every portfolio consisting of exactly three projects; a mobile app, a website, and a dashboard they designed in a design ‘boot camp’ that promised them a job. Or is it a personal theory I wrote about last year, is design is becoming a commodity? I guess if you think about it the commoditization of anything starts with the producers. Or this is how designers have chosen to represent themselves, the same as everyone else, the marketplace will treat them as such. All of these theories collectively are leading to this point, not just in design but in every industry.

This was just the first time I was on the receiving end of the robotic nature of the commoditization cycle.

Still, I remain hopeful and optimistic in the next generation of designers. Why? Because why not? I did a panel about Empathy and Design in the age of AI at MidwestCon in Cincinnati, OH a few weeks back. The curator of the conference posed a question, how do you respond to leaders who ask you why they should pay you when AI can do it cheaper and faster? Every other panelist answered traditionally, how our services can’t be replicated etc. etc. My response, “I agree with you. You are 100% right! You should go do that right now.” Why would I argue? The more I argue the more I prove their point. Instead I agree and continue using my gift of creativity to bring peace to people’s lives. That looks a lot different than it did two years ago, but not for the reasons you may think. We are an identity-driven design studio that specializes in helping leaders and organizations understand who they are and translate that powerfully and authentically into the marketplace. How is this relevant to hiring, John?

Well, this round of hiring showed me how unique this work actually is and how necessary it will be for the future of our industry. For all of the emerging designers or leaders reading this, the amount of time you spend reflecting on your identity is directly correlated to how much of a commodity you will be in the marketplace. To put it into perspective,

out of over 1000 applicants 15 got interviews with me.

Yep, I did every first round interview myself. That is less than 1.5%! Those 15 showcased their work in a way that proved to us that they had a unique perspective. Or at the very least, they have done some work on themselves to understand why they are different than most. Or what we like to call at a small studio, an anomaly. Identity is the first word on our website, if you show up as a commodity there is absolutely no way you can show up for someone else's identity. Full stop.

We are in the final stages of our 3 phase process, a process we have used since 2020. I will write about it more extensively in my next article. We have 4 finalist and surprise 3 of them are Gen Z. Every one of them is an anomaly but only one will join us this month. I can guarantee you that it will be the one who can best translate who they are through the designs they share with us. If you are struggling finding a job right now, I hope this gives you the inspiration you needed. Remember that everything you need is right inside of you.

The real question is how much time have you spent with yourself?

If it is less time than you have spent applying to endless jobs, odds are you are being overlooked within this plague of sameness. Instead of going on LinkedIn or Dribbble try this instead.

Grab a notepad and pen. Ask yourself one simple but profound question, who am I? From there you will find the right opportunity.

‍

Peace. ✌🏾

‍