Ask HN: What do you look for in a designer?

1 pointsinasmuch3y ago2 comments

I'm a designer (product, brand, etc.) with 13+ years of professional experience (20+ personal), predominately in-house at startups and freelancing for agencies and established companies. I’m 34 and working remotely in the US.

I didn’t have much trouble finding work and opportunities in the first half of my career, but it’s become nearly impossible for me to even get interviews anymore and I’m not sure why. I know it can be a numbers game but I promise you I have put in the numbers. I /promise/.

I need to leave my current job ASAP. It’s a bad environment and has effectively no benefits, and I’m at least a year deep into burnout. To that end, I’m putting together a new portfolio and résumé in hopes of sending out a volley of new applications in 2023.

For those of you who are or have been involved in vetting and hiring design talent, what do you look for in a designer? What do you like to see in an application or portfolio? What turns you off?

Thanks!

2 comments

DrSiemer3y ago

Did you ever ask for honest feedback on the rejected applications? It could give you some useful insight in what is turning people off.

Speaking from my own experience, I know many employers would prefer to decrease the amount of remote working, because it is difficult to check if people are actually doing their job and it hampers creative synergy on the workfloor.

Is working remotely a hard demand in your application? Did you try any job listings close to where you live?

inasmuchOP3y ago

I have asked for feedback a few times—particularly on ones where I felt I got close to an offer. Unfortunately no one has even responded to these requests.

The remote thing definitely limits my options, but I have tried to be realistic about it. For the first few years of this struggle, I was primarily looking for local work in a big city with lots of options. Since I moved a couple years ago, I have been focused on remote-only or at least remote-first companies, as I am currently experiencing the sorta second-class-citizenship of being a remote employee at a company that still claims it isn’t remote, despite not having any offices since the pandemic.

I’m definitely open to local work and actually prefer working in an office, if it’s a decent place, so I do keep an eye out for it, but there aren’t many opportunities for my kind of work where I live.

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions!

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