4 things I’m looking for in our next junior designer hire
In this post I will talk through a few things I am looking for in the new junior designer I will be hiring. I will also talk through how you can demonstrate these things in the best way, whether you have previous design experience or not.
Introduction
Every job on the market- junior or mid weight will be looking for a different type of designer. Don’t assume just because they’re saying they need a junior, they all want the same type of designer. Every company is different, their projects and their situations will all be different. For example because there is only 1 junior on my team, what I need from that individual will be different then if I had 3 junior team members. For example I may need them to be more autonomous and be able to train one another as I won’t have as much time to invest in them individually.
Skill 1:
The “ability to work with developers”
So this is one of the things I have added to my job spec. A core part of a product designers job is to feel comfortable being able to communicate their design ideas to developers. The developers will be building your designs so you need to explain your designs to them clearly.
“I have no experience dong this : ( “
Here are a few tips on what you can do instead:
The main thing the hiring manager wants to see is if you can communicate your ideas clearly and confidently.
So you can talk about how you’ve been to meet-ups and discussed your ideas.
Presentations you have done to groups of people where you have articulated your thinking
Show you understand what things are important to highlight to developers. For example, the developers may not be interested in why you selected a design concept, but they will be interested in why you chose a specific component and how important it is to use that component.
Design a template that is part of your personal design toolbox where you show your designs and explain the interactions to help developers understand how you want the feature to work. Show this template in the interview.
Skill 2:
“Good attention to detail”
This can be related to a number of things. It is often referring to final designs where each pixel is perfect. But it also means they want an individual who is able to ensure a high level of quality with delivery so it doesn’t require somebody having to check their work all the time. As this will be a big time investment for the manager and will defeat the purpose of bringing somebody on board to help them. Typically this is something which is quite difficult to communicate so it’s mainly judged based on the work you show, this includes your CV.
How to demonstrate this:
Make sure there are no typos or spelling mistakes in your CV and portfolio.
Make sure you don’t use dummy text such as Lorem Ipsum.
Make sure the designs you use for your portfolio have been double checked so there are no mistakes on them.
Discuss techniques you use to ensure you have quality checked previous work you have done in the past before submitting. This doesn’t have to be design work, it can be slides you completed, an essay or article you wrote.
If you do get to the task stage in an interview, make sure you are extra careful at this stage as the team and hiring manager will spend more time reviewing this than they would reviewing your portfolio as they will have lots of portfolios they will be scanning though.
Skill 3:
“Great UI skills”
Having great UI skills is very important for this role as a lot of the work I need help with is UI work. This designer will be working on a lot of projects which are execution based whilst I will do a lot of the UX thinking, so I don’t need them to have strong UX skills. As I can teach them these skills whilst I work on my projects as I share my process with them, however I won’t be able to teach them UI skills as they need to be able to do that themselves.
Here are some ways to develop this skill:
Practice, practice, practice. Your first screen designs will be awful, but don’t worry, just get them done, start worrying about how they look until you get to your 30th design. You will pick up skills and technique as you go along
Google the 100day UI challenge, it’s a good way to keep motivated to create something everyday and the tasks are pretty fun especially if you don’t know where to start.
Take apps you use, and redesign them to improve the UI - this work can also be used in your portfolio or for case studies.
Download a design system from online, there are many free ones, and start building screens with it. Maybe even build your own design system! You can very easily base it on the few you download.
(Add link to us challenge above)
How to demonstrate this skill:
Show me your best screens from the work you’ve done in the suggestions above.
Create a case study for your portfolio where you improve the design of an app (try not to use a well known app such as Spotify, Instagram, Uber etc - it’s really boring seeing these case studies - find an app which I might not have heard of) and show me what was interesting about the app and why you chose to redesign it)
Apply for design competitions and submit your work.
Design your own app and create the designs for it - this will really make you stand out from the others as it shows your commitment.
Take the designs from the company you’re applying for and suggest UI improvements.
Redesign a companies app for free and send it to them to see if they will give you some free design work.
Remember being able to communicate why you suggested a UI solution is more important than the final result looking beautiful. Don’t just make changes because ‘they look good’ there should be a reason which helps the users experience such as making it clearer to scan, get the information they need, understand what actions to take etc.
And the most important skill…
Skill 4:
Willingness to learn
All of the above skills are very important but the most important for all junior roles is your willingness to learn.
And it is crucial you demonstrate this! Here is how:
Show your interviewer that you spend time trying to learn in your own time - it doesn’t have to be a design skill you are trying to learn. Tell me about the courses you’ve done online (for free) I won’t be any more impressed if they’re courses you’ve paid for. Tell me about the YouTube videos you’ve watched and what you learnt from them
Tell me about examples in the past, whether that was a previous job (any job) or during education that you learnt something and were able to apply it and the results that came from that.
Read the book, or watch the YouTube summary (about 10 min long videos) on the book Mindset by Carol Dweck or her Ted talk It is about fixed and growth mindsets - it is amazing at helping you understand how to develop a growth mindset and how it can change your life - it changed mine!
Tell the interviewer what your goals are with this role - and tell them how learning and developing is one of your goals and tell them what specifics they are - eg if you want to get better at illustration, video editing, UX. It will show maturity and self awareness in being able to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
So finally..
Remember when you are interviewing, make sure within the first conversation you have with the company, you ask them what it is they’re looking for in the individual for this role, what is important to them. They will tell you what it is they want and then you can spend the rest of the interview process highlighting how you have that skill.
Remember normally the internal or external recruiters won’t know this information - you will have to ask your hiring manager (me in this case) or someone in the design team.
I hope this was helpful if you’re looking for a new job! And if you’re not I hope it’s helping to understand what types of skills people are looking for.
Good luck with on your journey and feel free to ask me any questions in the comments if you have them!
Ax
