Let’s pretend for a moment that I’m a senior UX designer looking for work.
And let’s say “senior” in this case means I have 20 years of stellar design-related work under my belt, and excellent references from past employers and co-workers. I have a sparkling CV and jaw-dropping online portfolio. I’m the kind of designer who can knock your organization’s UX maturity up two notches just by walking in the door.
And now picture me looking at the job ad posted by your company.
This is what I see:
- A lack of specificity about the work I’ll be doing
Would it kill you to give me some idea of the project or kind of work I’ll be doing? I’m talking broad strokes here, nothing NDA-worthy. I’m trying to picture the intersection of my skills with your needs, hoping for a hallelujah moment, and you’re giving me zip. - No effort made to research the appropriate UX industry role title
UX has the most confusing, fickle, fluctuating swamp of job titles in techville. But that doesn’t mean you can throw up your hands and go with whatever outmoded title you remember from the 90’s. Or worse, invent a weird one-off title of your own. Do some research and at least make an effort to match the appropriate title to the skillset you need. - You mention user-centred design a lot, but you don’t mention user research…ever.
This is a big red flag. All good designers know:
1. User research is a critical part of the user-centred design process
2. For user research to happen, there must be buy in from the highest levels of the organization. Otherwise working for you will mean I spend a lot of time fighting an uphill battle just to do the basics of my job. Or in other words: No Thank You. - Mention of Agile, but no hint of how design works with your Agile process.
Agile/Scrum are to developers what Design Thinking and user-centred design are to designers: Modern, evolving processes we rely on to help us do our work efficiently and well. The best organizations develop bespoke blended processes of their own. What do you do? Show me there is a supported, forward-thinking place for design in your organization. Pro Tip: Orgs with high UX maturity have zillions of blogposts relating to their efforts to tweak their design/development processes. - A long list of responsibilities but no mention of how my role fits into the existing hierarchy. Will I be the only designer on staff, or are there teams of designers? Will my boss be VP Product, VP Development, the UX Design Director, or will I be the boss of me? Presumably you know. And of course I want to know. Why can’t you just tell me?!
- Skill and/or responsibility lists/descriptions Frankensteined together from other job ads.
Listen, I am fine tooth combing job ads right now — hundreds of them, fed to me daily from many sources. So of course I’m going to notice if chunks of your ad sound exactly like another ad. I’ll also notice if you use exactly the same ad for a different role, switching out only the role title. Both of these things happen in the real world of job ads. If this doesn’t appall you, try this on: Two UX designers reply to your job ad with exactly the same CV. Do you cheerfully accept both CVs, glad that there is a template out there for design CVs that is making your job easier, or do you understand immediately that at least one of the applicants is lazy at best, a criminally stupid plagiarist at worst?
Top UX hires can afford to be choosy these days. As it happens, the pandemic has been something of a boon for most tech positions, including UX, as many online products and services grow to meet growing consumer demand. Many remote job positions are now partly to fully remote. This removes borders and commutes as potential barriers to work.
Your job ad is facing a lot of competition. But on the upside, the competition’s ads are just as sad and poorly crafted as yours. Why not slay the competition and prove you are worthy of my talent by putting the right information in your ad? Why not tell me (the stellar UX designer) what I need to hear?
Pro tip: The word “rockstar” is the fastest route to a thumbs down because it makes absurd assumptions about how design works. No designer worth hiring thinks of themselves as a virtuoso solo act. Collaboration, team, user research, design strategy, a place at the planning table. These are the words and phrases that resonate with top UX designers.
