Recruiters have a pretty bad reputation among UX designers. LinkedIn has made it too easy for lazy recruiters to spam you with job leads that bear no relation to your actual skills and experience (which they could have learned if they’d bothered to read your profile). But after speaking with Joanne Weaver, who runs a UX/UI recruiting agency in New York, I have a new perspective on the advantages of working with a good recruiter.
A good recruiter should be your partner and coach during the hiring process—someone who can give you the inside scoop on the company and what they’re looking for, someone who can steer you to jobs that are interesting and relevant, someone who is invested in your success. In short, someone who can help you through the angst and uncertainty of the hiring process.
I also learned why you shouldn’t send the same resume to a recruiter and a hiring manager: the hiring manager is hiring for a specific job at one company, whereas the recruiter is trying to imagine you in all kinds of jobs at different companies. The hiring manager wants to know if you can do the job. The recruiter wants to know if you’re the kind of person she wants to represent for perhaps the rest of your career.
All in all, it was an enlightening conversation that has tempered some of my thinking on what makes an effective resume.
The Joanne Weaver Group, a two-woman shop run by Joanne and her partner, Rebecca Levi, has been in business since 2007—making it one of the more established UX-specific recruiting firms in the region. The following is an excerpt from our conversation, lightly edited to make us sound more coherent.
UX RESUME: So, what are employers looking for in the New York market?
JOANNE WEAVER: I’m seeing a trend towards hybrid designers—people that do both UX/UI—but that basically means interaction design and visual design. I’m also seeing a trend towards lean UX and agile. People that can quickly prototype, that are really interested in using different prototyping tools, and that are constantly learning and broadening their skill set on their own time.
UXR: The market’s so hot—what would be the advantage of working with you as opposed to doing it on my own?
JW: It’s a great question. I think there’s many benefits to working with a recruiter. We’re basically the go-between between you and the client so we have the inside scoop as to what the client’s all about. We usually have a track record or some sort of history with them so we can talk about experiences working with them, who are the key decisionmakers, what their personalities are like, and what it is they look for in a candidate.
We’re basically the go-between between you and the client so we have the inside scoop as to what the client’s all about.
UXR: So you have the inside track, all that stuff you never would know if you were applying cold?
JW: Exactly. Part of our distinction as a recruitment agency is that I think we are really transparent and very honest. We’re all about the deep, long-term connections with both candidates and clients. We’ll not only talk about what makes a client great or what makes a job great, but we’ll also talk about some of the challenges involved. Maybe there’s a difficult personality or a challenging situation [the candidate] might be walking into.
We’re kind of prepping everybody for success.
UXR: The hiring process can be very intimidating and alienating. You send your resume in and you never hear anything, you don’t know who’s looking at it, there’s no feedback. It sounds like working with a good recruiter would be an antidote to that and make the job search process more personal.
JW: I think the job searching process is fraught with anxiety and lack of clarity. Even though [a particular job] is not a fit for whatever reason, it’s hard not to take that stuff personally and have that affect your mood or your self-regard.
Going back to what you were saying about, “why work with a recruiter?” I think it’s really important to have a sense of camaraderie and to feel like somebody’s on your side—that somebody’s really listening to you, they understand what it is you really want.
We can give advice as to what we think would be good for people’s careers. For example, if we see people skipping around from job to job, we’ll say, “Hey, it’s really important to stay in your next job for 3+ years or 2+ years to show longevity for your hireability in the future.”
It’s really important to have a sense of camaraderie and to feel like somebody’s on your side—that somebody’s really listening to you, they understand what it is you really want.
UXR: So you’re giving candidates tips on things they should do to make themselves more attractive to employers?
JW: Absolutely. I think we’re more than just a job-placement agency. I joke a lot that obviously a large part of what we do is matching people up with jobs, at its very nuts and bolts aspect—but a lot of what we do is coaching people through change. It’s getting people to see what the opportunity is, because I think when people have a choice of staying with the devil they know versus the devil they don’t know—most people tend to stay where they are.
UXR: Is working with a recruiter only for high-paying jobs?
JW: There are certainly agencies that focus just in that. My particular agency focuses on mid-level designers who might have 2–3 years’ experience — sometimes even junior-level designers who maybe have a year of experience — all the way up to VP. So it’s a big range. Also freelance and full-time.
It’s getting people to see what the opportunity is, because I think when people have a choice of staying with the devil they know versus the devil they don’t know—most people tend to stay where they are.
UXR: What do you consider a killer resume?
JW: I know that UX people are not visual designers, but if I get a resume that’s a Word document, maybe there’s multiple fonts going on, colors, it just looks really old and dated and there’s not a lot of panache or sheen to it—it gives me that first impression of, “Hmm, I’m not sure if this person’s really modern or up to date. I’m not sure if they get it.”
I think how you brand yourself and what that initial impression is of you is user experience. It’s the user experience of your resume. How is that landing on me, the user? I think it’s important to think about the UX of your resume and what that is communicating about you.
The ones I like to see are ones that are simple, clean, elegant, well-designed. If they have a URL, it’s hyperlinked, I don’t need to cut and paste it. Little details that tell me, at every single touchpoint, they get UX.
Every single thing is a touchpoint. How they craft their emails to me. How professional are they in their wording with me. Do they follow up with me, or is it inappropriately casual? Every single little touchpoint tells me more about who they are and what their brand is.
It’s important to think about the UX of your resume and what that is communicating about you.
UXR: What about personal information, hobbies, my personal philosophy of design—that kind of stuff?
JW: I love that stuff! I think the resume is a good place to let your personality shine—to a degree. You want to keep it professional, you want to keep it clean, you want to keep it simple. But I think listing personal hobbies and interests, or philosophies that you jibe with, I think it really tells me a lot about somebody right off the bat. And it’s a great entry point for a conversation.
UXR: I’m really fascinated by this. Because as a hiring manager, I honestly just want to know if you can do the job. I don’t really care about your hobbies. That stuff makes me very impatient because generally speaking it’s filler and they don’t actually have any good content—examples or bullet points that tell me they’re going to be able to do the job.
JW: I agree with you if it takes the place of real content. Real content is obviously the most important thing. I think if they also have a great book, they have a great work experience, they have a great background, they have a great resume, I think all that [personal] stuff is a nice cherry on the sundae.
Maybe it’s different for me because, even if I can’t place somebody in a job right now, I’d really like to have a long-term relationship with them. Not only for future jobs, but maybe they have friends that they can refer to me as well. Having those entry points for an emotional connection where we can relate to each other as people, in addition to relating to each other as professionals that are working in the UX field, that’s probably more important for somebody in my position where I’m having that long-term relationship throughout years of their career.
Also, from your perspective [as a hiring manager] you’re thinking in terms of what’s going to work in your company. I’m thinking in terms of what’s going to work at ten different companies—or companies that I haven’t even met yet. I’m trying to get intake in many different ways so I can figure out what would be a match here or there. I’m constantly working angles that are happening now, but then also thinking what could crop up in the future.
As a hiring manager, you’re thinking in terms of what’s going to work in your company. I’m thinking in terms of what’s going to work at ten different companies—or companies that I haven’t even met yet.
UXR: I get a lot of questions from career changers and people trying to get into UX. If you’re someone who’s just getting started, or you have all this other experience, how do you present yourself to get a UX job? Do you have any insights or tips?
JW: For us to justify charging a fee for somebody, often times it’s a situation where the client wants to know that this person can do the job and they’ve already done the job.
I love the idea of coaching people to get into UX—maybe down the road that might be a sideshoot of our business or something that we explore—but as it stands right now it’s tough for me to spend the time, quite frankly, with people like that because I probably can’t place them until they get some work experience under their belts. Because that’s the only kind of person that clients will pay for. It’s just kind of the truth of the matter.
But I like to keep in touch with those people. People that are passionate about the space, that are finding it later in life, or maybe it’s a second or third career. I really applaud that and I support that, because obviously I love this industry and I really believe in it.
Usually I’ll tell people that don’t have UX experience yet but want to break into the field, to really leverage their personal network.
Usually I’ll tell people that don’t have UX experience yet but want to break into the field, to really leverage their personal network. Because those are people that do know them that maybe have worked alongside them. If those people can speak directly about that candidate through their own direct experience with them, that recommendation can really carry a lot of weight.
UXR: What do you say to designers who are concerned that if they work with a recruiter, they’re going to be priced out of the market because employers have to pay the recruiter fee on top of a salary?
JW: I think that clients that come to us and obviously have the money to pay a recruiter fee as well as the person’s salary are probably not going to be freaking out about paying a fee on top of it. If they’re that stretched for cash, we’re probably not working with them.
My advice to the job-seeker out there is, be careful whose hands you put your career search into. You want somebody who’s going to be representing you well.
UXR: Before I talked to you, I didn’t really appreciate the advantage that there might be in having somebody with you through the hiring journey, helping you and being your coach. Because I don’t think people think of it that way, I think they think of recruiters as being sharks who are just in it for the commission.
JW: And there are a lot of those. But my advice to the job-seeker out there is, be careful whose hands you put your career search into. You want somebody who’s going to be representing you well. Who not only has access to great opportunities that would be relevant and interesting to you, but who you think is really going to manage your brand well and who’s going to be a partner working on your behalf.