Campus Recruiting a Designer

Companies in India follow more or less the same process to recruit the fresher’s from universities. Shortlisting Test>Group Discussion>Technical Interview>HR Round, this is the loop they follow. I don’t think this is right way to identify the right candidate, moreover it has some loopholes.

35% of Indian population lies 15-25 years of age

      a.    Shortlisting test cannot judge the capability of an individual. He may tend to perform better in the long run rather than 1 hour long test. 

b    b.    Group discussion is a good way to measure the confidence level of an individual. But here too, it is not necessary that the one who speaks best is the best guy for the job.

Group Discussion - Crap ?

How is a designing job different for other jobs?

Art and design are somewhat different fields. They require creativity rather than labour. Hence it is important that the recruiting process for a designer has to be completely different from the process a regular software or a management guy.

Brainstorming Sessions hep Generate Ideas on the other hand Group Discussions end nowhere

Design as a subject is something very special. A designer doesn’t really have to have a special training or experience to develop an idea. An idea can be born in mind of designer at any point of time. What is important is the process that designers follow to give the best idea and present it in the best possible way.

Hence, while recruiting a designer, it is important for the recruiters to know that what kind of work they are expecting from the designer. In most of the cases I have seen that Designers do not like working at big companies, reason being that they have absolutely no work to do, and the work they have is usually data gathering, which is too annoying for a creative person.

So it is important for the recruiters and the designers, both to be clear that what kind of work they will be doing, before actually carrying the recruitment discussion forward. (Pre placement talk is a good option)

Does the same traditional recruitment process work for recruiting designers?

The answer is a big NO. I personally feel that recruiting designers is a really big challenge within itself. Following are the things that recruiters must look for:

     1.    CV and PORTFOLIO – 

     ·         Should be brief and to the point.

     ·         Portfolio should consist of specific projects. If you intend to recruit a UX designer, the portfolio should only contain UX projects.

     ·         One can judge the composition, artistic and presentation skills by looking at the portfolio.

CV and Portfolio should be precise and clear

      2.     INDIVIDUAL AND TEAMWORK Performance –

      ·         Try giving a 3-5 hour design problem, which the aspirants work on, solve and present in the end.

     ·         Asking questions related to team work and individual performance will help you judging the right person.

  

Having a friendly conversation in the interview may help the students to open up

Candidates must talk about their interests rather than packages

     3.     ENTHUSIASM AND BRAINSTORMING CAPABILITIES

 

.     You can organize a brief 30 minutes brainstorming session instead of group discussions. I somehow feel that group discussion is a crappy idea.

.    The brainstorming session will not only help you find the right candidate for the job, but also if you hook up with design department of your company, it can be really helpful for them to get ideas on the projects they are currently doing.

Another important aspect of a brainstorming session is that you get to know the enthusiasm and energy level of individual candidates and will help you choose the right candidate.

Brainstorming Session help in understanding the confidence eve and enthusiasm of the candidates

In the end, both the recruiter and the aspirant should be happy

Bottom Line –

The recruiters should give more time to select the right candidate for the design job. Patience is required to understand the skillset of designers. No company wants its employees to leave the company soon; hence it should be important for the recruiting team to look for the candidate who would fit in the environment of the company rather than giving the whole weightage to the candidate’s talent.