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41

The hiring process is not a hassle for the people that have work to offer. But, it is a hassle for others in the company to divert any incoming phone calls. By providing specific mechanisms, I prevent even more resources from being diverted for my hiring process.

It is also a hassle spending time with applicants on the phone when the posted instructions are very clear. That is just hand-holding the applicant and my proof that they require more supervision than others if hired. Unlike most other places, our incoming calls are almost all fielded by our micro call centre. Any time they don’t spend on the phone with a customer or prospect is an opportunity lost. If I can keep administrative phone calls to a minimum, I am not only saving money but helping sales.

Finally, if the applicant can discover who is doing the hiring by doing a little on-line research, then they are showing some unconventional thinking. If I get the application and it starts… “Dear (my name here)” and it didn’t require any phone calls, their research skills are better than most others.

There is always method in my madness.

:)ensen.

42

Each to their own eh :)jd.

43

Ok. So bitching is done. How about designing a means of addressing the problem (not saying we will succeed but all parties are at the table).

From all that was said, a personal touch is not necessary in most cases but addressing the application to the correct department, etc. will negate wasted resources. Also, the size and content of an application also needs to be controlled for convenience and clarity.

From the applicants side, the application should be able to display that they meet the initial criterior detailed in the employer’s advertisement. They should also be able to display some folio pieces but be able to demonstrate their individualism.

Sounds like this could be accomplished with a sort of working template. Embedded fields (MS Access complient) that the applicant would fill out and the employer could use to filter into categories of best fit.

A section would have same (size-wise) images of the applicants work for review, etc.

Keep in mind, this is all to weed through a great number of submissions to get to those that you wish to see. Next would come the one on ones with folio work/whatever to impress in hand.

This of course would take a little effort on the employer behalf but would certainly speed things along and would give little excuse not to have followed the format.

Again, this is a suggestion. Perhaps, applicants could alter/hack a bit of the application template to make it more them but not go over board. :slight_smile:

Also, you could link this to a pass/fail which would automatically create a senders list of those that get a call and those that get the letter.

44

How about designing a means of addressing the problem

WTF? are you some kind of moma’s boy designer?

45

Everyone sends out resumes and a quick portfolio. You end up having to compete as a faceless drone in a pile of faceless drones.

The best results I have had, came from getting face time with a company or a consultant. Don’t call when they post an ad, call right now and get to know the people who work there. Is the Design Director too busy? I guarantee theres a Senior level ID person looking to give back to the ID community and mentor young and just out of college designers(I am that guy).

That senior level designer is one of the people who will be asking for more resources on a program eventually. Wouldn’t it be nice if they could deliver both the problem and you as the solution to their boss?

It is a long term fix and should be something everyone does for themselves whether or not they are actively looking for a job. You won’t always be the first one to know when you need a new job and it is very helpful if the people in your local design community see you as a desireable resource that they have been waiting to get their hands on.

Don’t fight the same fight everyone else is, look for a better method.

46

Before things drift totally out of bounds here. I’m curious to know the following things since data is hard to come by.

  1. Per posting, how many applications are received a day.

  2. Out of those what is the percentage split for (trash,maybe,rockstar)

If there are people reading this who are involved in hiring right now I’d love to know. I can’t even begin to tell people how many designers I talk to who have been interviewing like mad for months now and haven’t received any feedback.

47

I heard from one place I interviewed that they got over 3000 applications. I was in their top 5.

Made some of my experiences which others also listed a little easier to swallow, but I still had more respect for those that sent a quick “thanks but no thanks, looking for more experience, etc.” even if it was canned. At least you know where you stand.

Those that actually offered feedback were the ones I really would like to work for, plus they’re only helping themselves in the long run by improving the quality of future submissions. We job seekers talk to each other you know.

Finally, as to the companies who left voice mail with the intent to fly me out to interview, and to whom I promptly and politely responded with enthusiasm, and continued to try to contact a few times without further response, well, I filtered them out of MY list. I don’t care to spend any time dealing with unprofessionalism like that if I don’t have to.

Yes, unfortunately, it is a numbers game in many cases. That doesn’t excuse being completely rude to an applicant just because there are so many though. If that’s how you treat potential employees, what chance does a customer have? Doubt you’ll be around long.

48
  • we normally get 5-10 applications per day

out of 10 portfolios:

  • due to no subject line, no text at all in the email (only cv attached, no worksamples, or if worksamples attached = crap quality), 3 applications go into the reject folder on the spot.
    I open the attachements anyway, but as far as I can remember doing this job not ONE of this attachements was promising at all.

  • 4 are just too bad (quality of work, no innovation, no skills at all)

  • 1 applicant writes in the CC field all other companies he is applying…happens so often…nogo…good part: at least we know in which ID quality range we are in his eyes.

  • 1 applicant writes the wrong company name he is applying for…nogo…we politely tell him then to apply directly at i.e. IDEO and not i.e ASTRO

  • 1 applicant is ok for considering an interview.

thats reality my friends…and a lot of the applicants I’m talking about are from coroflot.

49

The continuing interest in this topic makes me want to share what I wrote back in April as an Open Letter to design firms, after my experiences working with many fresh graduate level students and their job searches. It’s in my blog but here it is in full:

Open letter to design studios, on hiring etiquette

My observation is limited to the design industry, to studios of all sizes, flavors and locations. I’m not sure yet whether it’s due to the nature of your profession, which leads to the need for an attitude, a hipness, a certain cultlike culture to be projected outward to portray success or whether it’s due to “we’re so creative and busy, we let these things slide” or a bit of both but design studios have the reputation for being some of the rudest companies during the “hiring dance”.

My experience has been largely through hearsay while working with numerous grad students nearing the end of their degree and beginning their job searches along with some personal interactions of my own.

I’m not asking you to respond to every unsolicited portfolio, resume or URL. What I am asking you to do, is that once you have begun a dialogue, and it has reached a certain depth, two or three hour long phone interviews, perhaps a visit to the office, or in some cases over 7 weeks of conversations, it behooves you to end the relationship with a modicum of courtesy or closure. Not radio silence once you fill the position.

This is more noticeable when the employer has been actively pursuing the candidate, with emails and follow ups and phone calls, until the final interview and decision making stage. Then the classic reaction to the email or phone call sent by the applicant, asking if the decision has been made. Silence.

Far better to respond with a quick note to say that the position has been filled by another, though we would have loved to have you work with us. Takes two minutes of your time.

For keep in mind that any designer that you called in and spoke to, or looked at their portfolio, if good enough to attract your attention, is going to be around the same small industry we all work in, and may show up in a collaborator’s office, a client’s design department or across the table in management, if not working for the competition. Do you then want the bad taste of the silent ending or discourteous lack of response in the form of blowback?

Empathy for the other goes a long way.

50

[quote=“gerID”]- I normally get 25-30 applications per day. I’m the HR manager for a large ID firm in Portland area.

out of 25 portfolios I IMMEDIATELY toss out those who:

  • 12 submitted CD’s or URLs that didn’t work, too long to load, etc
  • 10 didn’t research where our company is located or what we do (they just blindly applied)
  • 13 have 0-2 yrs experience (we don’t hire Jr. we don’t know)
  • 18 didn’t address me by my name (its on the job posting)
  • 4 submitted us numerous pages of car sketches (we’re not Ford or Chrysler)
  • 1 submitted us samples of oil paintings, silkscreens and wax scultures
  • 11 showed me only 3D renderings and final products (no sketches)
  • 6 are from outside US (we don’t take foreigners- hassle of immigration/relocation)
  • 14 were from no-name design consultancies
  • 19 were currently unemployed (we only hire people who are employed because that indicates motivation and in-demanded skills)
  • 16 submitted us samples with poor photographs of final products

Out of the 25-30 we get each day, I’d keep 1-2. These two have jump through all the hoops successfully AND are talented. We also get unsolicited portfolios where we take it through the same ‘filtering’ process. Those that did make it through the hoops I take about 2 minutes flipping through their work and take note of their weakest slide. I tend to judge a portfolio by its weakest link.

I know this sounds a bit brutal but thats how we hire the best of the best. My friends at FROG in Austin are doing the same thing and praise its effectiveness.

51

[quote=“gerID”]

  • I normally get 25-30 applications per day. I’m the HR manager for a large ID firm in Portland area.

out of 25 portfolios I IMMEDIATELY toss out those who:

  • 12 submitted CD’s or URLs that didn’t work, too long to load, etc

  • 10 didn’t research where our company is located or what we do (they just blindly applied)
  • 13 have 0-2 yrs experience (we don’t hire Jr. we don’t know)
  • 18 didn’t address me by my name (its on the job posting)
  • 4 submitted us numerous pages of car sketches (we’re not Ford or Chrysler)
  • 1 submitted us samples of oil paintings, silkscreens and wax scultures
  • 11 showed me only 3D renderings and final products (no sketches)
  • 6 are from outside US (we don’t take foreigners- hassle of immigration/relocation)
  • 14 were from no-name design consultancies
  • 19 were currently unemployed (> we only hire people who are employed because that indicates motivation and in-demanded skills> )

  • 16 submitted us samples with poor photographs of final products > Out of the 25-30 we get each day, I’d keep 1-2. These two have jump through all the hoops successfully AND are talented. We also get unsolicited portfolios where we take it through the same ‘filtering’ process. Those that did make it through the hoops I take about 2 minutes flipping through their work and take note of their weakest slide. I tend to judge a portfolio by its weakest link.

I know this sounds a bit brutal but thats how we hire the best of the best. My friends at FROG in Austin are doing the same thing and praise its effectiveness.
[/quote]

There are just so many things wrong with this post I can’t respond on them all.

First you said that cd’s wouldn’t open or took too long, then you complained that you got poor quality photographs. Maybe if you had some patience the files that took a little longer to open you would have gotten what you were looking for.

Second “we only hire people who are employed because that indicates motivation and in-demanded skills”
Being employed does not in any way determine motivation or “in-demanded skills”. I feel sorry for a company that has you doing their hiring, as they are missing out on the whole goal of good design.

Congratulations to you ML340 you have received the Design-Nazi award for 2005.

Out of the 25-30 we get each day, I’d keep 1-2. These two have jump through all the hoops successfully AND are talented.

Conformists of the world UNITE!!!

52

all hail the ice queen!!!

53

The sad reality right now is that there are too many designers and not enough jobs to go around. The even sadder reality is that it doesn’t look like its going to get any better.

I do in house work for a manufacturer, or should I say recovering manufacturer, and I can run off a long list of companies that used to hire designers and now hire real estate agents and bankruptcy lawyers instead. There are some companies like the one I work for that have been able to retool and innovate to stay in the game but we’re a small minority.

54

P.S. The idea that you can’t hire a designer because they are currently unemployed is complete bullshit.

If you only knew how many great people I know who lost their jobs through no fault of their own and now get told to piss off like some homeless beggar by f’ing people like you.

I’m not going to hide behind a guest login, you can know who I am and kiss my ass.

55

So thank you all for your answers. Though much of them do sound like excuses to me.

However, I still don’t think it’s that hard to reply with an answer.

Most of you here, that do hire people, sound genuinely unhappy throughout the whole process. You would think it would be a much needed stress reliever to reply back to people who do all those things mentioned to not get considered.

For example:
“You dont get the job because your pictures sucked” or
“You don’t get the job because your a foreiner” or
“I dont like people who don’t think like me”

Think of how good that would make you feel about yourself.

And as for the people submitting portfolio’s they would love the feedback. To hear something like that would give me hope to think that maybe I should work on my pictures, or my thinking, or how to act more white to fit into some of these companies.

Okay sarcasm aside

Thanks for anwering my question as why people don’t respond to resumes.
ie there is no real answer.

56

It does make me feel better though knowing that this happens to alot of people.

So I really am a real person.

Yeay

57

Edit

58

I before E except after C

sorry but your breifs and recieves and freinds were driving me nuts

Foreigner
neither
seize
weird
height
leisure
their
vein
neighbor
mischief

Many more where that came from.

This proves that exceptions to the rule are many.

59

That adds up to more than 25 because you have 19 who are unemployed and 14 who are no name consultancies right there.

60

she’s hr not accounting.